xxdabroxx Posted April 13, 2015 Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 I figured after lurking for a bit I would share the progress I have made on my workbench. I came to the conclusion that I needed a solid workbench when I started tinkering with hand tools recently. I first stumbled upon Paul Sellers workbench design on youtube, and started in on a version thereof. I don't have the idealistic workshop yet, my roomies 70 El Camino takes up much of the garage. Anyone in the market for a cruck? $$$ I need shop space. I got about this far before I bought a copy of the Schwarz' book and decided that a split top was not for me. I would constantly have it filled with clutter. So I revised the design I had in my head and decided it would not be a split top. and it grew. And as did the pile of shavings, I think I'm going to use them for garden mulch this year. and it grew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted April 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 I added one more board and got the top flattened again and have since started on the bottom flattening. I used a combination square and a pencil to scribe a line parallel to the top. Then I chamfered off the edge to control tearout. Oh yeah, if I didn't metion it I've been doing this almost entirely with hand tools. I did try to used my dads shop smith jointer on a few boards but ultimately back to the hand planes. Scrubbing off material with my #5 Millers Falls converted scrub plane. My catfood can oiler and scrub Long way yet to go. But this is where I'm headed. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my progress. I should be getting a call today with a quote for clear doug fir to finish the base. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted April 13, 2015 Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 This thing is really coming along and looking good.Welcome to the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted April 13, 2015 Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 Nice! Welcome to the forum. Keep posting pics as you progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FtrPilot Posted April 13, 2015 Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 Welcome to the forums. Looks like you are making excellent progress on your workbench. Have you made any decisions on vises? Benchdogs? I am looking forward to seeing your progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted April 13, 2015 Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted April 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 Thanks guys, I've got a 7" Yost quick release vise for a tail vise to be aligned with a row of dog holes and Benchcrafted's leg vice hardware with criss cross. Those guys (Benchcrafted) are kinda a pain to get stuff shipped from but it looks like nice equipment. You have to pay a separate shipping invoice after they decide they are ready to ship and then they shipped it requiring a signature which is always a bit of a pain. I'm having a hard time finding local lumber, everyone has construction grade lumber in my area and that's about it. I'm in Porterville, CA about half way between Bakersfield and Fresno if anyone has any leads on a good lumber yard with some hardwoods to browse through. I still have to get this finished first but I'm having a hard time even finding decent stuff for the legs as I don't want green lumber because it will shrink so bad. Hopefully I get a good quote from Visalia lumber today but they seemed to not want to deal with anything other than construction grade stuff. He seemed surprised I would even want clear lumber, I'm hoping to find out it's kiln dried when he calls with a quote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Welcome! You have a nice looking bench top going there. IMHO, there is nothing wrong with using construction lumber for a workbench. It will be abused thoroughly, anyway, so why use materials that you hesitate to ding or scratch? That being said, most construction lumber is not properly dried when you buy it, so some time is wasted waiting for it to stabilize. Bell Forest Products, and HardwoodtoGo.com are a couple of good places to buy hardwoods online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Wow I don't envy you planing that by hand. I will be a great bench when you have finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted April 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Well, no real progress to speak of but the last of my wood is ordered and should be here by the weekend. Didn't get anything fancy, just KD clear doug fir 2x6's for the legs and a clear 3x10x4' for the leg vise. I want to have the top completed by the weekend so that means it's back to the scrub plane tonight, we have a nice overcast day today so the weather should be perfect for some planing. I fear the chunk I ordered for the leg vice may be really wet when I get it but only time will tell, they wanted 60 bucks for a KD 8' stick so I went for the shorter green one. Kinda sucks buying lumber sight unseen, I'm used to digging through the pile at the home store to find 2-3 sticks a week that meet my standards but beggars cant be choosers. If my leg vice chunk is too wet I may order something hardwood online, I don't care for oak much though and it seems to be about the cheapest hardwood in big pieces. Whatever it is I want it to match my cherry that I'm using for the outter most layers of my benchtop if I don't use the DF. Did I mention that I can