Another Sellers MkII bench build & new workshop! Project #2

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DBT85

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Location
Pershore, Worcester
Finally I have gotten around to settling in to my workshop at home. A room indoors in the warm where I can close the door and not make a mess in the dining room or kitchen trying to do odd jobs like making a dining table!

Coming in at about 3m x 4m with built in cupboards at one end not digging in to that space, it should be more than enough to get me going. If in time I feel it's a worthwhile expense I'll move out into the cold and build a workshop in the garden.

Anyway. I learned a lot while making my dining table using mostly using a circular saw and a table saw outside. Incidentally, it still isn't finished and by the end of the year could well be almost completely rebuilt to fix some issues (racking, bowed top) (hammer).

Since then, I like many have taken a liking to Mr Sellers presence on Youtube and with a list of projects I want to do already lined up, I figured the best place to start was with a bench from which to work. He recently started a new MkII workbench build series so that's the plan I'll be following with some minor adjustments. A range of additional tools to my collection were eBayed late last year to give me the router, filletster and plough plane suggested to help out in this and later projects, along with a bunch of other bits.

Sellers plan was made with both imperial and metric measurements for his acolytes across the globe and I'll be going metric, though due to the available sizes of some boards I've done a model of what I'll be doing to help me out as I've adjusted dimensions slightly.

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Legs will be cut about 50mm longer than spec as I all too often find that worktops and such are too low for me to stand at comfortably. I'd rather go long and cut it down than go short.

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The worktop will have 1 extra lamination in (because I have it, so why not?) and in total ends up about 55mm wider than spec, while also being about 50mm longer again just because it's there so why not use it.

Wood for this project has come from Davies Timber in Birmingham. All ordered online because a) it'd cost me a tenner in fuel and at least 90 mins to get there, buy it and get back b) I got a new car a week ago and don't want it getting manked up yet c)I wanted a sheet of ply too and have no way of getting it home. Website is easy to use and clear for your prices. Previously I've used Avon Timber in Coventry who were ok too. Davies do charge me £36 for delivery while Avon do it for free if your order is over £100. As it happens, the material from Davies came to £161.36 + £36 delivery, Avon wanted £175.84, delivery included.

Final order list is all PAR redwood so these sizes are nominal, not finished. Cost of timber alone is £161.36.

4x 50mm x 75mm x 3.6m for the top
1x 25mm x 150mm x 3.6m for the wellboard
2x 50mm x 150mm x 3.6m for the aprons
1x 50mm x 150mm x 3.6m for the rails
1x 75mm x 100mm x 4.2m for the legs
1x 50mm x 100mm x 2.4m for the bearers

Will try to take lots of pics to post along with my experiences while doing it.


Before I can get to that, I need to make a couple of saw horses as the plastic ones I have probably aren't going to last too long if I start pounding on them. Some 50mm x 100mm and 50mm x 75mm CLS timber was ordered to solve the issue of sawhorses using Mattias Wandle's simple yet robust design.

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With those complete I can get a quick sharpening plate made up within which to put my plates and a strop.

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With all this, my workshop needs a bit of a wipe down from dust and grime and then a quick lick of paint to remove the "bare room that's been full of rubbish" feel. Pics and updates to follow!
 
Good luck! Funnily enough I forgot to mention that in my thread but I also increased the leg length slightly, not quite as much as you're going for, around 25mm, but I also like a higher surface as my back all too easily gives me problems. Hence my bandsaw choice too.

One thought: my initial trial sharpening plate holder had the strop at the end like yours, but I found two small flaws:
1) that it was handier to be able to access the long edge of both the coarse and the finest plates for quick touching up to things like router plane blades, and with a strop in the way this couldn't be done.
2) the water/glass cleaner fluid used to wet the plates made the double sided tape holding the leather to the strop board lose its adhesive qualities.

All depends what you're planning to do with it. In the end I went for the three plate holder and a separate strop.
 
NickN":3kn9wnqj said:
Good luck! Funnily enough I forgot to mention that in my thread but I also increased the leg length slightly, not quite as much as you're going for, around 25mm, but I also like a higher surface as my back all too easily gives me problems. Hence my bandsaw choice too.

