PaulH
Established Member
I recently took up woodworking and started out by purchasing a Performance-Pro router from B&Q, moving on to one of their cheap hand planes 
. Then I found this Forum (spot the replacement planes later...) where the help and advice has been invaluable, so a big thank you to all. Particularly useful was a visit to see Noel's workshop where I was able to get some priorities sorted in terms of future purchases - thanks again Noel.
This posting is to encourage all you experts to continue to help people like me by posting some pictures of the projects which you have helped me create. This main project was inspired by ByronBlack and is my first workbench...
The bench is made out of "cheap" construction quality timber (45x90mm, planned) from a local builders’ yard as:
1) I wanted to use a "cheap" bench for a while to see what features I would really need/use
2) I didn't want to badly build a bench out of "good" (i.e. expensive) wood
It is chunky in design for strength. For the legs, I jointed two pieces of timber together, but before doing so, cross-cut the through mortises on my Triton Workcentre. To ensure the mortises aligned, I cut the two opposite legs at the same time (i.e. 4 pieces of wood).
Two legs (middle two bits) and the top and bottom for one side (edges) are shown above. The through mortises in the top and bottom rails were cut using a pillar drill and tidied up with a chisel. The tenons on the ends of the legs were again cut with the Triton Workcentre (used as a table saw). You can also just see the lap joint for the single top rail on the back right corner of the leftmost piece of wood in the picture above. The ends of the top and bottom were shaped with a plane.
These pieces were then glued and clamped (x2) - one done and one being clamped after gluing.
Two cross rails were used at the bottom (tenons cut on the Triton again) but only one at the top. The reason for this was that the main work top is pretty substantial and when attached to the frame will provide sufficient support. The one at the back is really to support a piece of 10mm plywood that will be used as a tool tray when the top is complete. (the “box” on the floor in the bottom left is part of the house so I had to put the cross rails slightly higher than I would have wished…)
The top was made by gluing together the same 45x90 stock (some bits were 90x90) with initially two rows of biscuits - you can just see the two rows of biscuits on the front of this photo as the front edging hasn't yet been fitted. However, given the stock was not accurately dimensioned, it was difficult to get two rows of biscuits to align, hence after jointing a couple of boards, I just used the lower ones and didn't cut the slots for the biscuits on the top row. In case you haven't guessed, the holes for the square bench dogs were cut using the Triton Workcentre before jointing the individual boards .
The top fully assembled - after much practice with hand planing to "level" (well almost…) all those inaccurately dimensioned boards. The top was then edged with a final board at the front and sides with a mitre joint at the corners. The end caps "slide" on a long mortise/tenon joint (there's probably a more "technical" term for this!) and are glued at the front only (at the mitre). The other end of the end caps is attached to the back of the tool well, which is separate from the main table top. Thus, there is room for the main top to expand/contract. This may be clearer from the picture below.
Here you can more clearly see the tool tray, which has a plywood base but the plywood is attached using a dado joint (done with a router this time) with plenty of room for movement.
The observant among you will have noticed 3 things:
1) I've upgraded my hand planes from the original B&Q (and, yes, they do make a difference!)
2) I now have electrical power sockets (and improved lighting) as well as new bench!
3) The vice is mounted on the right - no I'm not left handed, but it's definitely "hands up" on this one .... So as to be ready to start cutting the holes for the vice, the top was turned over as the last thing I did one night (as well as rotated so I could still get at the front as it was up against the wall) and when I returned the next night to start work on mounting the vice, I merrily started work on the left - oops... Too late before I discovered so I've decided to leave it for now....
The top is finished with 3 coats of Danish Oil and my plan is to attach each side with one "large" screw at the front and a button at the back to allow for any movement. Does this seem sensible?
Also, while I have finished all surfaces of the top with Danish Oil, I haven't done do on the supporting frame. Is this OK or would you recommend finishing the whole bench?
I may some day add cupboards/drawers….
Finally, a couple of other projects...
A small clock...
And from this...
to this....
Feel free to point out things I should have done differently (apart from the positioning of the vice ….)
