Workbench Drawers for the Paul Sellers style workbench

[thetyreman]

Hello,

I have just completed making my first workbench drawer for the sellers style workbench,

I wanted to start a WIP because I am about to make the second drawer, the idea is I will go through the process in detail from start to finish which will include plenty of photos and the drawings, so it will be ongoing until it's complete.

Having two drawers in each end of the aprons made sense to me but you can obviously adapt this to suit your needs, and scale it up or down, tomorrow I plan on starting it off properly whilst today I wait for the first drawer to dry overnight.

here's a link to what I've done so far

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/making-drawers-for-the-workbench-t108230.html

 

[thetyreman]

day 1:

I have had to move the bench so the ends are a bit more accessible.

managed to do a little bit today, about 6 months ago I took apart an old victorian cabinet window made from quartersawn english oak which was given to me for free, this is the stock I'll be using for the rails and bearers, all I've done so far is created a face and edge mark on the pieces, this meant getting rid of all twist, checking for flatness lengthways as well as sideways before making the face mark.

I am thinking of screwing into the rails through the sides of the apron and the later plugging the holes, or it could just be countersunk.

I am making the front rail 1/2" 13mm thick and 1" 25mm deep, the bearers will be tenoned into the front rails and 1/2" 13mm square, I will simply screw the bearers into the aprons, to mark the exact position of the bearer tops I put the drawer in place first and just drew a pencil line, making sure it was lined up properly, this will be my guide line.

Here's a few pictures so far:

 

[thetyreman]

day 2:

I've been fitting the first side bearer to the front rail using a mortise and tenon joint, and it took two attempts, the first one was just too loose, so I started again with a new piece from scratch, and it was a much better fit second time around.

once test fitted I drew on a curved shape at the back of the bearer, this is partly decorative and secondly the brass screw that will be going through will be free to move, so the side bearers can readily expand and contract, which is what wearing recommends in his book the essential woodworker if there is no back rail, the tenon will be glued into the front rail, but that may be the only glue I'll use.

I think I'm going to use hide glue so it's reversible if anything goes **** up further down the line, so far it's going well, just frustratingly slow and I've been spending more time thinking it through than actual making,

and finally here's some pics

 

[NickN]

Looking good so far, interesting to see this progress as I've yet to decide on an end or a side drawer.

 

[MattRoberts]

Looking forward to seeing the progress on these, as I'll be looking to add drawers to my workbench in the near future.

Your pics are lovely but the way - looks like a decent lens!

 

[custard]

so far it's going well, just frustratingly slow and I've been spending more time thinking it through than actual making

It's going well because it's going slow. You're making such solid progress as a woodworker precisely because you're one of the rare ones with the patience and diligence to work methodically.

Looking good by the way!

 

[DBT85]

Consider me subscribed. Looking good so far!

 

[AndyT]

Coming along nicely!

It's fun, isn't it, when you make something like an M&T joint on a different scale for the first time. What works ok when making something like a door doesn't all apply directly if your tenon only needs to be an eighth of an inch thick.

(I imagine there would be some similar adjustments needed if you went on to do some timber framing in 4x6 green oak. It's all woodworking!)

 

[thetyreman]

I've done the right bearer as well now, both are screwed into the aprons at the back end which is why I shaped them, and tenoned into the front rail.

the front rail is just a friction fit at the moment it holds itself in place so it must be pretty accurate. I'm thinking of screwing another 2 screws on the inside of the bearers quite close to the mortise joint, at the moment the rail can move very slightly if you aren't careful when you take the drawer out,

not sure yet if I am even going to bother gluing the mortises into the tenons, they're both a very good fit, what do think? does it need glue? and also should I glue the bearers to the apron? do the bearers need to be able to move?

Hopefully the new photos will help explain everything,

there should be some more updates over the weekend! thanks for the encouragement so far, it's helping me.

regards, Ben.

 

[thetyreman]

just one more photo

 

[thetyreman]

Looking forward to seeing the progress on these, as I'll be looking to add drawers to my workbench in the near future.

Your pics are lovely but the way - looks like a decent lens!

thankyou Matt, you aren't wrong about the lens, they call it the bokeh master, it's a zeiss planar T 50/1.4 ZE, made in japan, the camera is also fullframe as well, an old EOS 5D mk1, incase you were interested.

 

[MattRoberts]

Ah, very nice, although I'm a Nikon man myself!

 

[thetyreman]

finished the first drawer frame

in the end I added another 2 countersunk screws to the side, around 1 inch away from the tenons, definitely made a big difference, they feel solid now, then glued the front rail into the bearers (tenons only) and left it overnight, and put a light coat of de-waxed shellac as a sealer, sanded the nibs away so it's nice n smooth, 240 grit.

the final dimensions of the front rail is 12 x 12 mm, and the bearers about 19 x 12 mm, both of them have to be cut to measure for the lengths, each one will likely be slightly different, so I can't give you a dimension for that. Another important detail to note is that the bottom drawers are going to be deeper than the top ones, because you have the bearer in the way at the top.

next stage is making another identical drawer frame, which should be a lot easier, and then straight into making the actual drawer.

The next update should be early next week!

 

[thetyreman]

I managed to do another couple of hours today,

the second drawer frame is done, and the first drawer fits nicely, after yet more planing.

for the second drawer frame I just planed it and waxed it, because it felt smoother to me than sanding it then waxing.

I've settled on 19 x 12mm stock for the front rail and bearers it just feels that bit more stable than 12 x 12mm, the mortise and tenon is 6mm 1/4" wide and they were only 1/8" 3mm deep, so it's a bit tricky but worth it, just make sure you are very careful not to take too much off the tenons, go really slowly, you want a nice tight fit but not ridiculously tight or it could easily split the oak, also make sure the screw can move freely through the bearers but not the aprons so that the bearers can move.

the next stage is making the second drawer, more pics have been added to show you the progress, I like the way it is looking already.

 

[sundaytrucker]

Looks great.

 

[thetyreman]

another update

I put a layer of de-waxed shellac around 1lb cut on the first drawer as a sanding sealer, the whole thing was then sanded to 240 grit, then wiped off the dust with a meths soaked paper towel, then I did the same thing to the bearers, next stage was waxing the bearers with my own beeswax/pure turpentine mix, I also waxed the sides, bottom, front and top of the drawer, but not the inside, it made a massive difference to the way it slides.

I've added a picture of the next drawer which I started making today, make sure the inside is the face and bottom edge, remove all twist, then once happy with it, fit the length and widths by marking from the actual rails using a knife nick, once you are happy with the fit, you can plough the groove from the edge mark/bottom on the inside face, in this case it's 13mm 1/2" from the edge and the groove is 6mm 1/4" to take the plywood.

more updates coming tomorrow at some point.

 

[thetyreman]

I've almost made the second drawer, now there's just a housing dado to make for the back then glue up, here's quite a few more pictures to show you the progress.

 

[thetyreman]

and a few more pics with explanations

 

[thetyreman]

just an update, it posted them in reverse order to what I expected, so bear that in mind

 

[MattRoberts]

Looking very tidy! What are you doing for pulls?