Workbench build

[Dewald Swanepoel]

Good day folks,

As promised in thread, here are some pics documenting my building a workbench. It's really nothing fancy and I'm sure this forum has seen many more impressive workbenches brought forth from the skilled hands and sharp tools of more experienced members but I thought I'd post anyway. It was a fun little project and I'm really glad to have a workbench now.

 

So this was the plan.

 

The whole thing would be constructed from 38x114mm lumber (that's something like a 2x5 - if such a thing exists) and 18mm plywood shelve and worktop. The frame of the bench is 1800x800mm in size and stands 900mm tall. I decided though that I'd rather cut the surface bigger so as to give some overhang to which I can clamp stuff if needed. So the surface is 1x2m

 

This is what it looks like before it looks like anything:

 

And: (ignore most of that plywood, only the big piece on the right and one of the bigger pieces on the left is used)

 

I still lack some basic tools but the one tool that would have been tremendously useful for this project is a jointer. The wood as I got them were very ugly and very warped. I could have bought ready planed wood but that would have been a fair bit more expensive and I didn't think it would be necessary. At times during this build I was wondering if I'd regret that decision.

 

In any event, the best I could do was to choose my cuts such that I use the best pieces of wood and be as precise with my cuts as I can and then just hope that things would even out over the long run.

 

So this is the stock once everything was cut:

And this is what would hold it all together:

 

Assembly began with the legs. I drilled some countersunk pilot holes in one piece

 

... applied some glue on the edge of another piece

 

... clamped those puppies together

and then screwed them together with M6x60 wood screws (uhm, where's my picture?) You may also notice how a lot of the work is being done on the floor. Oh for a nice workbench to work on

Anyway, day 1 ended with not much achieved (only the legs assembled) mostly because I spent half the day at the store figuring out which wood to use, buying it and mostly trying to tie it down onto my roof rack. Even so, it was a hard day and deserved being concluded with a Belgian number - Leffe Blonde:

[Dewald Swanepoel]

Day 2 started off with the upper frame around the legs. These joins I wanted to be very solid so I went with M10x90 carriage bolts plus wood glue. First I marked the spots for the 10mm holes to be drilled. In that time honoured woodworker's selection game of woodscrew-spadebit-scissors, woodscrew beats spadebit so you want to make sure that you place your holes such that it doesn't go through a woodscrew in the leg. Just activate your camera's x-ray feature and you're golden

I then applied glue to the join and reclamped it, making sure that everything lines up perfectly. Then put in those carriage bolts and tighten them as tight as I can. Only after the third corner did it occur to me that I might as well have applied the glue first, then clamp it down, drill the holes and fit the carriage bolts. Silly me. At any rate, on this step I had to make very sure that everything is perfectly square on all axes - or at least as square as those crooked planks would allow.

It was also after this point that I discovered just how crooked those planks really were. Despite my best efforts to cut as precise as I could and to mount as square as I could, those legs were just not as square as they should be, the long sides were rather concave and the table was overall rather wobbly. Even so, I forged on and hoped that things would improve as more wood is added.

So the next step was to add the support beams on the upper frame. I had enough off cuts that I could cut a third support beam so why not?

I discovered that these beams had a surprise benefit. Not only would they support the top but they also served to pull and push the rest of the frame into its intended shape. Both of the long sides had a bit of a bend and twist in them which probably accounted for 90% of the table's overall misallignment. After I had added these support beams that was improved markedly.

Next, I assembled the bottom frame which would sit inside the legs. Here I could have done with more and better clamps but the flimsy frame corner clamps I had, combined with some tie downs had to do. Again, I made very sure that the corners on this frame was as square as possible.

And once I added the two support beams and bolted the frame to the legs, I was very pleased with how solid that table stands. It's heavy, it has absolutely no wobble and I can push and yank on it, it doesn't move. I couldn't be happier.

Finally, the 18mm ply surface and bottom shelf added and we're all done.

Well actually, two things remain. The top still has to be screwed down onto the frame. That'll be a quick task and I'll do that some other time. And secondly, the day had to be concluded with another Belgian number, this time the darker, even tastier, cousin - Leffe Brune.

[..Kev]

Looking good!  The bench is cool too 

[Coop]

Dewald, Looks like one fine bench there. A good solid place to create new projects!

I've checked and I don't have that x-ray feature on my phone. Plan on trading it tomorrow for one that does!

The beer/ale, hopefully it was served ice cold?

[Dewald Swanepoel]

Thanks for the comments. If I may ask a question perhaps; Should I consider treating the wood with anything? I know that pine turns an ugly grey if left untreated but I'm not sure I feel like putting a varnish on it either. Anything else I should consider? How about the plywood top?

 

 

The beer/ale, hopefully it was served ice cold?

