Thread: WIP Shaker Workbench with Split Top

Beautiful work Mike. Lovely fiddle back (although I prefer to refer to Tassie Oak as Mountain Ash ) and two threaded arm plough planes, lucky man!

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Beautiful work Mike. Lovely fiddle back (although I prefer to refer to Tassie Oak as Mountain Ash ) ...

And what about the mess,mate?

Amazing build mate, makes the Roubo I made look positively minimalist by comparison. How heavy do you reckon it's going to end up being?

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

And what about the mess,mate?

Euca(n) keep making jokes like that!!

Originally Posted by Biggus

Amazing build mate, makes the Roubo I made look positively minimalist by comparison. How heavy do you reckon it's going to end up being?

Thanks Richard but a traditional Roubo with Benchcrafted hardware will never fail to impress.


To be honest, I have no idea how much the bench weighs. If I were to guess, it would have to be near 500kg with all the drawers filled with tools. Weight didn't really play a part in my decision when planning the bench. I just knew I wanted a bench in the Shaker style with a leg vise and a split top made out of a pale hardwood. The thickness of the top and width of the bench was determined by the dimension of the LN Dovetail/Moxon Vise. Even if I had chosen to build it out of pine, I reckon the bench would have been heavy and rigid enough due to its style and dimensions. I've read a few comments on other threads questioning the need for thick heavy tops and I reckon the critics have never chopped mortices on their thin-top benches. With such a thick and heavy top, I don't have to worry about being directly over a leg when I have to do any heavy pounding. I'm sure it's the same with your bench, but I can pound away anywhere on the bench. Don't get me wrong, light benches with ply and MDF tops have their places, but to think one is better than the other is just wrong especially considering woodworking is such a broad field encompassing so many different methodologies and ways of working. So to summarise for those starting their own bench builds, understand what you plan to build and how you intend to use the bench, and then build whatever works for you. If that's a lightweight torsion box bench, then don't let the naysayers tell you what to do. I love building workbenches so much that I'm seriously considering building my version of a Moravian workbench after this one if I can justify it somehow. I may just build one for the fun of it and sell it at cost.

Ok, the door is finished......


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Here's the centre panel with 3 coats of Osmo and 1 of paste wax.


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And here is the door in the clamps and drawbored. I used epoxy for the long open time and because I didn't think glue creep would be a good thing for a door. The centre panel is glued to the grooves on all 4 sides.


While the door was drying, I decided to work on the handle. I don't have a lathe so I had to look at buying a knob.


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I considered using the knob from my LN Moxon Vise handle which came loose and was replaced under warranty, but I decided that would be plan B. Plan A was to buy a simple new brass knob but I couldn't find anything that appealed. I wanted something with character and preferably with a woodworking theme, so I started searching for plane knobs and vintage brass knobs. My search led me to.......


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....a vintage brass adjuster knob off a Stanley #7. In the pic above, I've scored the inside so that the epoxy has something to grab onto, and I've used a 65mm long M6 bolt with the hex head ground down to allow enough clearance for one of my 25mm brass medallion.


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Here's the medallion submerged in the epoxy......


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And here's the finished knob wet-sanded to 1200 grit and with a couple coats of White Knight Rust Guard in Clear Gloss to prevent the brass from tarnishing.


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I used my newly restored Yankee brace to drill the 14mm mortise for the knob.....


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.....and for the 32mm washer on the back. I made a couple of shelves using some scrap 12mm ply.


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I recessed a neodymium magnet into the Tassie Oak edge banding to act as a door catch.


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A couple of pics of the finished door.




Cheers,
Mike

Originally Posted by KahoyKutter

Ok, the door is finished......
20210813_143933.jpg


































































And here is the door in the clamps and drawbored. I used epoxy for the long open time and because I didn't think glue creep would be a good thing for a door. The centre panel is glued to the grooves on all 4 sides.


Cheers,
Mike

well that was a mistake

Unless they are made from plywood, door panels are supposed to float in their frames.

Without having my head bitten off can I strongly suggest should you take the door apart and reassemble it without gluing the panel into it's frame.
What you have done is fix a panel that will expand and contract with changes in humidity into a frame.



extracting the panel from the frame can be done by using a router to excavate the inside edge of the rear of the door frame and the panel itself to release the panel. Treat the exercise as a learning experience in how to repair the door frame.

Originally Posted by ian

well that was a mistake

Unless they are made from plywood, door panels are supposed to float in their frames.

