Southern Yellow Pine Work Surface (workbench)

ruddhess said:

Gluing Up The Feet

Here is a shot of the upright posts in their "sandwich" mortises.

Left side: C-clamps do the job.

Right side: Pittsburgh bar clamps and one C-clamp.

Almost complete.

Front and back upright assemblies are skewed by about 3/16".

It's beautiful wood though!

And the top rails are dead even in height.

Click to expand...

Like this:

Saw Bench/Saw Horse No. 2 - Layout & Beginning Cuts

Straight cuts done fairly quickly, cleanly, and accurately now - becoming second nature.


Needed to to shave off a bit more than I wanted to deal with using a chisel, so I am using my mitre/back saw to dissect this "whisper" of a shaving.


Thinnest sliver I've ever re-sawn before.


Oops! Almost messed up! Got be careful with layout & marking.


More marks - I've gone to marking waste with an "X" even when it's so obvious, just in case.


Saw cuts ready for chisel chopping.


Second upright on saw bench/saw horse number two.


Chopping out waste with chisel.


Looking kind of snaggled.


I wait until most of the waste is removed before final sawing to the line on the middle cuts. Easier to see.


Getting down close to flat on the bottom of the dado with chisel cutting.


Close-up side view of cut-out.


Sharp chisel makes the difference. Easy cutting on this one. Wood is pretty soft.


Stretcher beam laid into dado cut. Short by about 1/16" - need to chop a bit off the stretcher.


Getting ready for the glue up using "bunk bed" screws - these are the pilot holes just drilled.


Upright structure with "bunk bed" screws test fit in progress.


Dry run with 1/2" pipe clamp to hold everything together. I used some ancient Coleman stove fuel to take most of the black stuff off these pipes. Now the clamps don't slide so bad. I do have to hold down on the lever on the friction end of a couple of them though.


This second upright was out of square by 1/4", so I put a couple of 48" pipe clamps (didn't remove the black stuff off of these very well, so they are getting my wood all black!) on the diagonal - carefully, easy does it.

Moving Workbench Slab

Some photos of my workbench slab after getting a friend from work to help me move it from my upstairs apartment living room into my garage. (Well, actually, he just heaved it up on his shoulder and carried it for me. I'm SO out of shape! Thanks dude! I did make him a good deal on one of my 75" walnut slabs though, so it worked out well.)


I have a lot of work to do in getting this top surface flat and relatively smooth.


Airplane runway view.


You sure can tell where I DIDN'T wipe the glue up while it was still wet. I know some people talk about just chipping it off with an old chisel after it dries, but I like to keep it "contained" just after putting the clamps on. Clean-up is easier then. But I hardly stain or finish anything. And when I do, I don't worry that the glued part doesn't accept the stain or finish like the rest of the piece. It just doesn't bother me. But I haven't made any 'fine furniture' yet either. I might change my ways at some point. You can tell also where I used the Elmer's brown glue and the TiteBond II yellow glue. It's a workbench top though and it's going to get some abuse.


Picture of my benchtop after first pass with HF 7.5 amp power planer (3-1/4"). Went to HF to get some "C" clamps that were on sale and got a power planer. I had read many reviews and the 7.5 amp one is the better one, so I got it. Thanks to the dude at the check-out for getting me 20% off the already ridiculously low price (90 return policy in case anything blows-up). No worries though because I got the 2 yr warranty. I was all set to hand plane the top of my workbench/slab, but my Stanley No. 7 needs restoring (clean up really good, flatten irons - they are bent a bit at the top, replace missing screw on front of tote, and sharpen the dickens out of the iron). I was afraid that the electric planer would be loud, but it's really relatively quiet. I was pleasantly surprised. I've really got to keep an eye on the tiny sawdust collector bag on this thing - it fills up in a hurry! I didn't notice it was full for a bit and wondered why shavings were flying all over the place - BAG FULL! Motor got warm, but not hot - caught it in time before I blew the thing up immediately after purchase! LOL I set the blade at 1/16" and I really like the way it shaves off a little bit at a time. I had never used a power planer before this. Kind of cool!

