Thread: My go at "The Workbench"

heres a pic of the glue up of trestle ends...this should of been before the last pic...im trying to make them the same

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Now the stretchers...heres a pic of the setup to cut the tennons (same as i did for the trestle ends)
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Heres the first test fit of all the parts prior to glue......this was hard to do on my own
IMAG0027.jpg almost perfect......my straight edge along the top tells me that are almost dead in plane...maybe 1 sheet of paper off on the very corner. Pretty happy

IMAG0029.jpgummed and arred over the top...tried Ply but the span was too much (1050mm) decided to go structural pine 90mm x 45mm, rough as guts, hand planed laminated with biscuits for alignm,ent cost approx $60. did the laminations in groups of 4 and put threaded rod through in 3 places to "help"

Then got thrown a spanner...bough a 2nd hand 250 dawn vise off here for $25 (thanks mhunter) bargain of all bargains....have to get it on there

IMAG0028.jpgso to cut an already long story short...shifted the top all the way to 1 side to get the clearance i needed. Bought 190mm x 45mm merbau for the apron on 2 sides, split it down the middle to do the remaining sides

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painted the endgrain of the pine with prepcoat oiled the buggery out of everything else
IMAG0044.jpgadded leveling feet....aka hex nut and cup headed bolt m12...pretty solid. Need to add front jaw face and drawer underneath...this is the main advantage of this desigh the underneath is all square for mods

All in all a bloody nice job

As Jack Gibson would say "Played strong, done fine!"

All this in an afternoon. I think you have done a good job on the build.

Terrific job, especially for a first effort!

Originally Posted by Christos

All this in an afternoon. I think you have done a good job on the build.

not in an afternoon...told the SWMBO 3 days, more like 3 weeks

its been sitting there for 3 days now......no comment

the top finished up being about 85mm thick...lost 5 mm trying to flatten it (emphasis on trying), although its not bad, within the tolerance i would be happy with considering my expertise. although dead flat using a handplane would be the holy grail...it was easier than i thought to get it oh so close

Great job mate! Be sure to add it to this thread.

Looks great. You won't know yourself with a good bench to work on.

That's a great looking workbench!

A very good solid bench.
Regards
John

Good job, it looks good & solid. I plan to use those posts on my bench, if I ever get time to build it. I even picked up the same vise, that was being thrown out at work.
Can you please put up some details on how you fixed the top to the frame.

That is a very good "go", mate. Thank you for the pics.

Wow. Nice job.

I should stop reading these workbench posts, I get inspired to finally make myself a "proper" bench..... oh who am i kidding the momentary inspiration will pass .

Originally Posted by 62woollybugger

Good job, it looks good & solid. I plan to use those posts on my bench, if I ever get time to build it. I even picked up the same vise, that was being thrown out at work.
Can you please put up some details on how you fixed the top to the frame.

good question. I havent actually fixed the top to the frame yet, i encapsulated it around the trestle ends with some cheap ply screwed to the bottom and its held by the larger apron on the other 2 sides. It can lift off, vise and all. This i will prob change as i use it more (to see how it goes). There was no movement at all in the top when i first made it but i can sense a whisker now, which shud prob be expected as the whole thing will move a bit seasonally. The pine laminations may cup a little as it cures further...i was careful to alternate the grain in each lamination subset, but forgot when putting them all together.....no biggie, the beauty of this cheapo soft pine is its easily repairable. I can unbolt all the aprons (they arent glued on) and plane it back again. I will prob just use L brackets to hold the top to the frame when i can get over "screwing into the frame"..

my original plan was to have removeable tops, all sacrificial, so to speak. I wanted 1 as a regular top (the span of 1050mm meant id have to laminate 2+ sheets of ply....so i went the pine route), and another lattice type setup as a cutting top to break down sheet material with my Festy T55. in fact i was just breaking down my first sheet for that very purpose.

The lattice will now sit on top of this pine top and be held by the face vise...it does mean that the top will be 1050mm high (to high for Hobbits) which is on the limit for me im 6ft3".......if i dont like it ill build a step, but i think it will be fine. Just breaking down the sheet on the regular top with some 90x35mm undernaeth went well and quickly. i cut the 8x4 sheet into 100mm strips for the lattice, this would of taken me ages on the garage floor and the result not as good. Being able to work at a comfy height is the best (cant beleive i being doing all this on the floor prior)....postural changes with the track saw show up on the cut....NOT ANY MORE. The lattice will be biscuited together, not sure how that will work yet...pics tomorrow