Thread: English Work Bench - WIP

For the aprons, I jointed and glued two pieces together to make a total depth of ~265 mm. The rebates for the legs and wedges were chopped with a chisel and levelled with a router. The rebate is approximately 140 mm wide, so a base maker-piece had to be added to increase the router registration surface. I glued-up 3 x 3mm MDF (9 mm thick in total) and attached it to the base of the router. It wasn't stiff enough to prevent flexing upon downward pressure, but I couldn't use any thicker maker-piece otherwise the router iron wouldn't reach the bottom of the rebate.

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Dry fitting prior to assembly.
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Moving on, I glued up three pieces of pine planks from a discarded bed frame to make the tool-well. I tried cutting the rebate using a Stanley 78 plane but couldn't get it to cut anywhere near square. Ended up resorting to table saw to form the rebate.

I had better success cutting the dado for the tool-well lip using a combination plane (#50). It wasn't pretty and the joins were by no means tight but at least it fitted! The aprons were then bolted to the legs, followed by the bench-top and tool well. It looks alright on the photograph but this workbench is actually isn't really flat and the top isn't perpendicular to the aprons. But it is still better than my current bench so that's still a win.

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There are a lot of planing marks on the bench top. I don't think I set-up the planes properly and/or the blades weren't sharp enough. I did ensure that the frog was screwed tight, the screw between the blade and cap iron was tight, the edge of the blade was protruding 1-2 mm from the cap iron, slightly rounded the edges of the blade, and that there was no nicks on the sole of the plane. The blade was as sharp as I could make it to be (free hand using diamond plates followed by stropping on green honing compound). Not sure what I did wrong there, but it's a workbench so I'm not too fussed.

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Hope to install the front vise soon.

Looking good AB

It does look good and I'm sure you'll love using it, it's worth your troubles!

Here's what I found from my (bitter) experience. When I had to process something by hand and knowing it's a lot of work, I was rushing to make a start with what was (on my mind) the difficult part: cutting and chiseling. So I wasn't paying enough attention to measuring and marking because I was itching to grab the saw and start murdering wood

But any mistake at the marking stage was taking forever to correct afterwards, so now I really take my time marking and measuring, and I've also become extremely fussy with what pencil I'm using, to make sure the line is not thicker than it needs to be but I can still actually see it clearly. And it's now a different pencil for every type of wood, including a white marker for dark woods...

As an apprentice patternmaker I was taught to mark out with a knife using a combo square.
Then run a 2H pencil sharpened to a chisel point in the knife line.
The daze are long gone now but after marking out like this you can bandsaw close and disc sand to leave half a line.
Obviously also handsaw close then locate the paring chisel in the knifeline to again leave half.
I guess I can still do it after getting new eyeballs but have a habit of getting my head too close to the 30” disc for comfort.
Any accurate work is all about marking out.
On metal use a felt marker pen then use a scriber to accurately lay out in the wide black line if you want stuff to fit.
For rough stuff like my cyclone enclosure in form ply I’ve used a dressmakers white pencil.
H.

Thanks MA, I'm having so much fun building it. It's nearly done, will post the photographs over the weekend.

Wise advice, Spyro & clear out. Thank you. Have to admit that I tend to rush a great deal, especially on Sunday evenings *gotta get a bit more done before continuing next weekend*. I do use a marking knife, but sometimes having trouble seeing the scribe lines - 2H pencil is a good idea.

Cheers,
Andy

Some photographs of the completed bench. Th vise has been installed with a pair of jaws made of mystery hardwood (one of them looks like spotted gum). The bottom shelf is seated on the stretcher using housing dado. The finish is a concoction of leftover external varnish, BLO and turps.
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The joins aren't neat and the tool well isn't flat, but I think the bench should do its job. Excited to finally have a proper holding device!
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Cheers,
Andy

This is great Andy, very PaulSeller-y

I have a similar vice but with quick release and I absolutely love it, solid and very underrated, PS is right that it's handy that you're able to put your fingers behind the thing you're clamping instead of clamping directly on the bench. Keep in mind you can actually put wider jaws on it if you so wish later, mine are just Bunnings oak about twice the width of the vice and they work just fine.
Your tool well doesn't need to be flat, but nothing stopping you from running your plane over it a couple of times if you ever get a round tuit
Nice job on the tool holders too, they'll be full of chisels and saws soon!

Inspired by Derek Cohen's recent underbench cabinet build, I decided to make a version (greatly simplified) for my workbench.

As with most of my builds to-date, recycled materials were used: table top from kerbside collection and free drawers picked-up from Gumtree.
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I was excited to 'avago at making dovetail joints, and prepared for it by watching copious amount of dovetailing videos on YT.

The first tail went well, chopping out the pin waste was way easier than on any videos I've seen. While the celebratory dance was still playing in my mind, the tail duly popped. Only then I realised that the most embarrassing rookie error had been committed: I placed the tails perpendicular to the grain!!
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Back to square one. Glued the panels together for re-cutting.

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Continue on the next thread...

While the glue was drying, I tried planing the existing finish to expose the raw wood and quite liked the look of it. So I planed all the panels before cutting the dovetail joints. It was a good skill builder, although it took nearly four days to cut all the dovetail joints! The middle divider is fixed within a shallow housing dado.

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The joinery looks OK from a distance, but take a closer look and you can see all of its gappy glory.

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The drawers are seated on simple screwed-in runners to the sides. I had to trim the depth of the drawers as they are too deep to fit into the carcase.
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After adding front trimmings and knobs from a dismantled kitchen, the underbench cabinet is ready to be placed....

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under the bench.

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