be a bit anal? haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Be careful with all that hand planing. Your new bank muscles may require a new size shirt. Looking great. Keep us updated as you progress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Jimerfield Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Are you familiar with "planing with the grain" or "planing downhill"? Your top is already glued up, so it probably wont help too much at this point. If you don't know yet, check into it, as it will make all the hand planing you are doing much easier, and you'll get better results. That is a nice huge pile of shavings. Perfect for kindling in the wood stove or fireplace, but you probably don't use those primitive things where you live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted April 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Be careful with all that hand planing. Your new bank muscles may require a new size shirt. Looking great. Keep us updated as you progress I'm hopin it helps shed some weight haha. Been lazy over winter. Are you familiar with "planing with the grain" or "planing downhill"? Your top is already glued up, so it probably wont help too much at this point. If you don't know yet, check into it, as it will make all the hand planing you are doing much easier, and you'll get better results. That is a nice huge pile of shavings. Perfect for kindling in the wood stove or fireplace, but you probably don't use those primitive things where you live. I heat my home entirely with a wood stove as a matter of fact. Although it hasn't seen as much use in the last couple years. I have a couple of boards that are backwards and tearout pretty bad. I'm not too worried about it though, I have a Stanley SH #4 with an adjustable mouth that limits the tearout pretty well. It's not perfect, but it's benchtop good enough. The cherry I have for the sides are what scare me the most, but they are pretty close to finish ready. I think I'll just sand them. Definitely something I will keep in mind in future projects though. I want a big cutting board after I get this done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted April 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2015 Well progress has been made, the bottom is flattened to my liking. It is only a workbench. And I figured a picture of my workhorses was in order. These will go on the outter edges. The left board has a coat of danish oil the left had its coat mostly sanded off. I've never used it before and wanted to see what it was like when dry. Still not sure if I want danish oil or BLO for a finish. It's hard to see but there are some birdseye looking things in one of them, I think they will show better with some finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Jimerfield Posted April 15, 2015 Report Share Posted April 15, 2015 I all them "ring peaks". They remind me of mtn. peaks on topo maps. There's probably a real name for them, but I don't know it. In soft woods they are usually a problem as they will peel off. I get nervous when I see them in hardwood, but have not yet had one peel off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted April 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 Well I got my lumber order on Saturday. For the most part it was disappointing. The piece I ordered for the leg vise is so checked that I don't think it will be useable for anything other than firewood, and a few of the 2x6's had a fair bit of wane on the ends. Hopefully I can get my legs out of what I ordered, good thing I got a couple extra 2x6's. I did manage to get one piece of cherry glued to the edge though, one more to do tonight or tomorrow night and I will be done laminating the top! woooohooo!!!! Then I get to laminate smaller pieces for the legs, I'm very much looking forward to this. But before I do that I need to pick up a finer tooth blade for my miter saw, the contractor blade that is in it now just won't do. Any suggestions, today is payday? I'm liking the TB3, the longer working time is nice in the CA weather. The gallon I bought seems to be lasting quite a while. In other news, I need more clamps, haha. These 3/4" pieces don't lay as flat as I'd like, but I think the next one will glue up better as it is bowed in the right direction. This one was backwards with the crown in the middle and the tails out from the bench. I can get a 1-3/4" x 11" x 40" piece of alder for my leg vice, i'm thinking about doing that and maybe laminated a piece of cherry to the face to match the faces of the top. Do you guys think it would be thick enough on it's own or should I plan on laminating something to it? I just feel like it should be 2" at least but I have never been around a leg vise before so I have no frame of reference. Thanks for dropping by and checking my progress hope to have more for your all soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted April 20, 2015 Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 Total bummer about the condition of the wood. Are you just stuck with it or can you get some better pieces? Coming from someone without a leg vise, I also thing 1 3/4 to 2" to be a nice strong piece. I also use tb3 almost exclusively. a few bucks more but worth it to me. Where in CA ate you located? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted April 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 Total bummer about the condition of the wood. Are you just stuck with it or can you get some better pieces? Coming from someone without a leg vise, I also thing 1 3/4 to 2" to be a nice strong piece. I also use tb3 almost exclusively. a few bucks more but worth it to me. Where in CA ate you located? I had to special order it so I'm pretty well stuck with it, had to pay before I ordered plus they are about 35 miles away. I pretty much just learned one more place I can't get decent lumber from. I had a bad feeling when they didn't want to speak in terms of 4/4 6/4 8/4 and wanted to talk in nominal sizes. I did get a couple of really nice 2x6's which is what I was hoping for when I ordered clear KD lumber but oh well, I'm getting good at getting the most out of junk lumber at this point with only having one sizeable knot in the top of my bench. I'm about halfway between Bakersfield and Fresno in a small town called Porterville. There isn't much around as far as lumber goes any more. There are plenty of places around to get softwoods as we're really close to the forest but no hardwoods near. I even have a buddy that used to run a cogeneration plant at a sawmill and he can hook me up with woods directly from the sawmill but again I think it will be mostly pine/ fir. The worst part about the home stores is that I can only get 3/4" stock, they have virtually nothing thicker in hardwoods. My local HD has mahogany, cherry, some black walnut, oak (i really dislike oak though as it is everywhere around here and has huge pores), poplar and lots of pine. I think the nearest woodcraft is a couple hours away but it may be worth a trip sometime just to check it out. If I added a 3/4" thk. plank to the face of the alder that would put me at 2.1/2" which may be a bit excessive, but then again isn't the whole workbench kind of excessive? haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted April 20, 2015 Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 I know it's about two and a half hours away but if you ever need great (not good) lumber at really good prices. Drive on down to Bonhoff Lumber in Los Angeles. I happily drive 1.5 hours south to get there. They are a full service yard that caters big users but also really like helping out smaller buyers. They stock thousands of board feet of most of the normal woods. the yard boss "happy" is happy to up stack/down stack as many pallets as you need to pick through to get what you need. They have weird hours but I highly recommend it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FtrPilot Posted April 21, 2015 Report Share Posted April 21, 2015 ............. I can get a 1-3/4" x 11" x 40" piece of alder for my leg vice, i'm thinking about doing that and maybe laminated a piece of cherry to the face to match the faces of the top. Do you guys think it would be thick enough on it's own or should I plan on laminating something to it? I just feel like it should be 2" at least but I have never been around a leg vise before so I have no frame of reference. Thanks for dropping by and checking my progress hope to have more for your all soon. The benchcrafted plans call for the crisscross mortises, in the leg and the chop, to be 1 7/16 deep. I believe that 1 3/4" would not be thick enough. Thanks for sharing your experiences and posting pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted April 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2015 So I was playing with different benchtop heights and realized I kept getting stuff on the top, namely some black stuff off of the larger board. So I decided to give it a quick sanding, it is a benchtop I have to remind myself, and put a couple coats of danish oil on it. I figure if the Schwarz says it's OK it will work just fine for me. I must say I'm quite happy with the cherry stick I brought home from home depot. Check it out: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted April 22, 2015 Report Share Posted April 22, 2015 Pretty sweet dude. I like it. You've come a long ways! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted April 22, 2015 Report Share Posted April 22, 2015 Very nice man. I particularly appreciate that you did all the flattening by hand. That mound of shavings would have been fun to burn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted April 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2015 Well, progress has slowed a bit recently I had a busy weekend and got a new shop helper! He's a 14 mo old GSD (mostly, think he may have some husky or something too) but he is getting used to his new home and found a nice soft spot to lie down while I tinker. Cant let him off leash completely yet but we're getting there. He's able to be on a rope that isn't tied to anything at this point. So back to the progress, I dug out all of my wood and marked out my rough cuts for my legs. I barely had enough lumber with all the wane that was missing from a lot of my boards. Still trying to decide between the woodworker and the ultimate cut-off 12" miter saw blades to make the cuts with my dewalt compound miter saw. Also noticing that I'm in dire need of cleaning my garage. Maybe dog and I will do that a bit this evening. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FtrPilot Posted April 29, 2015 Report Share Posted April 29, 2015 Excellent progress...thanks for sharing. Now to the important stuff...congrats on your pup...you failed to mention his name. Perhaps you haven't given him a name yet...if so, whatever you do, don't name him 3-putt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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