Sad story of my uneven bench top

[aebersold]

When I built my bench, after glue up I flattened it (beech) with a hand plane and straight edge within about .002” flatness. It’s hard going physically and when I’d finished I resembled a 5’4” version of Arnie. I think you can rely too much on the powertool approach, faff around making jigs, buying “stuff” and watching guys on YouTube that don’t make much, when the job could have been done quicker with hand tools and a bit of graft. Unless of course you were doing it on a regular basis and need to make money at it.

 

[Jacob]

These L shape aluminium profiles are flat and straight 1000 mm. I’ve tested them for flatness and they are very good. Perhaps a cheaper alternative to Veritas aluminium winding sticks.

The cheap alternative to Veritas winding sticks is to make a pair of your own out of any handy bits of scrap.
Nobody ever bought winding sticks in the past as they are amongst the simplest things any half competent woodworker could make.
At its simplest you find a straight bit of something or other and cut it in half to make two winding sticks.
Another big secret you won't find in a tool catalogue is that the best way to test for straightness is to look at the thing. Crouch down and squint over your bench from side to see how the edges line up, squint down the length to see how straight they are.
If your digital gadget shows up an error which you can't actually see, then throw the digital gadget away.
PS and whilst crouching you also squint along the diagonals! Move your head a bit as you do it.
PPS - winding sticks have to be straight and exactly same height to avoid error. If you have say 2 pieces of 3x1" then you'd use them either both on the narrow edge or both on the wide. If they approach squareness you need to make sure you use them the right way round, perhaps mark the top edge of each.

 

[fiddlerjon]

Exact flatness is not required in a workbench. As you use it, you are going to end up with bumps and scrapes which means your true flatness is going to be compromised from the start. Go for an APPROXIMATELY flat work surface. Ensure that the top surface of your vice is level with the surface of your bench.
Good luck, and don't fret over super accuracy - this is wood, not metal. work.
Jonathan

 

[Jacob]

Exact flatness is not required in a workbench. As you use it, you are going to end up with bumps and scrapes which means your true flatness is going to be compromised from the start. Go for an APPROXIMATELY flat work surface. Ensure that the top surface of your vice is level with the surface of your bench.
Good luck, and don't fret over super accuracy - this is wood, not metal. work.
Jonathan

Exactly. And the first workpiece you drop onto the bench is not likely to be flat itself (which you verify by looking at it) so the flatness of the bench doesn't matter at all.

 

[Ttrees]

Totally agree, nothing needs to be flat,
the same goes for your surface planer beds

Benches are for sticking chisels into, and cutting into with your handsaws

 

[SMALMALEKI]

I built few winding sticks and as they are all wooden they keep moving despite being oiled. Therefore I have a pit of handy aluminium fit back up. I didn’t have a well seasoned wood stable enough( I have some gifted to me which are super precious and not cut them yet) for lasting winding sticks.
now I have few piece of beechwood lying in my garage for second year and hopefully they should be ready for use.
My main confusion was in discrepancy between winding stick and digital angle finder( level).
it’s always beneficial to hear from experience though.

 

[Nigel Burden]

Totally agree, nothing needs to be flat,
the same goes for your surface planer beds

Benches are for sticking chisels into, and cutting into with your handsaws

You'd be horrified at my bench. It's only four feet by eighteen inches and is screwed to the frame of my 6x8 shed. It's been knocked together with whatever board I could lay my hands on. I flattened it last week as it does move being in an unheated wooden shed. It's flat enough that work doesn't move, but t now has a chunk out of it where it tore out near a knot. And yes it has chisel marks in it, and saw marks.

To be honest, I couldn't bring myself to use some of these very well finished benches for fear of ruining them. Richard Maguire made a bench that sold for £3800. May be ok if you a pro, but I'm just a hobby wood mangler.

Nigel.

 

[Jacob]

Totally agree, nothing needs to be flat,
the same goes for your surface planer beds

Er - not sure about that one!

Benches are for sticking chisels into, and cutting into with your handsaws

Does happen. Also it's handy to nail or screw temporary stops to a workbench.
This is my favourite Antique Brutalist Solid Beech Workbench might get around to copying it one day but would add a Record 52 1/2 vice

 

[Ttrees]

Two benches are handy to have, one for rough work and another for nice work.
One can have a thin top and be flipped over for metalwork or whatever...
though I doubt Smalmaleki will be using his bench for the likes of that.

I'm just a hobbyist also, and have no funds for an expensive planer thicknesser even when broken / little room / rented place with 13a plugs, so it's not very fees-able to get a proper PT , and those noisy lunchbox things seem pants to me, and would attract unwanted folk, regardless of any 'lockdown' happening.
That's why I treat my benchtop as a surface planer bed.

Might not be important for someone who's making picnic benches, but for making
something of the caliber of SM's bench, i.e cabinetry or equally tricky stuff,
it makes sense to have something you can trust.

Virgin timbers are out of my price range, well the kind that won't become a meal for the beetles, so I end up reclaiming tropicals and laminating them a lot of the time, thus a reliable method of planing enabling me to be more frugal with the materials I have.

Regarding making the bench flat
I suggest making a pair of parallel straight edges, and no shorter than the length of the bench, otherwise you will make a concave surface which translates to
the opposite thing happening in the work.
(the ends being nipped off, leading to much wastage)
A plane is much less prone to creating such an error by hollowing the work out.

These lengths can be flipped over to double any error that might happen,
I shim this thin benchtop until its leveled with some very nearly square blocks
so can be rearranged for seasonal movement.

Tom

 

[Ttrees]

Have ye got no clamps Jacob?

 

[Jacob]

Have ye got no clamps Jacob?

Er , yes. Why? I've got dozens of them sash and G etc

 

[Jacob]

......Regarding making the bench flat
.......

