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

Well the vise chop is nearing completion so I need to think about finishing it. I'm guessing routed end grain such as this should be sealed in some way?. Any help in finishing it would be most appreciated.

As soon as the finish is complete I'll post the making of it.

Does it matter that the front jaw of the vise is one or two mils below the table surface?, or should it be dead flush with the table surface?.

Just coat it up with what ever your finishing the rest with Sam . End grain is more a consideration when your staining and having to match the rest of something already polished. On a work table like this it will just match the rest of the end grain.
Rob

Originally Posted by auscab

Just coat it up with what ever your finishing the rest with Sam . End grain is more a consideration when your staining and having to match the rest of something already polished. On a work table like this it will just match the rest of the end grain.
Rob

Thanks Rob, I gave it a few coats of shellac today. Its abit darker than the rest of the table though. Red oak table, white oak vise...

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Does it matter that the front jaw of the vise is one or two mils below the table surface?, or should it be dead flush with the table surface?.

Not really . Some benches have a strip glued at both top edges that can be replaced when needed. You could always add them but for a work table its better without them for when laying out things flat. Which is a lot on a work table. You don't want raised bits at the vise. On a bench they come in very handy.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Its a bit darker than the rest of the table though. Red oak table, white oak vise...

Oh . That will be interesting to see. You could have shaded the white oak up a bit to match. It wouldn't take much.You could still easily do it with some oxide colours. You got any ?

The white Oak is darker all over or just the end grain?

Originally Posted by auscab

Not really . Some benches have a strip glued at both top edges that can be replaced when needed. You could always add them but for a work table its better without them for when laying out things flat. Which is a lot on a work table. You don't want raised bits at the vise. On a bench they come in very handy.

Yeah, better to be below than above on this one.

Just out of curiosity is there a way lighten white oak?.

Originally Posted by auscab

Oh . That will be interesting to see. You could have shaded the white oak up a bit to match. It wouldn't take much.You could still easily do it with some oxide colours. You got any ?

The white Oak is darker all over or just the end grain?

The white oak is about two shades darker than the red oak.

Just checked the art supply, no oxides...

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Just out of curiosity is there a way lighten white oak?.

Yes . Bleaching it. Amonia and peroxide. Its done before coating it with anything.

I didn't like how dark the white oak went so I sanded it back and tried something I've been meaning to do for a while. I applied a couple of coat of water based poly thinned down slightly. Once that dries I'll apply a couple of coats shellac. My theory is that the poly once dry doesn't change the colour much and wont allow the shellac to sink into the wood in turn only changing the colour slightly, hopefully bringing it up near to the tone of red oak...

Hi Sam

Go into any furniture museum or good antiques shop and you will know why I absolutely love the appearance of a shellac finish. But I have rarely used shellac in the last 20+ years - in my view it is too vulnerable to scratching, alcohol and heat.

In particular, I would question shellac on a workbench surface - it is too soft and too slippery. In my view the finish on a worksbench should be:

• easy to apply,
• reasonably durable,
• easy to repair, and
• not too slippery.

The traditional workbench finish is "oil finish". Equal amounts of boiled lindseed oil (BLO) and turps, first coat will soak in quickly, second coat absorbs slower - do not let it pool, apply 3 or 4 coats until it stops absorbing. Really easy to touch up.

You can also use:

• wipe on poly - equal amounts of estapol and turps, or
• Danish oil - equal amounts of estapol, BLO and turps.
• Same application technique with all products.

Recently I have been using Organoil Hard Burnishing Oil - its composition is a trade secret, but I suspect that it is similar to Danish Oil but with the mineral turps replaced by (natural) gum turpentine - it smells really nice, a pleasure to use.

Sometimes I have a really bad day, this was one of those days...

As mentioned before I was waiting on some new router bits, two 1/2 inch shank Freud round overs and a cheap set of 1/4 inch shank flush trim bits which I thought I needed to shape the 50mm thick white oak. The goodies arrived and the day started off with me breaking my ear muffs, which wasn't a big deal as it was a cheap pair anyway.

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I made a template for the basic shape of the vise chop and then cut away some of the shape from the chop using my jigsaw. I then clamped the template onto the top of the chop and proceeded to flush trim at a depth of 50mm... No sooner had the bit made contact with the white oak, BANG!, the 1/4 shank snapped off and went flying across the shop, fortunately completely missing me!. After a few choice words with myself I made a cuppa tea in my favorite cup...

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Having assessed the damage I could see the router bit had torn quite deep into the curve, but I calculated that it may not be deep enough to effect the design. Apart from that I seemed to have dodged a bullet, however at this point I decided to call it a day and put it down to stupidity on my part for thinking I could flush trim 50mm oak in one go, plus the fact the bit was a cheap 1/4 inch shank bit.

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To make myself feel better I brought myself a new pair of ear muffs.

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These things seem alot more substantial than the crappy Bunnings ones I've been using for so long. So without further to do I managed to flush trim the 50mm slab in several passes this time using a 1/2 inch Freud bit.

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With both the 50mm & the 33mm thick oak trimmed to the shape I wanted, it was time to tackle the moulding. I got the inspiration to do this from Robs magnificent workbench in which he has a very nice moulding profile on his vises, no doubt done with hand tools!. Not being anywhere near
as gifted & skilled I planned to use the table saw, router, and maybe a chisel & rasp here and there.

Removing alot of the stock with a dado stack on the table saw making sure not to go to near the profile outline:

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Having done that I cracked on to routing the basic shape. The hardest part was the sweeping S bend as I would have to use chisels and rasps to get it perfectly lined up and straight to do the top profile., in the end I got to where I needed to be on both parts of the chop:

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All that was left now was to glue the buggers together:

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I finished the vise by applying a coat of water based poly then shellac.

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Even after all the shaping and sanding, you can still see where the broken router bit struck the wood:

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That looks great Sam! Well done. The colour difference is hardly noticeable.
I can see how the router bit must have bit in if you were routing from the outside face into that grain. Should have not been a problem if you were routing from the inside face.