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Building Workbench

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yo1dog:
After a busy year, I finally have the time and weather to resume working on the bench.

The top is made from 24 laminated ~1.25x4" boards. I first made 6 beams by gluing up 4 boards each. I glued and jointed the beams back in January and then they sat untouched for most of the year. I was curious how much the cheap builder's grade SYP with somewhat high moisture content (compared to the good kiln dried stuff) would move. Turns out not much when glued up. They were defiantly twisted and out of square, but I think the largest offset was ~1/4". I was careful to arrange the boards with opposing internal stress. Some of the unglued/unused boards warped substantially.

I re-jointed the 6 beams, glued up 3 beams each into the two halves, then glued the two halves into the final top. I flattened the bottom using a sled and a router. This method worked really well and got it dead flat (less than 1 card thickness at lowest point). I wasn't careful enough on my first attempt and quickly realized I was cutting too deep and taking off more material than I wanted. You can see this mistake in the pictures bellow. I'll flatten the top the same way once I get in on legs.

Next up is the legs. They are made from laminating 5 ~1.25x4" boards. They are all glued up and ready for jointing.

yo1dog:
More pics.

wp34:
This is a cool project. I like the care you took in laying out and glueing the planks.

How long did it take you to run the sled over the bottom?

By the way Pokemon cards are notoriously known for being out of level.  ;D

yo1dog:

--- Quote from: wp34 on November 27, 2019, 07:22:04 am ---By the way Pokemon cards are notoriously known for being out of level.  ;D

--- End quote ---

Pretty sure Pokemon cards are still "on the level". ;)

I don't remember where I saw that playing card trick, but it's a good one. Standard playing cards are usually ~1/64" thick so you can try shoving some cards under various points of the level to quickly gauge how far off you are.



--- Quote from: wp34 on November 27, 2019, 07:22:04 am ---How long did it take you to run the sled over the bottom?

--- End quote ---

I probably spent 30 minutes setting up the guide rails (the second time) and an hour with the router. May have been less than that but felt long. I used a 3/4" bit. Some people use large 2" surfacing/bottom cleaning bits which I'm sure is faster. But that seemed like too much bit for my hand held 12amp router even with the light (max 1/8" deep) passes I was making. Plus Woodcraft wanted $80 for it, though it was a nice Whiteside bit. Also, the wider the bit the more slight offsets are magnified resulting in a deeper "wave" pattern requiring more sanding/scraping.

You can buy/build jigs but I just jointed some 2x4 and clamped it to the side of the benchtop with some scrap wood in between as a spacer. When aligning the rails I set the clamping pressure to be strong enough to hold them in place yet allow me to make small adjustments. I used my long bubble level to ensure the two rails were flat and coplanar (doesn't matter if they are actually level). I used my adjustable square to find the low point and then position the rails to remove the least amount possible from each corner to ensure I would make the lightest passes and keep the most thickness. It was a lot of adjust, check, adjust, check, ... but it turned out great. I was probably picker than I needed to be.

wp34:
I'd like to build one of these someday and appreciate your detailed posts.

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