Thread: The Outdoor Workbench

Now to cut off your workbench you just need a circular saw like the one here: More Mafell Madness - YouTube
Some more here: Mafell MKS 145, 165, 185 Ec Portable Circular Saw - YouTube

Originally Posted by hiroller

Now to cut off your workbench you just need a circular saw like the one here:

I'm going to pass on a c/saw bigger than my head
What would get cut off would be something other than the bench ... and I get third-party offers in that direction every day.

I only did the underside today ... with the electric planer. About 5 minutes total, it made short work of a pretty ugly and uneven underside.
But probably like using a calculator in school, I'd say it is a real advantage knowing how you'd do it by hand before reaching for the modern gadget.

I have made a fine mess with a planer in the past, but I can now relate it to using hand-planes ... varying the depth of cut ... going across or with the grain ... and it becomes a more finessed instrument.

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The underside is underneath for a reason ...

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end result ...

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All this jointing ... apparently the dustbags only hold so much. Who knew?

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The problem with having quite a lot of timber around ... is picking the 'right' piece for an application. Something that feels right to use in that way, for that purpose.

I have gotten somewhere with that ... looks like 4"x4" jarrah for the legs ... 20131228_072802 (Medium).jpg


A 1m x 40cm x 2" offcut from a slab that used to poke out from my garage until a cleanup probably a year ago for the front apron.
To be ripped in twain.

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And some stringy hardwood (depending on how it cleans up) for the rear edge-board and dog holes ...
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I've also been thinking about how the legs are to be made ... the references being Paul Seller's backyard-built bench, the Jord's Workshop's youtube build, and CS's Nicholson bench.

In the CS bench, the aprons are attached to the legs ... then the top is attached and not designed to come apart.
In PS's bench, the aprons are attached to the top, but the leg sections fit into housings in the aprons with wedges added.
In the JW bench ... a bit like a roubo-style bench ... the base is constructed then placed on the top to mark out mortices.

I'd like my top to be removable ... and I want to know what the plan will be before adding the hardwood sections, because I can cheat some of the joinery around the attachment of those sections. I'm thinking probably half the 4"x4" legs at the front as through-mortices, with the other half lapped by the apron ... and a 2" tenon through-mortice for the rear legs.

There's also some (two) gates to make for my mother. I believe I 'planned' doing that *last* xmas. I have taken the measurements again, and made much better drawings this time. I didn't use anything like all the pine I had gathered with this build in mind, so I think I will now make them in pine first as a test run and then redo them in jarrah.

Cheers,
Paul.

Funny thing about containers - They only seem to contain so much!!

You are certainly a fully kwalifyed memba of the Grand Amalgamated Union of Scroungers and Recyclers.
In fact I now officially promote you to the position of Professor at our academy! Use the position wisely old
son!!

A removable top? Is that one person removable or two people removable??? Just interested as I am tooooo
far away to help.

I really meant - and almost went back to edit it - "theoretically removable".

Also I'm pretty sure on re-reading my description of half-laps etc makes very little sense.


It's kinda the theme of this thread.

Paul

PS - decided against the stringy wood ... it has highly reversing grain and I'm picturing it out in the open ... went back for a rock-like jarrah piece.

Well ... interesting ... learnt quite a bit today ... spending 5 hours to almost join 4 pieces of wood together.

#1 ... Finally found a use for a palm tree ...

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#2 ... Workbench ... so far so good ...

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#3 ... if you leave metal tools in the sun ... they get hot.


The objective today was to put together a frame of a 'gate' in pine ... 150cm x 87cm. Mortice and tenon top and bottom.

The morticer had last been being used as a saw-vice ... and I had adjusted the throw of the chisel to minimise tearing my hands to shreds trying to sharpen a saw. So I had to adjust that back down again to a useful working throw. This would be getting towards an hour out of my still ridiculously long time outside.

And then there was the arduous task of making four holes. ... With a machine. ... In pine.

This is the masterfully executed piece of joinery that all the effort has so far culminated in ...

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However I will claim some victories.

I believe the thing is going to sit in a single plane, and square ... potential screw-ups that were always possibilities.

The first tenon, blindly measured, badly marked, and conservatively cut, probably took me ... mumble mumble two hours cough ... to fit into its mortice.
... In pine.
But the next two were actually cut to size really well if I do say so myself and took stuff-all adjustment.

I also gathered some more sawing info. I had five out ... the hard-point Irwin and a 7ppi crosscut handsaw ... the Simonds (6-1/2ppi) that I docked one end of the slab with, the D-12 (5-1/2ppi) that I docked the other end with, and a Richardson Brothers (5-1/2ppi) that also came from Mike Merlo as a 'use anytime' saw.

