Thread: WIP Shaker Workbench with Split Top

I still haven't glued the end caps and outer boards on as I'm waiting for the brass plaque I commissioned to arrive from Russia. Meanwhile, I've moved on to the drawers.

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First step was to buy some Tassie Oak from Bunnies. 19mm thick and a combination of 185mm, 135mm, and 110mm wide. Bunnings probably isn't the cheapest source but at least they're quarter-sawn, kiln-dried, and you get to select the straightest and most interesting boards. The stash above wasn't enough for my needs because I decided to maximise the yield from my stash of fiddleback Tassie Oak by "veneering" them onto standard Tas Oak.

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Then I cut the sides leaving them about 5mm long. I'll cut them to final length later on. The bottom drawers are about 275mm deep.........

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.......so I need to join 185mm and a 110mm boards together to get the necessary width. After jointing and thicknessing to get rid of any slight misalignment and/or cupping, I end up with a thickness of 16mm.

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It was a similar process with the drawer faces. First I cut them to rough lengths making sure that I label the ends so that I get continuous grain from one drawer to the next. The pile above is only about half of what I needed. It was at this point I decided to resaw them in half to maximise the yield.

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The dressed boards were only about 130mm wide so I also have to edge join them together to get the necessary width. The pic above is the bottom half of the bottom row of drawers. I'm aiming for a width of approx 185mm so I can sandwich it between a couple of standard Tassie Oak. I then re-joint and re-saw the sandwiched board before re-sawing it in half. I then re-thickness the two halves to get rid of the bandsaw marks. I could have left the boards 29mm thick if I wanted to but that would have been a tad too thick so I ran them through the thicknesser (standard Tassie Oak face up) to get a final thickness of 25mm.

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Here is the result. The problem with joining figured boards is the seams are quite obvious regardless how tight the joins are. The fiddleback "veneer" is approx 10mm thick.


To be continued.......

In the previous post, I showed the lamination and milling of the bottom halves of the bottom row of drawer faces. The reason why I didn't join a number of boards all in one hit to get the final width of 275mm is because I am sandwiching the handles between the bottom and top halves. I have changed the design of the handles.....



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Initially, I was going to do a wider version of the handles I used on the Rosewood desks I built. I was going to use Purpleheart for the top half but I just don't have enough of it.

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This is how much I had left. Probably enough to do the front of the top row of drawers. I had to find another solution whereby I could have a touch of Purpleheart on each drawer. I also wanted the solution to disguise the depth of the bottom drawer. Here's what I've come up with......

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First, I cut and resaw a piece so that it is 60mm wide and 10mm thick. I then glue 20mm x 30mm piece flush against one edge.

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Then I use my table saw to cut a strip about 6mm thick * 14mm wide off the 20 x 30 bit. I save the "waste" strip as they will be perfect for inlaying into a couple of jewellry boxes I'm planning to build. This leaves 10mm which is the final thickness of the handle less whatever is lost to final sanding.

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I then use a 19mm core/round bit on my router table to cut the inner radius. I'm just using f/b Tas Oak for the back faces. I just don't have enough PH but also it will ensure I know which side is the front if I ever have to remove the drawers.

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I use the corresponding 19mm roundover bit to cut the external radius. These are both Freud bits. They're very good and I really like them, but I still have to make sure to take shallow passes to minimise tearout. Both the f/b Tassie Oak and PH are prone to tearout and splintering.

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Above are a couple of pics of one of the handles roughly shaped. I used a 40mm Forstner bit on my bench drill for the inner radius and used a rasp to shape the rest. Final shaping will be done once the handles are glued to the drawer faces. One down, 17 to go !!!



To be continued.......

There has been a recent development on the inlay-front. I created a thread in the CNC sub-forum but after several weeks without even a nibble, I decided to commission a couple of brass plaques.....

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This one is coming from Russia....

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.....And this one from the U.S. I plan to use the Russian one on the end cap, and the American on the leg vise chop.

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The advantage of using the brass plaque on the end cap as opposed to a bit of inlay is that I can hide a couple of these bolts behind it to secure the middle of the endcap to the centre of the workbench. I won't need to rely on the drawbore pins to pull the endcap tight to the two slabs.


Then a few days ago, a knight in shining armour (aka Bob Willson) saw my thread in the CNC sub-forum and offered his CNC service. I sent him an image that I had amateurishly drawn up.......

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....and above is Bob's proof of concept attempt. It's only 0.5mm deep on a bit of MDF but it looks very promising. Bob said inlaying any timber at the size I'm looking at would be virtually impossible because some of the lines are less than half a mm thick. On his advise, I've decided to try and use epoxy as the infill material. I've asked Bob make a deeper version and this week I will pick up some powdered brass to mix with the epoxy. I will see how that turns out but I am very optimistic . That's all for now.





Cheers,
Mike.

Great build so far Mike. Are you starting or do you have a woodworking business and your logo is included as part of your brand?

Originally Posted by Sam

Great build so far Mike. Are you starting or do you have a woodworking business and your logo is included as part of your brand?

Thanks, Sam.

Nope, I am just a hobbyist and I still consider myself very much a noob. The only bit of furniture I've built is a couple of Rosewood desks just over a year ago. Most of the things I'm doing are a first for me. The reason for the brand/logo/plaque/etc is because I think everyone should sign their work, not just Da Vinci. It's probably more of an avatar instead of a business logo per sé. The woodblock "M" is my initials and represents me, the crack/split signifies my flaws, and the butterfly/bow ties shows that I am barely being held together. Rather apt I reckon.