One thought: my initial trial sharpening plate holder had the strop at the end like yours, but I found two small flaws:
1) that it was handier to be able to access the long edge of both the coarse and the finest plates for quick touching up to things like router plane blades, and with a strop in the way this couldn't be done.
2) the water/glass cleaner fluid used to wet the plates made the double sided tape holding the leather to the strop board lose its adhesive qualities.

All depends what you're planning to do with it. In the end I went for the three plate holder and a separate strop.

Ahh ok I hadn't thought about point 1 Nick. My plan was to copy another youtuber and basically put a screw or two through the leather near the top since I'll only use it on the pull stroke anyway and that way it wouldn't come unstuck like the tape. Might have a rethink though. I suppose I can make it as planned and just lop the side with the stop off if I feel it's not working properly.

Just returned home from 4 shifts down in London, finished at 7 this morning so now tjhe plan is to stay awake, help with the baby and try and attack the workshop before my timber arrives!
 
Progress on day 1.

At the time of writing I've been awake for 26.5 hours, done a shift at work, driven 120 miles home and then attacked my workshop with as much gusto as I can while also trying to help out with the little one.

First up, here's my workshop in its current state.

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A bit of time later and the windows are sorted and all the skirting has been sanded and cleaned. Now my shop doesn't look grimy at least. I'm only doing the whole room white to clean it up a bit, in time it'll be decorated as a room once I've been banished.

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Also good news is that my timber from Davies Timber arrived safe and sound with a little more than I expected.

For one reason or another I've ended up with 2.7m of 50x150mm PAR redwood, and 0.6m of 75x100mm PAR redwood extra. I'm not complaining though it did mean I had to cut some timbers down today just to get them into the house! That extra wood has made up for the delivery charge when compared to buying it all from Avon Timber and getting it delivered free.

Also what was nice to see was that this lot doesn't have any crush on some corners where it had been strapped down, something I did have from Avon.

I will say having never had any Elliotis Pine Plywood I didn't know quite what to expect. Full and even layers it is not. No bother for the purposes I intended though.

So now I have wood.
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Tomorrow a care package arrives from Amazon with some essentials and in the meantime I'll be getting a few coats on the woodwork while I make up my sawhorses and possibly my sharpening plate if time allows.
 
No chance to get at the timber today, though I got a solid 2 coats on the woodwork in the workshop, apart from the windowsill in which I did the usual "oh poop I forgot the windowsill" the first time round :oops: .

Also got 2 coats on the ceiling so that's largely finished now, thank christ. I hate painting a 99% white ceiling with its second coat if I've not got plenty of light to show me whats wet! A bit of filling and touching up to do but that's it. Already looking so much better in there.

With luck tomorrow might see some fettling of wood which is what we're all really waiting for, however I'll be satisfied if all I get done is painting of the 3 walls and another coat on the woodwork. Will set me up nicely for Thursday!

Might need to look at a nice bright LED strip or two to put up. Currently an off centre ceiling rose and some wires hanging out of the wall are all I have.
 
best of luck with it, you will be surprised at how easy it is, I'll be looking forward to seeing the bench complete!

another thing is you may want to have the strop seperate from your sharpening stones.
 
Day 5.

Success I have finally done some woodwork. 6 saw cuts, 6 screws driven and 6 holes drilled!

It's been a busy few days so I lost a few hours here and there, however, the painting is done, 2x 36w LED Aurolite 4ft lights arrived and installed (Amazon, £30 each, 2800 lumen, 6000 kelvin). Light shall not problem.

A nice clean workshop ready to see some action. So much nicer than just this Monday.
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I've changed the type of sawhorse I'm making to one that just keeps it simple, an I beam on legs.

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New arrivals are a Bosch GSB 12v-15 drill/driver to go with its bigger 18v brother I already had (tired of changing bits), and a cheapo Silverline 350w drill press which I was quite surprised had alloy pulleys as I'm sure I read they were plastic. Anyway, it'll do for my purposes.
 
Already looks much more like a workshop, you've been busy there! Nice bright daylight LEDs are one of the best things I decided to put in my workshop, as I don't have windows it makes it much more bearable too.
 
It feels it too! So much more inviting that before. Bloody glad to see the back of the painting. Finally the very last room of the house has been decorated!
 
Some minor progress. It's quite incredible how much life can get in the way!