... That Irwin hard-point saw crosscuts this pine very well.

... The Simonds is just amazing. I used to to cut one tenon cheek, and it was quite slow cutting. I've got a lot of saws around here and I like one that cuts fast and hard ... and I came away thinking "Well, that's nice ... very tight kerf ... but a bit slow in this pine". It was only later after cutting the second cheek with the Richardson that I looked at the cheek I'd cut.

All the tenons were 5" x 3" ... and all except the last were cut by cutting one corner diagonally, then reversing the piece and coming from the other corner.

This is the Richardson saw 20131229_134010 (Medium).jpg and a tenon it cut ... AFTER smoothing with the Record 074 ... 20131229_134028 (Medium).jpg

and another tenon cut with it ... 20131229_142823 (Medium).jpg 20131229_142830 (Medium).jpg


This is the Simonds saw ... 20131229_154643 (Medium).jpg and the tenon cheek it cut ... from two directions ... straight off the saw ...


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... The most efficient saw was the D-12 ... the same one that went for a curl docking the RH end of the slab. It cut quickly and straight ... so well in fact that I continued the last cut with it all from the one side without flipping the rail around.



The surface it produced ... moderately rough ...

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And finally my third tenon ... not too bad I think considering what the first one was like

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I forgot a point ...
#4 ... it is very cool when ... even as messy as these joints look ... the tenon just fits snugly into the mortice (like on the tv )

I never made it to tenon #4. From midnight to 3pm ... my brain was fried ... finish it tomorrow.

I'm glad I did this 'though. It's good practice for the gate-making, but it will be important for doing the legs too.

Cheers,
Paul

Good stuphph Paul!!!

Perhaps review of the saws in the "Reviews" forum would be in order.

Slow and steady pace will see this done in time.

Very good read on the adventure.

I should also add that it has taken me just a long to glue up four pieces of wood from rough swan.

I tried, with the last tenon, cutting the width of the tenon first ... I didn't like it as well that way.
The shoulder gets in the way of making this cut on the face ...

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The end result ... not too horrible ... and I'm quite surprised how strong it feels - even in pine ... and without glue, or screws or pins.


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I'm rethinking the idea of an apron. I was just taking it as granted, because the original bench was built that way ... but ... looking at other builds regarding making the base and attaching the top ... I'm thinking ... 4" top ... 4" legs ... it has now become more like the roubo-style.

I've been standing up the top like this for the boss to turn the sprinklers on. Now I'm wondering about the possibility of fitting the top to the base so that it could be swung up ... given that it will live outdoors.

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I can imagine instead of the legs morticing into the top, having posts into the rear of the top that come down next to the leg assemblies, with a bolt across running through a close-fitting tube filled with grease. The bolts would act as the hinges ... the leg assemblies would need to be rounded down at the rear to allow the movement ... and projections at the rear of the legs to support the weight when the top is upright.

Just musing.

Cheers,
Paul

Originally Posted by ch!ppy

the possibilities are endless for it Paul, ideas only limited by your blood alcohol level
...
so what i'm saying is , if you have to keep it outside in the rain then you would need to seal it in the best possible way, end grain included

I was looking back to the start of the thread to remind myself what that first bench looked like.

Chippy had a good point ... I should paint the end-grain at least.

Musings, cogitation, random thoughts.......maybe they just amount to confusion
and anxiety.

Woodwork isn't supposed to be like this!

Hey! Leave Kafka to build his outdoor workbench in peace

We're with you all the way Paul!

Have you thought, ha, who am I kidding; what have you concluded about just making a removable cover? Or option two, having just front legs with the rear attached to the wall with hinges like a fold up garage workbench?

Matt

Originally Posted by artme

Woodwork isn't supposed to be like this!

No problem there - I've never been accused of any woodwork.

Originally Posted by Berlin

Hey! Leave Kafka to build his outdoor workbench in peace

Not the first time I've been compared to an enormous cockroach, you know.

Have you thought, ha, who am I kidding; what have you concluded about just making a removable cover?
Or option two, having just front legs with the rear attached to the wall with hinges like a fold up garage workbench?
Matt

I'm somewhat serious about the lifting lid idea. It ok now in summer, but the bench will be out in the rain sometimes ... sometimes over several days.

I don't think just loose on top would be anywhere near as useful as hinged & liftable. It's not too heavy right now with just pine but it will have jarrah front and back and I can see it gaining considerably in weight.

I'm a big fan of canvas and the piece I had over the oregon worked well ... but it's not waterproofing. These are the oregon beams from earlier ... a year earlier in fact, having looked back to page 6. There's just a little dry mould ... but I suspect the pine might not manage as well as the oregon.

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