Finishing Up Saw Bench/Saw Horse No. 2

Making up a bunch of oak dowel pegs.


I use my old Delta belt/disc sander to clean-up the splinters and chamfer the ends of the dowels. Those oak splinters are a big pain!


Oak dowels come in all colors!


I keep the sets together and use them on the same joints as much as possible.


Second upright on Saw Bench/Saw Horse No. 2 was out of square by 1/4" (diagonal measurements) - after removing the 48" pipe clamps, this is the resulting diagonal measurements:




I call that square! I need to clean the black stuff off my 48" pipes.

Here are a couple of oak dowel nails glued and hammered in. I don't know if there is enough glue in there or not, but the fit is fairly snug and I think they will hold for a good long time. Not worried. The amount of glue around the edge after I hammer it in is way less than the amount I put on the dowel, so most of it is going into the hole and around the dowel.


And the two uprights side by side. I forgot the one dowel on the end of the top beam though. Had to add them after I discovered the omission.


Laying out the feet for the SB/SH2.




End cuts down to the line. This is the near side that I can see when sawing.


And this is the back side away from me. Close enough.


And one foot with half mortises all hogged out.


This is the only one of four legs that actually fit the width cut. I had to chop out an extra 1/16" on the other three (actually for good measure, I removed one thin-kerf width of material on all four openings).


There always seems to be one side that has a big gap. I did a dry run clamp-up before the real deal and the gap closed fine. I did have to tighten all the C-clamps bit by bit simultaneously. It worked though.


And finally, here is SB/SH2 with it's feet all glued up. The only thing left to do is flush cut the oak dowels in the uprights and put 16 oak dowels in the joints on the feet. Then I just need to make the "T" plates for the tops of each of the horses and THEN I can put the benchtop slab on them! Yay!


Forgot to put in spacers at the top in between the uprights when I glued up the feet on this one. I almost didn't get this one in there. I spread the uprights apart at least half an inch. I kept waiting to hear wood splitting. But it didn't. Whew!


Oak pegs in the feet - cutting ends off tomorrow after work and then they will be done (except for adding the modular/removable "T" spacers).


Here are both of them side by side: brothers!

Almost Finished!

This is what it looks like all put together.


Still have to do a bit of flattening to the top side. It started out almost perfectly flat. But a couple three boards had warped so there were a couple of low spots. I've removed about 1/4" so far, leaving only two spots untouched by the planer - one about three or four square inches and another just a bit bigger.


I've been taking several 45° angle passes across the entire surface.

Workbench Modifications & Additions

I made about 10 half inch deep cuts to remove most of the waste wood for the groove.


My white pine 1X2 saw guide and clamps.


Here is the 1-1/2" wide by 1/2" deep groove the length of the top board.


I can't believe how good it looks! I made and used my "poor man's router" that Paul Sellers talks about in one of his videos. It is a poor man's router made poorly by me. But it worked well enough to get the bottom of the groove flat. I'll have to take a picture of it and put it up here.


Not too bad a fit. It's not tight, but not too loose either. It will work.


Dry fit before I drill the holes for the screws and glue it up.


"Bunk bed" screws holding it toether while glue sets.




Screws taken out.


Holes over-bored to 5/16" for oak dowels.


And oak dowels glued in their places.




"T" boards from the end view.


Rough finish and joins, but they will work OK.




Flush cut dowels sanded down.


T-board going on top of saw bench horse.


One day I may put some holes for dowel pin inserts in the vertical part so I can adjust the height.


For now though it will have to look like this.


This one upright post stuck out too far below the foot, so I shaved it off a bit.


Hanging on by just a few wood fibers.


There is a gap on this one in the same place as the other one. Oh well. Shouldn't affect it too bad.


And this is what it looks like with the t-board attached.


I declare the saw bench horses comlete!