Workbench progress part 1

[Kiwi Dust Mite]

What follows is a part by part commentary on the new workbench I have under construction. This set of posts is a copy of my posting on the Australian forums and I have put them here for you pleasure as well so enjoy and any feedback is always welcome.

Winter is almost upon us and so is my next workshop project.

As I have just finished doing another easel for a client, I have a little more free time.

Recently I was given a number of 300 & 400 x 75mm Oregan Pine beams. They are about 4 metres long and over the last weeked I dressed up some 40 x 50 and 75 x 75 lenghts for the main frame for the new workbench.

The bench will be fairly close to this design http://www.workbenchdesign.net/details.html

After much thought I have decided on a top made from laminated mdf. 3 x 18mm sandwich covered with a removable layer of 6mm hardboard.

As I regularly spill glue and drill pieces on my workbench I decided to opt for a top made from modern replaceable pieces.

The whole top will be framed with 40 x 65 Rimu milled from current wood in the carport.

So far this project has cost me nothing. I was given 3 antique bench vises two of which I will be using, the Rimu and Oregan was donated by my friendly joiner, the only cost will be for bolts and the mdf and hardboard.

All in all I hope to have a new workbench ready to go for under $100.00
NZ.

Once that is done I will settle on a design for the cabinet for underneath. Probably a combination of Drawers and cupboards.

I will hopefully have some piccys up on the weekend for you all to comment on.

[Kiwi Dust Mite]

Part 2

Well as promised I have a few piccys to start things off.

The first couple are of the raw material. They are 350 and 300 mm x 75mm Oregan pine beams. Demoed from somewhere in Auckland.

The next shots are of the milled and dressed wood. The mortices have been done and one end frame sanded and assembled.

The morticed are 40mm deep and 16mm wide for the small one s and 125mm x 16mm x 40mm deep for the lower rails.

There will be one top rail that connects to the smaller upper rails, this will be bolted in with end hanger brackets.

The top will be attached via cross members bolted to the top rails.

This bench has been designed to have the underneath cabinet made as part of the structure of the overall bench. Rigidity should not be a problem.







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[Kiwi Dust Mite]

Part 3

Well as promised I was a busy little beaver in the workshop last weekend.

Have now got the main frame assembled and glued up. The mortices have all had a 12mm dowel pin, slightly offset, inserted through them to lock the joins in place.

The strengthening divider will be fitted between the two main rails to stop warp and to supply more strength for the base of the cabinet.

While I was gluing all this up I came upon a problem. I dont have bar or pipe clamps long enought to clue the frame up. The overalll length of the frame is 1500mm. My T-bar clamps are only 1200mm. Whats a poor boy to do...

Light bulb moment

Take the slides off the bars, sit the bars end for end, apply 25mm tubes with 8mm bolts through them and voila!! 2 x 2 two metre long clamps, one for each of the frames rails. I can vary the lenght of these clamps simply by locating the bolts where needed. I assume this wasnt an original idea...but it sure saved the day

The pictures included show what I did and the finished frame standing on the sawtable.

[Kiwi Dust Mite]

Part 4

Well due to lousy weather and being too cold to work in the shed things slowed down some what.

However as we have had a couple of milder weekends of late the creative juices have been at work.

As you know I have a new workbench under construction. Well the basic frame was done about 6 or 7 weeks back. This weekend past I was able to start work on the bench top.

I was planning to make the top out of 3 layers of 18mm mdf with a 6mm hardboard insert on the top, but after pricing the mdf....gawd its expensive, I dug out of the woodrack four 250 x 50 mm x 2 metre lenghts of Oregan Pine.

I rough cut it down to 60 x 50 with the finished to be 45 x 55 dressed. The top will be 620mm deep and have a 65 x 45 rimu border all round to finish it off. I have now glued up the parts to the top. They are each 310 mm wide. Just the right size for my thicknesser.

The top is 10 pieces of Oregan Pine with a rimu outer. This was glued up over the weekended into the two halves.

Tonight after work I unclamped the two sections and fed them through the thicknesser, about .5mm passes three times and one 1mm pass on the underside as well. The two parts have now been dry fitted together and sanded to an even finish.

Next will be the two end pieces on rimu to finsh the top and the underside runners will be fitted.

All going well I should have the top finished in a week or two and be able to fit the hardware and drill out the dog holes. I wont do the holes until I am sure about the vice positioning.

Well thas about it for the workbench for now. I will post some piccies shortly in the mean time, happy sawdust making

Well as promised here a photo or two showing progress on the benchtop







Once the glue had dried the two halves were fed throught the thicknesser and sized, then sanded to a 280 grit finished.

Any thoughts on what sort of coating I should use to finished the top with?

The underside will be sealed with poly to seal the wood but for the worksurface I was thinking maybe a satin finish poly or wood a natural oil type finish be better.

[Kiwi Dust Mite]

Part 5

Well the past weekend saw the rest of the top for the workbench machined and assembled.

And tonight after work I planed, sanded and gave it its first coat of clear gloss polyurethane.

I was happy with the resulting color tone of the two timber types. Looks kinda pretty too or so the wife tells me

So without further ado some piccys for you
Pretty much all straight forward stuff.

This photos is very close to the actual color tone of the wood.



And this photos shows the variation in grain of the Oregan Pine with the Rimu border





The end pieces are glued, screwed and dowel pinned. This was done to ensure good rigidity as the ends of the bench will see a lot of clamp work over time.




Even after one coat the gloss finish shows. The top will get a minimum of three coats and most likely will get a yearly sand and a wipe on coat , just to keep it fresh.





Once the first coat has hardened off the dog holes will be added and the vise gear prefitted. Once thats done the top will be fixed to the base.

[bigsteel15]

Beautiful bench.
What is that Rimu like to work? Sure is nice looking wood.

Edit:
Was it rude for me to interrupt this thread? If so, I'm really sorry

[Kiwi Dust Mite]

No its not rude I invite comments as often as possible. Feedback is one of the things that tells me if I'm on the right track with this kind of project.

The Rimu is a really nice timber to use for furniture. It varies in density depending on the cut. Generally the sapwood is lighter in shade and weight with the really dense heartwood being a lot heavier and darker. You will note that one side of the edging on the bench is much lighter than the rest. Thats the color difference I was refering to.

Almost always well air dried Rimu needs to be predrilled before screwing and in a lot of cases this also applies to nailing as well. Especially if the nails are under 3 inch.

It has a carconogenic dust that you need to avoid according to the safety people. Personally it annoys me and others mostly because it makes you sneeze something terrible.

It is however a lovely wood to work with. Putting a rough piece through my thicknesser sees it come out good enough to sand directly with 180 or 240 sandpaper. So long as your knives are sharp.

I predominatly use the Rimu in the base of the easels I make as it adds both weight and character to the finished product.

I used to work (25yrs ago) in a native sawmill here. We were always getting fresh Rimu logs from a local forest for milling. There was many a time a truck would come in and have a part log on, 25 feet long and 10 to 15 in diameter. Getting them on to the break down skids was a winching mission all on its own. Then we would either halve or quarter the logs depending on its size, before breaking them down further in decent sized fliches.

Without a doubt the hardest job I have ever had to do was to "Tail Out " on a mill benchsaw. Those of you who have been in a mill or worked in one will know what I mean. A wet fresh sawn 6 x 2 @ 15 feet long could easily weight 75 pounds if it was heartwood and the fliches themselves were 300 to 400 pounds depending on size and cut. I've done a lot of manual labour (still do ) in my life but nothing as ardous as that. Anywhos enuff ranting from ...your turn folks