Thread: Building A Work Table/Bench without a Worktable/Bench to build it on...

Because I'm posting things I've already done its taking a while to type what I've done! so please bare with me. I plan to take it up to the point where I'm at now and then do a WIP. I forgot to mention the plywood used for the panels is 12mm red oak veneer left over from my tool cabinet build, I knew I would need it at some point!.

So anyway, the next part was making the rails, actually they're more like boxes than rails. I did the same thing with the tool cabinet and it
seemed to work really well however, this time I did things a little differently.I got the dado blades out and cut rebates about 6mm deep to slot in the beams just to see if its any stronger construction. One thing for sure, its a breeze to put it together this way as everything aligned exactly. After glue up I tested the strength by sitting and standing on it. Nothing gave in or caved in so I can sleep soundly at night.

The solids used are from a 25mm Hevea panel that wasn't doing anything apart from being used as a sh*tter for flies.

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After everything was squared and flat I glued 18mm red oak face on the rails which bought the total width to 43mm. After finishing for the day I had this nagging feeling that I may have over engineered everything?...

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I'll post the rest tomorrow.

At this point I thought it probably wise to route the mortises on the rear legs to take the 18mm frame &12mm panel, I probably should have done this when I was making the sides. The mortises for the rear frame and panels are 12 x 35mm deep, frames being 18mm solid red oak. As you can see in the first photo below I made the tenons too wide so I had to trim those down before slotting the back in place.

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I dry fitted and clamped it all down, checked for gaps and mistakes. I was very pleased to see
everything lined up true and square without any gaps, however I knew all too well things can change during glue ups. Luckily on this occasion everything went smoothly during the glue up. With everything totally square I secured the base using 6 dowels & 6 screws either side, the back was just screwed in place.

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I let this sit for a day before I tackled making the centre divider and attaching the middle shelf. I forgot to mention, I routed a 5mm rebate in the base to take the centre divider.

I had some left over 19mm birch plywood so I used that as the divider but instead of ironing on edging to hide the ply I decided to tackle the edging like this:

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I have an old woodwork magazine collection (in PDF format) called ShopNotes vol.1-86 and think I saw the idea in there somewhere. Anyway, I glued the divider into the rebated base and then attached the middle shelf using only screws this time.

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At this stage things were getting a little heavy so it was time to break out my secret weapons:

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I wish I had known about these things before because they're excellent, made like a tank and have a load capacity of 1400kg. they're height adjustable (100mm-120mm) casters and when retracted it makes the table rock solid, as in you can quite happily plane all day on it without it racking, I picked them up on Amazon for $50.

Before attaching the castors I needed to make some corner triangle brackets or whatever you call them for the underside of the table. They're made up from scrap plywood I had knocking around, glued up and run through the planer to a thickness of 80mm (can you stick plywood through a planer? I have no idea?). I then attached them to the walls of the table using screws.

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I made a few silly mistakes during this build but the biggest one is yet to come....

I only had the top shelf to go, so before I attached it I thought I'd check the height compared to my table saw, baring in mind I planned to use it as an out feed table aswell...

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I have no idea how I managed to miscalculate the height, 5mm higher than the table saw surface might as well be 500mm.... I think my cup pretty much sums up what I was thinking...

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Having made myself several cups of tea in my favorite mug I pondered what options I have to rectify this oh so stupid cock up.

Planing the legs was out the question as I only have a cheap bunnings plane with a blunt blade. second option was lift the whole thing onto the table saw and trim the legs down, stupid idea, actually forget I even said that. Third option was move the casters in closer so they only rest on the corner triangle supports, that way I can remove the supports and pass them through the thicknesser. The only problem with that idea was that the spacing between the caster would be significantly reduced and would in turn reduce the stability of the table...

Last option, forget the idea of it ever being able to serve as an out feed table!. More tea in my favorite mug was called for. Were talking about 5mm for heavens sake!.... WAIT. Router:

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maybe not the best solution but it worked.

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I was waiting for you to say you were going to raise the table saw 5mm .

Originally Posted by auscab

I was waiting for you to say you were going to raise the table saw 5mm .

The thought crossed my mind but I was too ashamed to mention that!

Hi EB. I always think that fixing a mistake says more about how good a craftsman you are than when things go to plan. Good solution!

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

The thought crossed my mind but I was too ashamed to mention that!

It the first thing I thought of . All my machines are raised on wood pallets so they are easy to move fast. And with the two table saws that are back to back with each other It was also good as I was able to bring them into line with each other exactly so I can out feed from one to the other. Doing that was a big space saver as well.

Rob

Originally Posted by auscab

It the first thing I thought of . All my machines are raised on wood pallets so they are easy to move fast. And with the two table saws that are back to back with each other It was also good as I was able to bring them into line with each other exactly so I can out feed from one to the other. Doing that was a big space saver as well.

Rob

Hi Rob, mines on one of these:

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I guess I could have put a square piece of plywood inside it?...

Incidentally this piece of wood is not part of the frame & panel it was only temporary to run my router jig against.

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I cut the top down to size today and with the excess I made the support beams. Thy're aprox. 33mm thick and 60mm in width, that gave me enough room to use all my clamps and then some. First I made a quick template with the correct arch and attached it using my trusty double sided tape which I seem to go through like a bottle of Famous Grouse Whisky. I then rough cut the arch using the jigsaw, this is where I really wish I had a band saw as I'd be able to cut alot closer to the line which would leave light work for the router later.

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I decided to screw the beams down in two places from underneath, this meant I'd need to remove the middle shelf to have enough room to drill. With the beams in place I drilled and counter sunk two m10 bolts through both the table top, beams and under shelf beam, The hole was made oversized to accommodate expansion of the top.

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And this is where I'm at right now. I checked for flatness of the top and I'm really pleased to see at this stage its completely flat across all corners!. However, I do need to decide if I should drill another four holes in the top going through the legs in each corner??...

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Thoughts?, suggestions?.