Haha. As it happens they both came from the fridge and was actually just a tad too cold for my liking. I think the taste of an Ale comes out better if it's not chilled to near freezing. Unlike a Lager which is best served a couple of degrees above absolute zero :-)

[..Kev]

I would suggest putting something on the wood so that it lasts longer.  Perhaps a wiping varnish?

 

Plywood tops are fine.  Also suggest the same treatment for that so that glue drips and stuff can be removed easier.

 

Have 2 cold ones and hit the finish 

[ChetlovesMer]

This is a great post.

You are a great addition to the forum, if I get to look forward to quality threads like this, I for one am happy to have you around.

But in answer to your question. Yes, put some finish on it. Marc once said he likes to experiment with finishes for shop projects because if they turn out well, YAY! if they don't, well it's a shop project. I've always thought that was good advice.

In this case I'd suggest wiping varnish, or brush on poly, I find these as good places to start and they are normally readily available and reasonably priced.

[Eric.]

Resident curmudgeon here.   Valiant effort, but I'm compelled to make a couple suggestions:

 

Double or triple up the ply top.  This will add a little more weight and keep the bench from sliding around as easily...and it will slide around without weight.  Also the extra mass will make chiseling more agreeable...without a solid top, a large part of your mallet's momentum is lost at impact in mechanical resonance.  The more massive the top, the more absorption of momentum your strikes will achieve.  Take it from someone who used to work on a bench with an MDF top...it makes a big difference.

 

Second suggestion would be to trim that top flush with the stretchers and install some kind of vise.  You have to have a vise.

[TerryMcK]

Nice work.

+1 on Kiki's comments. The bench and your future woodworking will be better for it.

I prefer Leffe Blonde but have been known to sink a few Brunes too.

[RichardA]

Kiki's point is right on the mark. If you don't want to spend a great deal of money, here's a vise I made that works well and is inexpensive!  I've since gone to shorter pipe, which now gives me about 15 inches of vise.  And the way your bench is set up, you could eaisily run the pipe through your top rails, and have a good working space!

[Rapid Roger]

I too would suggest a thicker top by doubling up on the plywood just for firmness and stability.

Also I suggest two or three coats of polyurethane or some other finish and then three or four coats of paste wax over that to help with the glue/finish clean up.

I re wax my top once or twice a year just for that reason.

 

Rog

[Dewald Swanepoel]

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions. I definitely plan on installing a vise of sorts. I was thinking of something like this:

As for the top, I did consider doubling up. I guess now I should consider it again. A question on that; How would you recommend I attach the tops? Should I glue the two layers together? Is it just a matter of spreading some glue on the surface, slapping the other one on top of it and then piling some weights onto it or are there better ways? And then, attaching all of it to the base, should I simply screw them down through the top with woodscrews or should I rather consider using steel brackets from below?

Finally, you've convinced me, I'll treat the wood. So much of a noob am I that I have no idea what any of these finishes are that you mention. Wiping varnish seems self explanatory and paste wax sounds interesting. I'll spend some time in hardware shops and see if I can find any of these. There's a good chance of course that they might go by different names here. Oh well, I learn something every day :-)

[..Kev]

If it were me, I would not glue the layers together.  That way if the top layer gets beat up, you can replace just that layer and the rest is still in good shape.

 

Marc has some good finishing videos over on the Guild site that may help you with that.

 

I would do some more research on a vise and make sure that you're getting what you need.  Suggest taking a look at lots of different benches to see the different vise options.  

[Coop]

Tiods, Chris Schwarz did a 24 hour workbench (took him 24 hrs. to build) and he took 3 sheets of ply and glued them together. He took the first two sheets, applied a bottle of so of Titebond, clamped the two sheets and screwed them together w/ a hand full of screws. He gave it an hour or two, removed the screws and added the 3rd. sheet, clamp,glue and screws. When dried, he removed the screws, flipped it over and walla, a bench top!

IN FACT, that's actually what I did this weekend (that and make the scanner). I started my bench and was going to start a new post until I saw Deefstes and I figured I'd start mine later.

[..Kev]

There's certainly nothing wrong with that but, in my opinion, it's an overkill.  By just screwing it together, you can replace one piece when you need to rather than all of it.  

[Coop]

There's certainly nothing wrong with that but, in my opinion, it's an overkill.  By just screwing it together, you can replace one piece when you need to rather than all of it.

I agree. As mine is going to be a little shorter than most, I did it for the extra weight

[Freddie]

There's certainly nothing wrong with that but, in my opinion, it's an overkill.  By just screwing it together, you can replace one piece when you need to rather than all of it.  

Easy fix: When the top needs a fresh layer, just glue on a new sheet. Repeat until your bench touches the ceiling.