Horses are done and stable.
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My plastic horses are now a makeshift drinks station and useful tool bench while working.
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A sheet of 18mm cheap ply, used for my sharpening plate and then as a makeshift worktop while I actually make the damned thing. Everything seemed stable as at one point all 116KG of me was kneeling on the top cutting the board!
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Plate marked up and knifewall started for routing. Left it long at the saw marks to trim once planes are sharp.

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So my days off work have come to an end and I'd not got as much done as I'd liked. Such is life with a 6 month old.

I did, however, just about finish my sharpening plate before I packed up last night.

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Strop just secured with a couple of screws since its pull strokes only. If I find it a pain I can always separate the strop part from the main part at a later date.
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Had to plane some sawn wood to make the bar to go in that groove. It ended up with square sides, but one end was narrower than the other. Not the end of the world. It fit the hole I'd made which is the important bit.

To do the work thus far I've only been using a very quickly (and only on the 1200) sharpened Lidl chisel to remove the burr that was there. That alone made a noticeable difference. The blade in my router was sharpened on all 3 stones, though it was my first time doing it. It again certainly made a difference.

My Record 071 also has no wooden sole so it was rocking around a little from time to time. Not a major issue for this project but certainly something to add to my to do list.

My biggest takeaway so far is that Elliotis Pine Plywood is not the stuff to buy to do something like this. It's stable enough but the 7 layers are quite thick, not at all complete as you can see in the photos and the glue layer is quite thick. But that's what comes with the price, it's not designed for this. The rest of the sheet will get used without too much trouble. Were I to do this part again I'd buy an offcut of birch ply from ebay or something.

Might be able to sharpen up and actually glue my top at the weekend. Keep 'em crossed.

Oh, and I asked my dad if he had a spare TV knocking around for me to put in my workshop for Plex/Netflix/Youtube while I'm in there. So he bought himself a new one and is giving me the 47" I gave him a year ago back. Possibly overkill, but free.
 
DBT85":t97ds6oe said:
Some minor progress. It's quite incredible how much life can get in the way!

Horses are done and stable.
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.........

I'll be interested to know how you get on with these. I use wooden horses all the time, and those low level braces would get in my way. They'd be a real nuisance. Conversely, you might develop the habit of putting your foot on them for extra stability, and feel this benefit outweighs the inconvenience of preventing you putting your foot where it would otherwise naturally go.
 
MikeG.":1wmbtb1a said:
DBT85":1wmbtb1a said:
I'll be interested to know how you get on with these. I use wooden horses all the time, and those low level braces would get in my way. They'd be a real nuisance. Conversely, you might develop the habit of putting your foot on them for extra stability, and feel this benefit outweighs the inconvenience of preventing you putting your foot where it would otherwise naturally go.

So far I've not been hampered by the braces. In fact just as you said, I've had my foot on the end ones to give it some stability when planing. However, I've not used them for anything more than what I've done so far. By the end of the workbench build I might well be cursing the braces.

For me, these are mostly just to help make the bench in the first place. After that they'll be used mostly to put a top on of some kind to put my pillar drill on and some other bits until such time as I need them for something else.

The only others I have are my 2 plastic ones. Just having these 2 wooden ones has made life easier by virtue of being able to clamp to them and them having a bit more heft to resist my actions.
 
DBT85":knk7xvss said:
Strop just secured with a couple of screws since its pull strokes only.
You must have better hand control than I do. I tend to move quite fast when stropping and I just know that I would regularly hit those screws with my tools, putting a nice nick in a freshly-honed cutting edge. Anyway I will be interested to hear how you get on with the strop oriented that way. I sharpen with a fore & aft motion but prefer to strop from left to right.
 
Just4Fun":246ehino said:
DBT85":246ehino said:
Strop just secured with a couple of screws since its pull strokes only.
You must have better hand control than I do. I tend to move quite fast when stropping and I just know that I would regularly hit those screws with my tools, putting a nice nick in a freshly-honed cutting edge. Anyway I will be interested to hear how you get on with the strop oriented that way. I sharpen with a fore & aft motion but prefer to strop from left to right.

Ahh another good point. I might put a small strip of wood across the top to sink the screws in if I think it's a problem. I'll likely end up doing the same as Nick and removing the strop and having it on a separate block from the stones but secured with contact adhesive.

I've never done any of this so I'm learning all the way. Tips like the ones you guys are throwing at me are all welcome and very useful!
 
