John White's new-fangled workbench

benomatic42 said:

rough cut framing lumber

The sketchup plans for the bench originally came to me from Jeff, and I modified the dimensions to make the final bench 8' long x 28" deep x 34" tall (although I rough cut the leg pieces a bit longer, since I'm debating whether to bring up the height an inch or so).

Finally getting started on this thing. All I have to show for it so far is a stack of rough cut SPF (can't find Douglas Fir around here):

The back table top will be made from glued up cherry shorts which I got for cheap. That's what I hope to be cutting this weekend:

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

rough cut framing lumber

The sketchup plans for the bench originally came to me from Jeff, and I modified the dimensions to make the final bench 8' long x 28" deep x 34" tall (although I rough cut the leg pieces a bit longer, since I'm debating whether to bring up the height an inch or so).

Finally getting started on this thing. All I have to show for it so far is a stack of rough cut SPF (can't find Douglas Fir around here):

The back table top will be made from glued up cherry shorts which I got for cheap. That's what I hope to be cutting this weekend:

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

rough cut framing lumber

The sketchup plans for the bench originally came to me from Jeff, and I modified the dimensions to make the final bench 8' long x 28" deep x 34" tall (although I rough cut the leg pieces a bit longer, since I'm debating whether to bring up the height an inch or so).

Finally getting started on this thing. All I have to show for it so far is a stack of rough cut SPF (can't find Douglas Fir around here):

The back table top will be made from glued up cherry shorts which I got for cheap. That's what I hope to be cutting this weekend:

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

rough cut framing lumber

The sketchup plans for the bench originally came to me from Jeff, and I modified the dimensions to make the final bench 8' long x 28" deep x 34" tall (although I rough cut the leg pieces a bit longer, since I'm debating whether to bring up the height an inch or so).

Finally getting started on this thing. All I have to show for it so far is a stack of rough cut SPF (can't find Douglas Fir around here):

The back table top will be made from glued up cherry shorts which I got for cheap. That's what I hope to be cutting this weekend:

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

rough cut framing lumber

The sketchup plans for the bench originally came to me from Jeff, and I modified the dimensions to make the final bench 8' long x 28" deep x 34" tall (although I rough cut the leg pieces a bit longer, since I'm debating whether to bring up the height an inch or so).

Finally getting started on this thing. All I have to show for it so far is a stack of rough cut SPF (can't find Douglas Fir around here):

The back table top will be made from glued up cherry shorts which I got for cheap. That's what I hope to be cutting this weekend:

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

Cuz I'm a blonde... yeah, yeah, ... yeah!

Put in another couple evenings this week. All of the SPF is width/thickness dimensioned, and most of it is length cut as well. Was assembling the legs tonight, and revisited my towhead youth with this manuever:

Luckily it was easily recovered:

Eventually, I finished assembling the legs, cutting and drilling the end stretcher and end pipe-holding pieces and cutting all of the 8 foot pieces. After I drill the pipe and screw holdes in the 8 footers, I can assemble everything to look like a bench (except for the back 12" bench top…)

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

Cuz I'm a blonde... yeah, yeah, ... yeah!

Put in another couple evenings this week. All of the SPF is width/thickness dimensioned, and most of it is length cut as well. Was assembling the legs tonight, and revisited my towhead youth with this manuever:

Luckily it was easily recovered:

Eventually, I finished assembling the legs, cutting and drilling the end stretcher and end pipe-holding pieces and cutting all of the 8 foot pieces. After I drill the pipe and screw holdes in the 8 footers, I can assemble everything to look like a bench (except for the back 12" bench top…)

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

Cuz I'm a blonde... yeah, yeah, ... yeah!

Put in another couple evenings this week. All of the SPF is width/thickness dimensioned, and most of it is length cut as well. Was assembling the legs tonight, and revisited my towhead youth with this manuever:

Luckily it was easily recovered:

Eventually, I finished assembling the legs, cutting and drilling the end stretcher and end pipe-holding pieces and cutting all of the 8 foot pieces. After I drill the pipe and screw holdes in the 8 footers, I can assemble everything to look like a bench (except for the back 12" bench top…)

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

Cuz I'm a blonde... yeah, yeah, ... yeah!

Put in another couple evenings this week. All of the SPF is width/thickness dimensioned, and most of it is length cut as well. Was assembling the legs tonight, and revisited my towhead youth with this manuever:

Luckily it was easily recovered:

Eventually, I finished assembling the legs, cutting and drilling the end stretcher and end pipe-holding pieces and cutting all of the 8 foot pieces. After I drill the pipe and screw holdes in the 8 footers, I can assemble everything to look like a bench (except for the back 12" bench top…)

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

Cuz I'm a blonde... yeah, yeah, ... yeah!