Plus I don't mind a bit of bling !!!

Damn Michael. Even the drawers look great. I can't believe the work you've done on this workbench given how little experience you have. It gives me hope for my own work. Hehe. I've been enjoying your build over the months. Thanks for sharing.

Lyndon

The first work-related dent in that bench will bring a tear to your eye

Originally Posted by BEM

Damn Michael. Even the drawers look great. I can't believe the work you've done on this workbench given how little experience you have. It gives me hope for my own work. Hehe. I've been enjoying your build over the months. Thanks for sharing.

Lyndon

Thanks Lyndon. I've always subscribed to the notion of "aiming for the moon" so that even if you do miss, you'll still end up amongst the stars. You may be surprised what you can accomplish and you'll never know until you try. And there's always heaps of help readily available through these forums. Good luck and whatever you build, please don't be afraid to share.....warts and all.



Cheers,
Mike

Originally Posted by woodPixel

The first work-related dent in that bench will bring a tear to your eye

Nah, I don't reckon so. I'm already starting to use the bench to work on and the top doesn't even have any finish to protect it. No doubt I'll be careful the first few days once it is completed, but I'm sure once I'm in the thick of my next build, I'll stop thinking about scratching or dinging the bench up. Besides, battle scars just add to the patina and that could end up being even more beautiful than a blemish-free bench.

I haven't had much opportunity to work on the bench since my last post but I'll share what little progress I have made. I'm still waiting for my brass plaque to arrive from Russia. The tracking info shows the package bouncing around Europe like a pinball. It's been through London, Leipzig and Minsk at least a couple of times. It has visited more European cities than I did in my last European vacation....


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.....I continue to slowly cut and shape the handles. It's quite tricky to mark around such large round corners and I resorted to using blue tape instead of a pencil/marking knife to get the shape that I'm after. I then use my spindle sander and couple of rasps to refine the shape.



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Here it is roughly shaped. I leave it slightly oversized so that I have a bit of wiggle room when glueing it to the drawer face. I'll most likely round off the bottom corners but I'll do that once everything is glued up.


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Here it is being glued to the bottom section. The top section will be around 100mm high making the handle approximately two thirds up from the bottom. I reckon this will be better visually as opposed to having the handle located in the middle.



Meanwhile.....


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Bob Willson made me a couple of Purpleheart discs on his CNC router. These are 150mm in diameter which is what I had requested. A couple of days later, one of the CNC services I had engaged earlier and offered to make me a couple of discs as well. I decided that it couldn't hurt especially as I was second guessing my decision to go as big as I did. 150mm would still have been OK, but it looked a little too big for the space because I hadn't taken into account the huge chamfers on my leg vise. I decided to ask the other guy to make the discs a tad smaller (125mm diameter) and include a Purpleheart border around the logo.



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Above is the result of his efforts dry-fitted into the mortise cut by Bob.



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Here is the mortise being cut on Bob's machine. That's his hand in the pic. We slowly crept up to the fit by doing test cuts on MDF, and when we were satisfied, we crossed our fingers and made the cut on the vise chop. There's no real way to do a proper dry-fit because it would be impossible to remove the disc without damaging it if we fully seated it in the mortise. As such, we decided to leave it a bit tight and I slightly chamfered the sides of the disc by hand. When I was satisfied with the fit, I glued it in with Titebond 3.




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After I took it out of the clamps, I used thin CA glue to wick down the seam and hit it with the activator. I did this several times until I was sure that all the tiny gaps had been filled in which the coloured epoxy can get into.


Next step was to fill the disc with coloured epoxy. I had experimented with epoxy with various ratio of powdered brass, but I was unhappy with the results.



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Here is the result from one of my experiments on masonite. I then tried gold metallic paint along with the gold mica powder with the epoxy, It was an improvement but I was still unsatisfied with the results.



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In the end I decided to go with just 100% gold mica powder in the epoxy. The actual product is shown the "CA glued" photo a few steps back. For those looking to replicate my method, I used about 2 heaped teaspoon mixed in with one serving of epoxy (1 pump of resin + 1 pump of hardener). I finally got the gold metallic effect that I was after.



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Sadly, the metallic gold sparkle I wanted disappeared after sanding. I'm hoping it returns after I apply a few coats of Osmo and wax, but if it doesn't, I won't be too disappointed as I still like the result.


Below are a couple more photos.....





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Cheers,

Mike

Luthiers use these methods too. They use CA as you have done, then mix up multiple thin layers of epoxy.

The effect is outstanding.... Epoxy Pore Filling - First Coat & Sealing a Rosette and Quilted Sapele Guitar Pore Fill - YouTube

Looking vveerryy good!

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Luthiers use this methods too. They use CA as you have done, then mix up multiple thin layers of epoxy.

The effect is outstanding.... Epoxy Pore Filling - First Coat & Sealing a Rosette and Quilted Sapele Guitar Pore Fill - YouTube

Looking vveerryy good!

Thanks wP. It's good to know that I'm using proper techniques used by luthiers. Cheers.

Wow Mike! Looking faaaaaancy. I am trying to work out what the little metal pins/rods are doing poking out of one side??

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Wow Mike! Looking faaaaaancy. I am trying to work out what the little metal pins/rods are doing poking out of one side??

Thanks MA. They're the pins that secure the Criss-Cross mechanism in place. I just haven't fully seated them in yet because I have to take the vise apart in order to cut the chop to its final length and shape the top.


I've installed another stainless steel rod between the chops and this is so that the workpiece can rest on it instead of the greasy vise screw.



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