DBT85":35dmlxe6 said:
My biggest takeaway so far is that Elliotis Pine Plywood is not the stuff to buy to do something like this. It's stable enough but the 7 layers are quite thick, not at all complete as you can see in the photos and the glue layer is quite thick.
I used a sheet of 18mm hardwood ply from B&Q for mine. Pretty nice to work on and hardly any gaps. That one sheet also yielded me some battens to reinforce all 12 of my 1500mm sash clamps and some pads to face the jaws with.
I still have a large piece left for several other projects, too!
 
Tasky":3130m13g said:
DBT85":3130m13g said:
My biggest takeaway so far is that Elliotis Pine Plywood is not the stuff to buy to do something like this. It's stable enough but the 7 layers are quite thick, not at all complete as you can see in the photos and the glue layer is quite thick.
I used a sheet of 18mm hardwood ply from B&Q for mine. Pretty nice to work on and hardly any gaps. That one sheet also yielded me some battens to reinforce all 12 of my 1500mm sash clamps and some pads to face the jaws with.
I still have a large piece left for several other projects, too!
An excellent use of the material in your clamps. Not sure this stuff would do for mine, but it might. Can't hurt to try. Only got 4x 900mm ones (also 4 1200mm but solid steel ones). Might be getting 4 more (maybe 1200) in toolstations valentine offer tho.

Did you use the full 18mm for pads or did you cut it down? I think I have some 9mm hardwood stuff here that I'll probably use for that job. That stuff came from Travis and was fine to work with for what I used it for which so far was only a bit of boxing in for pipework.

Interesting to see your B&Q sheet wasn't too bad, I think they are BB/CC graded. This one is a mere CC/CC but it was also only £23 and I can easily find uses for it befitting its less than ideal character.
 
DBT85":2tx9rpt4 said:
Did you use the full 18mm for pads or did you cut it down?
No no no noooooooo, dear boy, no!!!! :lol:
I cut them down.
Basically I cut 12 blocks to size for the jaws, then split them with a chisel to make paired halves, cleaned the faces up and then glued in place. Clamp to hold and leave for 24hrs... Then go clean the glue off your fingers before you stick your hand shut! :lol:
I know Sellers advocates double-sided tape these days, but I already had some Gorilla glue to hand.

DBT85":2tx9rpt4 said:
I think I have some 9mm hardwood stuff here that I'll probably use for that job.
You'll only need a few mm (as in 4-5) for the jaw faces, to stop the metal from marking whatever you're clamping, so 9mm is plenty for trimming and cleaning the faces up.

DBT85":2tx9rpt4 said:
Interesting to see your B&Q sheet wasn't too bad, I think they are BB/CC graded.
I actually haven't a clue about that side of things, yet. I only went with hardwood because of the other projects that would use it... which only use it at the insistence of the knows-better-than-me recipient.

One Newbie tip for anyone else using the Ultex stones, like me and DBT - Clamp the bastid things in place when you mark out your knifewalls, as the smooth underside means they *love* to slide around!! #-o
 
Tasky":3bj0tbim said:
No no no noooooooo, dear boy, no!!!! :lol:
I cut them down.
Basically I cut 12 blocks to size for the jaws, then split them with a chisel to make paired halves, cleaned the faces up and then glued in place. Clamp to hold and leave for 24hrs... Then go clean the glue off your fingers before you stick your hand shut! :lol:
I know Sellers advocates double-sided tape these days, but I already had some Gorilla glue to hand.

Ha I figured as much but I know some like to go a little OTT :lol: :lol:

I have neither gorilla glue or double sided tape. I do however have about 9.95m of sticky backed velco or "hoop and loop" as they are desperately trying to get people to call it. More than enough to hold some light bits of wood in place.

I only needed 5cm worth before but I begrudge paying £1 for 50cm worth on ebay when I can buy 10m for a fiver lol.

Tasky":3bj0tbim said:
One Newbie tip for anyone else using the Ultex stones, like me and DBT - Clamp the bastid things in place when you mark out your knifewalls, as the smooth underside means they *love* to slide around!! #-o

My dear fellow, you turn the plate upside down and the grippy bit holds in place on the wood! :D But yeah, they slip all over the shop otherwise.

Mine fit nicely and need a blow on the underside to release them, but they could still be neater than they are. As I said, first time doing anything like this and it's a sharpening plate. I'm more than happy with "It'll do" when required.
 
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