Without having my head bitten off can I strongly suggest should you take the door apart and reassemble it without gluing the panel into it's frame.
What you have done is fix a panel that will expand and contract with changes in humidity into a frame.



extracting the panel from the frame can be done by using a router to excavate the inside edge of the rear of the door frame and the panel itself to release the panel. Treat the exercise as a learning experience in how to repair the door frame.

Ian, as per my previous update, the centre panel is 6mm marine grade ply with a 1~1.5mm veneer of fiddleback Tassie Oak on both sides (see below). I went to the trouble of creating such a panel specifically so I didn't have to worry about wood movement. Hopefully it will be OK. If it ends up breaking apart due to expansion, I can always just make another door.

20210810_171337.jpg


Cheers,
Mike

Originally Posted by KahoyKutter

Ian, as per my previous update, the centre panel is 6mm marine grade ply with a 1~1.5mm veneer of fiddleback Tassie Oak on both sides (see below).

missed that.

my apologise for coming on so strong

Originally Posted by ian

missed that.

my apologise for coming on so strong

Really nice mea culpa, Ian. The sort of reaction that really makes this Forum so special.

I was about to ask you to explain the technique whereby Mike could disassemble a door that had been assembled with mortice & tennons, draw pins and a generous amount of epoxy. Mike's work is built to stay assembled!

Now, I do not need to ask the question.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

I was about to ask you to explain the technique whereby Mike could disassemble a door that had been assembled with mortice & tennons, draw pins and a generous amount of epoxy. Mike's work is built to stay assembled!

Now, I do not need to ask the question.

This is how the commercial kitchen builder accomplished the "fix" to a cupboard door in my then Sydney kitchen -- BTW, I no longer own the property.

1. use a router to excavate the back of the door styles and rails to the depth of the floating panel and a width ~3x that of the panel's tongue. This will provide sufficient glue surface to allow four pieces with matching grain to be glued on to recreate the groove cut into the rails and styles. Use a chisel to clean up the glue squeeze out into the groove. Plane the new "cheeks" to the desired thickness. Apply your desired finish.
The technique is perhaps a bit fiddley, but if the grain is sufficiently uniform, the repair to the back of the door will typically not be noticeable. And importantly doesn't require the draw-bored frame to be disassembled.


2. the panel is a lot trickier -- making a brand new panel is the easiest option. And this what the kitchen builder did.


3. However, if the panel MUST be reused, routing out the panel's tongue on the styles and gluing extra material onto the sides to restore the panel to the original width is trivial.
Fixing the missing height is much more tricky. BUT, if when cutting out the to be repaired panel you leave about 1 mm of the height attached to the door rails (top and bottom), you should be able to pop the remaining 1 mm glue line when the panel is tapped with a mallet. Softening the epoxy with heat is probably desirable, but depending on how much adhesive was used assembling the door heating the glue line may not be essential.
Now, using splines, you can add the missing height back on using cross grain wood on the top and bottom edge of the panel. The splines will reinforce the cross grain glue up and the join itself will be hidden in the grooves recreated in the top and bottom rails.

But, as I said, by far the easiest option is to make a new panel.


Hope this explains the technique.

Thanks, Ian, but I wasn't really expecting such a comprehensive explanation.

Originally Posted by Ian

... But, as I said, by far the easiest option is to make a new panel. ...

I think that my "solution" would have been to defer the problem for as long as possible.

The panel should be stable so long as it is isolated from moisture. So apply a couple more coats of epoxy as varnish to super-seal it from moisture. Touch up later dings quickly. Gotta keep the moisture out. [Note: This is a deferral strategy].

Then make a new door.

Alternatively, bypass all above and make a new door, now. From the little I know about Mike, you or me, I do not think any of us would really be satisfied with your commercial kitchen builder's "fix.

Originally Posted by ian

missed that.

my apologise for coming on so strong

All good, Ian. I know your intentions were good. My updates can be a bit lengthy and I don't blame anyone for skimming through them. Besides, the job of a veneer is to make an inferior substrate appear to be solid wood, so in a way your incorrect assumption is a compliment.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Thanks, Ian, but I wasn't really expecting such a comprehensive explanation.



I think that my "solution" would have been to defer the problem for as long as possible.

The panel should be stable so long as it is isolated from moisture. So apply a couple more coats of epoxy as varnish to super-seal it from moisture. Touch up later dings quickly. Gotta keep the moisture out. [Note: This is a deferral strategy].

Then make a new door.

Alternatively, bypass all above and make a new door, now. From the little I know about Mike, you or me, I do not think any of us would really be satisfied with your commercial kitchen builder's "fix.

Yep, I reckon I would do the same thing - see how long the door lasts and make a new one if/when it fails.