Bench Top Question

[Bombarde16]

Here's the final product.

Nice kanna collection.

[Bombarde16]

Actually, I use the tracksaw to edge joint boards

Something I wish I'd thought of when I did this. When a top gets to be this big and this heavy, it's a lot easier to bring a handheld tool to the work than to horse the work up onto a stationary tool.

Oh well, we'll do it that way next time.

[SoonerMatt]

Paralell clamps are better suited for this type of glue up. F-style always bow with a modicum of pressure. Also the better the joinery, the less pressure needed. :)

[gerryswo]

With regard to the bench top question my concern follows the thread about the planing of the individual pieces before gluing. For one who has yet to master the hand plane and who does not have a jointer/planer how can I make sure the mating pieces will fit snugly together. I have a surface planer that I intended to use make the top flat, but I'm not too sure what to do with the edges.

[dryhter]

The workbench sure isn't what it seems.

Oh yeah a place to do work for sure but it is also a testament to the woodworkers skill and desire to personalize his/her craft. Hours of planning, selecting materials, sweating all the details, critiquing and second guessing every step,wanting everything just so. Before the bench is even done, thinking to yourself, " I think I am going to try this on the next one.".

That was me about two years ago and just like PickeringMike I had questions about the glue up and gaps and a hundred more. I decided to make a video of the process of building my bench. Here is a LINK to my Blog page here at woodtalkonline. This is the first of about nine hours of video.

Help is just a question away, here at woodtalkonline!

Dave

[protectedvoid]

That's approximately how I glue up panels, but I do it without the preliminary glue up. It's common for Festool tracksaw users (now DeWalt and Makita, too?) Here's how:

Put the first 2 boards side by side with a small gap smaller than the kerf of your blade.

Lay down the guiderail showing just a little of the leftmost board (kerf gap is to right).

Plunge and cut. Even if the blade isn't perfectly 90° to the guiderail, it won't matter as the angles are complimentary.

Push the boards together and use a fine pencil to mark a couple registration lines.

Put board 1 aside, repeat above for boards 2 and 3.

Works very quickly. Only caveat is to use a good blade that doesn't leave kerf marks everywhere. Slight marks aren't a problem.

Actually, I use the tracksaw to edge joint boards (face joint on a planer sled if necessary or just successive skip planing). So much faster and you can put the guide exactly where you want the edge; useful when the grain is skew to the long dimension.

I imagine you could do this with a fence / standard circular saw as well by clamping your pieces in place to piece of MDF with a channel open for the blade on the thru cut? Which leads me to the next question. For a standard 7 1/4 circular saw, what tooth blade would you recommend for cutting Hard Maple / Cherry? I had to cut my pieces in multiple passes, since it was 6/4 thick...but I'm not sure the blade I was using was the best one.

[PaulMarcel]

Absolutely you could use a fence with your circular saw. Doesn't require a fancy tracksaw (unless of course you are looking for that excuse to buy one)

A ripping blade will work best for you; low tooth count. For example, I used my TS-75 to edge 6/4 maple last month and it definitely was working the saw; my saw only has a universal (read: combination) blade so that makes a difference. If I had a Panther blade (Festool rip blade), it would have been easier on the motor and faster.

I don't have a 7 1/4" saw so I don't have much of a recommendation. There is this Bosch blade that is a rip configuration with flat-top grind on it. The thicker blade and that grind would seem to give a clean cut on both surfaces. By comparison, the Panther blade has 14 teeth and ATB grind.

Ideally for this jointing effort, you'd want to get it in one pass. Any movement or discontinuity from one pass to the other will result in gaps somewhere.

[mlehikoinen]

The only problem with trying to joint with a track saw is the cutting depth. My bench is 2 3/8" thick and the track saw only cuts up to 2" deep. I think a jointed or hand tools would be the way to go.

For my particular problem, I ended up filling the voids with epoxy.

[protectedvoid]

Absolutely you could use a fence with your circular saw. Doesn't require a fancy tracksaw (unless of course you are looking for that excuse to buy one)

A ripping blade will work best for you; low tooth count. For example, I used my TS-75 to edge 6/4 maple last month and it definitely was working the saw; my saw only has a universal (read: combination) blade so that makes a difference. If I had a Panther blade (Festool rip blade), it would have been easier on the motor and faster.

I don't have a 7 1/4" saw so I don't have much of a recommendation. There is this Bosch blade that is a rip configuration with flat-top grind on it. The thicker blade and that grind would seem to give a clean cut on both surfaces. By comparison, the Panther blade has 14 teeth and ATB grind.

Ideally for this jointing effort, you'd want to get it in one pass. Any movement or discontinuity from one pass to the other will result in gaps somewhere.

You have to love Amazon. I think there's a 14-tooth Freud I can pick up locally that's very similar to the Bosch. I also have the Bosch 1617 Router and a spiral upcut bit that I could also use with my fence. Given the two options, I'll probably use the router, and still pick up the blade for my saw for the remaining cuts.

I also have a combination blade on the saw, 40 tooth, I believe. I just made sure to take it slow and not force the saw too much. It's one of the nicer Skil saws...but I have seriously considered upgrading to the Makita track saw...though I would love to be able to get the Festool TS-75, I just couldn't justify the cost at this point. If I was making a living by it, it'd be a different story.

Anyway, thanks for the reply.

[Autorotate]

Thanks for the question PickeringMike. I just finished rough cutting my boards for my workbench in a few weeks once my boards dry Im going to start glueing up my top. how about some more pics. would love to see your bench in progress

[cts1085]

Ya gotta love this forum - fantastic ideas from people who have learned from experience!

[DeanJackson]

Clamps:

My Jorgy's have a polyurethane-coated wood handle... that slips in my hand if I'm really, really trying to squeeze something hard. The Bessey's I've tried have the rubber grip that seems to work better for me.

Haven't had a chance to try the Jets, but it sounds worth a shot.