Thread: Sharing the journey – workbench

Looks bloody solid. Well done Wongo, have a greenie!

By the way, are you left handed?

Oops!






Gazaly and apricotripper, you boys are too nice to me. Thanks.

Very practical and purposeful and will do the job.

Ok I am sorry. I was trying to be funny.

Let’s try again.

I saw a picture of a solid workbench on the cover of the “FWW Tools & Shops 2003”. I loved it and I bought my first ever WW magazine. So for 2 years, I have been planing, thinking and collecting wood for the project.

The old bench was a “Homer Simpsons” kind of project. It did the job for me but it is time to go.

So here we go,



The base:

It is made from recycled Oregon. I spent a whole day to machine the wood. It was messy and I certainly gave my jointer and thicknesser a good workout. I used a crosscut sled to cut the timber to length.

Cutting 16 sets of M&T is not fun at all. The tenons were cut with a tablesaw and bandsaw and trimmed to fit with a chisel. I used a drill press and coping saw to cut out most of the wood and a chisel to finish the mortises. (it was hard work).

I made a simple jig on the crosscut sled to cut the wedges (5 degrees) and the slots.


…… to be continued

G'day Wongo,
I thought you was having a lend of us, knowing your normal standard of work, and I did spy the frame of your real project in the corner of the first photo.
The bench is looking really good. Look fwd to photos of completed item.
Cheers,

That is great work Wongo, I like that it is Recycled too. Every thing old is new again.

I was just wondering, will you pin thye M/T joints, or will the glue be strong enough? (for my own future reference.)

Ticky

Looking good so far. Ihave seen the bench in Tools & Shops 2003, and when you have finished it will be a pearler of a bench... The one thing in your pics that disturbes me greatly is the car in your workshop... Get rid of it... A garage is no place for such a thing... Chuck it out side where it belongs and make more room for tools, wood and stuff.

And here I was thinking, "the poor bugger, I'll give im a Greenie to make is day!"

Oh well good get Wongo........ya basket!

As for the new bench, keep the pics coming, you owe me!

Ticky, Glue and wedges together made it extremely strong. You should not need to pin it.



Gluing the base was quite stressful :mad: as usual (but its nothing compare to gluing the top). The legs are so heavy and it is hard to put them together by one person. You want to do it quickly and you need to spread the glue, put the clamps on, drop the clamps, make sure everything is square, etc….. :mad:

I thought it was a good idea to finish the base before working on the top. I put 2 coats of ployU with the first coat thinned to 50%.


The bench

I still don’t know how I had enough of wood to make the top. Many times in the past 2 years I had to ask my wife and daughter to sit at one side so I had room to put a piece of old timber into the car.

They are Australian hardwoods mostly Tas Oak, Blackbutt (SilentC, do you remember the stinky timber I talked about a while ago?) and possibly Brushbox, Bluegum and more. It is amazing what people throw away.

It took 3 days to dress the wood. I feel sorry for my tablesaw, jointer, thicknesser and DC.

It would make life easier to drill the dog holes first. The dog holes are ¾ in. big and 14cm apart.

…… to be continued

SilentC, do you remember the stinky timber I talked about a while ago?

Ah yes, what did we decide caused the smell again?

I bought a bench for $100 at a garage sale on the weekend. It has a tail vice and a leg vice but the screw of the leg vice is missing. Made from Mountain Ash. Has been out in the weather for a few months, so not in good shape but should clean up OK. Only problem is it's left-handed. Still it will save me some time building benches for the new shed.

Originally Posted by silentC

Ah yes, what did we decide caused the smell again?

It was DaveInOZ. Where is the bastard now?

Originally Posted by Wongo

Ticky, Glue and wedges together made it extremely strong. You should not need to pin it.

Wongo, As you cas see, I have been showing off all of my shinny in-experiance again. Having read your reply & having a closer look at your pics, I can see what you mean. I have read you guys talking about wedges in M/T joints but that is not how I imagined youy used them.

Steve

Originally Posted by gazaly

By the way, are you left handed?

Nope, why?

Aren't they supposed to be clever? :eek:

Nice job Wongo - may I come down & do some chiseling on it?