I suggest looking at it (see several posts above) and if it doesn't look flat, plane it a bit until it does. You might have to think carefully about which bits to plane.

 

[timothyedoran]

Here is my 2p. I made a seller's workbench last year. I carefully planed all the bits square and straight or so I thought. I made a pair of winding sticks from some scrap pine, simple and quick.
Then I laminated them together and somehow created a big twist along the length. I nearly binned it as there was about 5mm difference over the length. Instead I tried to plane it flat. It didn't take too long maybe an hour or so with a scrub and hand plane. Result a flatish and twist free slab. I then continued to build the bench and only flattened at the end.

I didn't need a digital what's it or lengths of extruded metal. Without being rude I suggest you try with some wooden winding sticks. I think the eye is good enough and seeing the errors as the winding sticks magnify the error because they are leavers. Unless you have reduced vision, in which case sorry for my assumption.

 

[Jacob]

.....Instead I tried to plane it flat. It didn't take too long maybe an hour or so with a scrub and hand plane.

Agree with all that except I wouldn't bother with a scrub pane for just a few mm. They've become a bit trendy- it's because they've been slipped into the catalogues and promoted by unscrupulous tool sellers!
They are just for dog rough work where you might have used adze or axe in the old days.

 

[Ttrees]

There's no way I'd be able to get the accuracy I'd want doing so though, Jacob.
Way easier to let the bench do that for me...
in conjunction with a long reach angle poise lamp which has a good sized shade
(about 7.5" diameter) which I forgot to mention.

Those tiny errors multiply when laminating and it becomes a real headache for me.
Got three anglepoise/folding arm/architect lamps recently for the workshop, took a long while to find them, although seemingly easy to get in Canada, as Cosman has plenty of new ones.
Don't be fooled those miniature ones ebay with totally fake measurements, they are miniature things,

 

[Jacob]

There's no way I'd be able to get the accuracy I'd want doing so though, Jacob.
Way easier to let the bench do that for me...
in conjunction with a long reach angle poise lamp which has a good sized shade
(about 7.5" diameter) which I forgot to mention.

Those tiny errors multiply when laminating and it becomes a real headache for me.
Got three anglepoise/folding arm/architect lamps recently for the workshop, took a long while to find them, although seemingly easy to get in Canada, as Cosman has plenty of new ones.
Don't be fooled those miniature ones ebay with totally fake measurements, they are miniature things,
View attachment 102444

Well yes it depends on what you are doing.
I often drop on a bit of mdf or ply if I want a nice flat surface, or a couple of bearers across to support some things, and so on.
Agree about bright lights. A good torch is handy - to shine across a surface and show up irregularities. I'm surprised LN or LV haven't worked up some sort of digital torch gadget at an incredible price.
Oops spoke too soon; LV have https://www.leevalley.com/en-gb/sho...ing/levels/110487-green-crosshair-laser-level
Instead of looking at the thing you just follow their simple instructions:
Emitting a bright green crosshair beam for good visibility, this laser level is self-calibrating to provide clear lines for level and plumb, accurate to ±1.5mm at 5m (approximately 1/16" at 16'), with a working range of 15m (about 49'). Its field of projection is broad enough to cast the beam onto more than one surface at a time. This makes it easy to transfer a continuous reference around inside or outside corners, permitting accurate alignment of elements on adjacent surfaces.
The level has two modes of operation. In standard mode, its internal floating pendulum mechanism automatically stabilizes with gravity, correcting up to 3° of inclination. In the locked mode, the pendulum remains in a fixed position, allowing you to tilt the level to project a line at any angle. When the level is off, the same lock stabilizes the pendulum to help prevent damage from jostling.

 

[Ttrees]

Agreed with the bearers Jacob, I have three in the pic above on the TS.
Often a length laying on them will make it very obvious if there not spot on.
and helps to keep the chisels away from damaging the bench top also.

Tom

 

[timothyedoran]

Agree with all that except I wouldn't bother with a scrub pane for just a few mm. They've become a bit trendy- it's because they've been slipped into the catalogues and promoted by unscrupulous tool sellers!
They are just for dog rough work where you might have used adze or axe in the old days.

I quite agree. My excuse is that I bought a rubbish silverline no.4 years ago. I never could get it working nicely. Or if I did, some other adjustment went out. I bought a vintage record
no4 and it was like night and day. For the silverline I just put an arc shaped camber on the blade. Suddenly it's brilliant at rapid if rough wood removal.

If you are suggesting that there are people trying to sell us stuff we don't 'need', promising all problems will evaporate then I quite agree.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

First of all I would like to thank everybody for their contribution. I learned a lot.
what I did
1- I bought a construction grade 6*2 timber and cut it in half ending with 2*2.4 meter timber
2 - I got one edge straightened in a joiner
3- because of the twist which I had missed in the shop these rails did not sit flat on my bench apron
4 I hand planes one face of each to get them square to the edge ( other way around)
5- I got oak veneered and made a plaining slid making sure
6-this morning in day light I checked the rails and made sure they are not twisted
7- My eyes and winding sticks were more accurate than the digital level( angle finder)
8- bench top is flattened using a router with 2 inch flat router bit
Mistakes I made
1- I should had flattened the one d
Face before the edge
2- I was turning the digital level to face inward and it could have doubled the standard error of the machine.
3- I took my eyes off the laminating and ended up with horrendous twist literally loosing more than 10 mm of my bench top thickness
4- I cut the corners a d did not flatten the underside of the bench tops which made the bench to be twisted.
All I have left to do is to sharpen the 5 jack plane and get rid of router bit marks.
Ps: Why my beech wood is tearing on planing in both directions?

 

[novocaine]

your blade isnt sharp enough.