Finally underway with my workbench...

[dbhost]

First things first, pics coming soon...

As you may recall, one of my ongoing projects I am squeezing in is a woodworking workbench based on the Fine Woodworking Start Woodworking design, but modified some...

The materials are in, most of the tools, bits and blades are here, and those that are missing are on their way, more on that in a sec...

The rails / spreaders are cut, and dadoed, the legs are cut, the top pieces are cut, and the bottom marked for the drill holes. The top is one of the places I am varying a LARGE amount from the FWW plans. Instead of 24" x 62" my layers to glue up are 24" x 72", So I will have 12" overhang on both ends, instead of 10" one end, and 4" the other...

Instead of the MDF top as shown in the video, I chose to use cabinet grade BB ply from the Borg.

The edge banding material has yet to be cut or mitered. I am using 4/4 Rift Sawn Red Oak that I sourced from a friend's stash. (He traded for some Pecan I got for free that I had milled on the band saw and was drying in the attic...).

I am adding shelf cleats for the lower shelf so that it sits flush with the 2x4, and am still trying to source the S-clips for the top.

That same red oak will make the vise jaw pads...

I found the 3/8" washers just over 1", which is the largest size my Porter Cable Forstner bit set went to, and the lack of size choices in that bit set finally ticked me off enough to finally buy the set I have been looking at. The Grizzly H7694 31 piece set. Not ultra fancy, but I have seen it talked about here and there, and it is another excuse to get exposed to Grizzly products, to see if they are any good or not...

Anyway, the legs are marked for drilling locations, the all thread is cut, and chased. Once the counterbores and pilot holes are drilled, and everything is sanded, it all goes together, and gets a couple of coats of Boiled Linseed Oil and wax...

The height of this bench has been set to be just 1/8" below that of the BT, so that it will act as an outfeed for the saw...

In all honesty the stock I am using is less than ideal, but it is the best I have been able to source locally within a reasonable price... I completely scrapped the idea of using the Hurricane Ike debris 4x4s as I started getting kind of nervous about keeping that old PT stuff in my shop...And untreated 4x4s are next to impossible to find around here. McCoys has them, but they are less than perfect. (knots, small spits etc...) I am working around the imperfections as best I can...

I will post progress and the completed project here as soon as possible. Hopefully I will have pics soon...

[cgallery]

Looking forward to some pics and more write-up. Keep it coming!

[pelligrini]

Cool, having a nice bench is a good feeling.
What kind of vises are you going with?

Most 4x4s I've seen are pretty awful to use for woodworking. Pithyful stuff I ended up ripping up 2x12s and a few 2x10s for my bench. Sorting through the 16' 2x12s at the borg was a lot of fun.

[Richard in Smithville]

Wow-even I'm getting excited about seeing your bench. Looking foward to progress pics.

[dbhost]

Keeping with my bang for the buck theme, the vise is a Central Forge 9" Quick Release model.I was looking at a Groz 9" Rapid Action vise, but, and I know this is going to sound odd, but the Central Forge unit I grabbed seemed to be better cast / machined. (less junk around the seams, better milled faces etc...) and the price was less than half with the sale and 20% off coupon. I think regular price on them is something like $60.00, I got mine on sale for $47.00 minus 20% coupon so it rung up about $43.00 after taxes... Not a big deal..

Yeah 4x4s aren't exactly ideal, but it's what the plan called for... I was getting awfully close to doing this with laminated 2x4s to make the 4x4s...

Had a busy day with other stuff, hopefully will make some progress tomorrow when I get home from work...

[Larryl]

Sounds like you are moving right along with your bench and have put alot of thought into price vs usability. I think red oak for the wear areas and pine for the structure will serve you well and you will probably be able to pass it on to your grandchildren. However, since you have not posted any progress pictures I have my doubt it it really exist!

[dbhost]

Since you asked... But at this point, it's not much to look at...


Legs (in the plastic to keep them from twisting while I wait for the forstner bits to come in),


The birch ply ready to be drilled and laminated for the top...

[dbhost]

Not much shop time tonight. A pity really, the weather is beautiful, not too hot, nice breeze, great day to throw the garage doors open and plug away at a project... But in the VERY brief time I did have in the shop I was able to get the holes and countersinks drilled. I messed up and used too small of a drill bit and had to redrill all the holes. No biggie, just a stupid math mistake on reading the caliper and converting decimal SAE to fractions... Hey I'm no engineer for a reason...

I got both sides of the ply with the countersink so that the screw heads do sit flush, AND that the bottom face gets cleaned up...

I was going to wait to do the glue up until tomorrow night, but I simply couldn't wait, and LOML is watching a chick flick... so it's in glue and drying as I type... I have checked my distances for the vise and I have a little bit of a problem... The spacer block needs to be 1-1/32" to bring the vise just flush. Now the problem I have is I have 23/32" ply scrap, as well as 15 / 32" scrap to make the mount block from. The lamination those would produce would be I guess 5/32" too tall. Would that be too much? I don't think so, but who knows?

Hopefully I can get started on the edge banding by maybe Thursday or so. And depending on how soon my forstner bits come in drill those counter bores and get the legs done, including the dowel holes, finally get it all sanded, and ready to finish...

Lots more work to go, Hoping it will at least start to take shape soon!

[dbhost]

Pic of the top glued up...

[pelligrini]

I was going to wait to do the glue up until tomorrow night, but I simply couldn't wait, and LOML is watching a chick flick... so it's in glue and drying as I type... I have checked my distances for the vise and I have a little bit of a problem... The spacer block needs to be 1-1/32" to bring the vise just flush. Now the problem I have is I have 23/32" ply scrap, as well as 15 / 32" scrap to make the mount block from. The lamination those would produce would be I guess 5/32" too tall. Would that be too much? I don't think so, but who knows?

It probably depends on how you're going to use the vice. I like having the top of my jaws flush with the top of the bench so I can use the dog in the vice. There are 3/4" bench dog holes in line with my face vice too.

I mounted my 9" Wilton so the top of the metal jaws were about a 1/2" below the top of my bench. I also morticed it into the front face of the bench and made some larger wood jaws. I also had to make a taller dog, but I was already going to change out the metal one for wood anyways. I am really glad I made the vise jaw liners flush with the front of my bench. I can clamp long boards on both the face vice and the leg vise on the other end. The whole length of the board will be against the bench edge face as well.

I lost a little overall depth on the face vice mounting it that way and with the jaw liners, but it was worth it.

[dbhost]

I may be at the point of splitting hairs with this though. 1/16" really isn't anything in the grand scheme of things...

I am planning on 1.25" thick faces for the front jaw.

I have no plans for a leg vise at this point.

FWIW, the Wilton 7" vise is staying put on the old workbench. That will be the subject of another project. I am planning on shortening the length of it, and making an overhead shelf sort of deal since this is a wall bench, mount the peg board directly to the bench... The Central Forge vise is a Quick Release model, where the Wilton I own is a very simple plain screw model.