Thanks again for all your help.
Regards,
Paul.
. Then I found this Forum (spot the replacement planes later...) where the help and advice has been invaluable, so a big thank you to all. Particularly useful was a visit to see Noel's workshop where I was able to get some priorities sorted in terms of future purchases - thanks again Noel.This posting is to encourage all you experts to continue to help people like me by posting some pictures of the projects which you have helped me create. This main project was inspired by ByronBlack and is my first workbench...
The bench is made out of "cheap" construction quality timber (45x90mm, planned) from a local builders’ yard as:
1) I wanted to use a "cheap" bench for a while to see what features I would really need/use
2) I didn't want to badly build a bench out of "good" (i.e. expensive) wood
It is chunky in design for strength. For the legs, I jointed two pieces of timber together, but before doing so, cross-cut the through mortises on my Triton Workcentre. To ensure the mortises aligned, I cut the two opposite legs at the same time (i.e. 4 pieces of wood).
Two legs (middle two bits) and the top and bottom for one side (edges) are shown above. The through mortises in the top and bottom rails were cut using a pillar drill and tidied up with a chisel. The tenons on the ends of the legs were again cut with the Triton Workcentre (used as a table saw). You can also just see the lap joint for the single top rail on the back right corner of the leftmost piece of wood in the picture above. The ends of the top and bottom were shaped with a plane.
These pieces were then glued and clamped (x2) - one done and one being clamped after gluing.
Two cross rails were used at the bottom (tenons cut on the Triton again) but only one at the top. The reason for this was that the main work top is pretty substantial and when attached to the frame will provide sufficient support. The one at the back is really to support a piece of 10mm plywood that will be used as a tool tray when the top is complete. (the “box” on the floor in the bottom left is part of the house so I had to put the cross rails slightly higher than I would have wished…)
The top was made by gluing together the same 45x90 stock (some bits were 90x90) with initially two rows of biscuits - you can just see the two rows of biscuits on the front of this photo as the front edging hasn't yet been fitted. However, given the stock was not accurately dimensioned, it was difficult to get two rows of biscuits to align, hence after jointing a couple of boards, I just used the lower ones and didn't cut the slots for the biscuits on the top row. In case you haven't guessed, the holes for the square bench dogs were cut using the Triton Workcentre before jointing the individual boards
.
The top fully assembled - after much practice with hand planing to "level" (well almost…) all those inaccurately dimensioned boards. The top was then edged with a final board at the front and sides with a mitre joint at the corners. The end caps "slide" on a long mortise/tenon joint (there's probably a more "technical" term for this!) and are glued at the front only (at the mitre). The other end of the end caps is attached to the back of the tool well, which is separate from the main table top. Thus, there is room for the main top to expand/contract. This may be clearer from the picture below.
Here you can more clearly see the tool tray, which has a plywood base but the plywood is attached using a dado joint (done with a router this time) with plenty of room for movement.
The observant among you will have noticed 3 things:
1) I've upgraded my hand planes from the original B&Q (and, yes, they do make a difference!)
2) I now have electrical power sockets (and improved lighting) as well as new bench!
3) The vice is mounted on the right - no I'm not left handed, but it's definitely "hands up" on this one
.... So as to be ready to start cutting the holes for the vice, the top was turned over as the last thing I did one night (as well as rotated so I could still get at the front as it was up against the wall) and when I returned the next night to start work on mounting the vice, I merrily started work on the left - oops... Too late before I discovered so I've decided to leave it for now....The top is finished with 3 coats of Danish Oil and my plan is to attach each side with one "large" screw at the front and a button at the back to allow for any movement. Does this seem sensible?
Also, while I have finished all surfaces of the top with Danish Oil, I haven't done do on the supporting frame. Is this OK or would you recommend finishing the whole bench?
I may some day add cupboards/drawers….
Finally, a couple of other projects...
A small clock...
And from this...
to this....
Feel free to point out things I should have done differently (apart from the positioning of the vice
….)Thanks again for all your help.
Regards,
Paul.