Put in another couple evenings this week. All of the SPF is width/thickness dimensioned, and most of it is length cut as well. Was assembling the legs tonight, and revisited my towhead youth with this manuever:

Luckily it was easily recovered:

Eventually, I finished assembling the legs, cutting and drilling the end stretcher and end pipe-holding pieces and cutting all of the 8 foot pieces. After I drill the pipe and screw holdes in the 8 footers, I can assemble everything to look like a bench (except for the back 12" bench top…)

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

everything but the pipes and tabletop is together

Here she be:

I have the pipe already cut (just not in the picture), and ready to be installed. The top frame piece is not screwed in place yet, since I need the top before I can do so. At that time, the fixed vertical and horizontal pipe pieces will get put into place.

Had my share of mistakes to make this take longer than it should. Lessons from this weekend:

1. Draw out everything in sketchup. My cherry back benchtop will have to be 1-5/8" inches, because I tried to get the face-clamping pipe holes as high as possible, thinking that it would be more stable. I accounted for the height of the other pipes, but not the back benchtop width. (This meant re-milling 4 pieces to new width.)

1. Writing orientation and notes on the wood is good. Reading your notes before cutting is better.

1. Printing out the plans is better than trying to avoiding walking across the driveway in the blizzard, and going by memory.

In any case, no real harm done to anything but my pride. I have some extra pipe holes on 2 pieces, and few extra drill holes in some others, but it's already solid, and just needs a top for the back.

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

Everything but the trim?

Well, this baby has already been put to use. It's actually been in this condition for 2 weeks, but I hadn't gotten around to snapping the pics.

It's functionally done, although there are 4 small things I will be doing before calling it done:

1. Drill the speed-pin holes in the face-clamp bars (was planning to do it tonight, until I realized I don't have a large enough bit for drilling metal).

2. Add a planing hook. That should take all of 15 minutes.

3. Cut a few appropriately sized blocks for clamp guards on both clamp setups.

4. Add another stretcher at the same height, so that I can throw a couple tool totes below (mainly planning to store my planes there). I have the stretcher already thicknessed and ripped to width, just need to cut to length, drill/cut the relief out and install it.

Finally, in the spring, I will plane/scrape/sand it down and apply 2 coats of BLO to it. Until then, I've only done a bit of nominal scraping to smooth the surface, as is obvious in this pic of the staggered cherry top:

Once I finish those, it goes from blog to project

-b

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

Everything but the trim?

Well, this baby has already been put to use. It's actually been in this condition for 2 weeks, but I hadn't gotten around to snapping the pics.

It's functionally done, although there are 4 small things I will be doing before calling it done:

1. Drill the speed-pin holes in the face-clamp bars (was planning to do it tonight, until I realized I don't have a large enough bit for drilling metal).

2. Add a planing hook. That should take all of 15 minutes.

3. Cut a few appropriately sized blocks for clamp guards on both clamp setups.

4. Add another stretcher at the same height, so that I can throw a couple tool totes below (mainly planning to store my planes there). I have the stretcher already thicknessed and ripped to width, just need to cut to length, drill/cut the relief out and install it.

Finally, in the spring, I will plane/scrape/sand it down and apply 2 coats of BLO to it. Until then, I've only done a bit of nominal scraping to smooth the surface, as is obvious in this pic of the staggered cherry top:

Once I finish those, it goes from blog to project

-b

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

Everything but the trim?

Well, this baby has already been put to use. It's actually been in this condition for 2 weeks, but I hadn't gotten around to snapping the pics.

It's functionally done, although there are 4 small things I will be doing before calling it done:

1. Drill the speed-pin holes in the face-clamp bars (was planning to do it tonight, until I realized I don't have a large enough bit for drilling metal).

2. Add a planing hook. That should take all of 15 minutes.

3. Cut a few appropriately sized blocks for clamp guards on both clamp setups.

4. Add another stretcher at the same height, so that I can throw a couple tool totes below (mainly planning to store my planes there). I have the stretcher already thicknessed and ripped to width, just need to cut to length, drill/cut the relief out and install it.

Finally, in the spring, I will plane/scrape/sand it down and apply 2 coats of BLO to it. Until then, I've only done a bit of nominal scraping to smooth the surface, as is obvious in this pic of the staggered cherry top:

Once I finish those, it goes from blog to project

-b

Click to expand...

benomatic42 said:

Everything but the trim?

Well, this baby has already been put to use. It's actually been in this condition for 2 weeks, but I hadn't gotten around to snapping the pics.

It's functionally done, although there are 4 small things I will be doing before calling it done:

1. Drill the speed-pin holes in the face-clamp bars (was planning to do it tonight, until I realized I don't have a large enough bit for drilling metal).

2. Add a planing hook. That should take all of 15 minutes.

3. Cut a few appropriately sized blocks for clamp guards on both clamp setups.

4. Add another stretcher at the same height, so that I can throw a couple tool totes below (mainly planning to store my planes there). I have the stretcher already thicknessed and ripped to width, just need to cut to length, drill/cut the relief out and install it.

Finally, in the spring, I will plane/scrape/sand it down and apply 2 coats of BLO to it. Until then, I've only done a bit of nominal scraping to smooth the surface, as is obvious in this pic of the staggered cherry top:

Once I finish those, it goes from blog to project

-b

Click to expand...