I'm new to wordworking, and right now, I essentially don't have a workbench.
So I'm building a sort of mini-workbench inspired, in large part, by this video.
I've cut down 2Ă—4's to about 30" long, and trimmed edges off the flat sides to help clean them up. The wood is cheap 2Ă—4 pine. I will be installing a Irwin 6 1/2" vise (roughly $20), which is the most expensive piece. I don't expect this to be fancy, but it should be a big improvement over the "nothing" I have now.
I laid out the pieces, tried turning them different directions and such to keep the best part of the wood on the top, etc. It's super cheap wood, so I can't expect perfection. I think this will give me something solid to work on, a small front vise, and edges I can use to clamp things down with bar clamps. It's big enough to be pretty solid and heavy, but small and light enough I can move it into the house if needed. Space in the garage is very limited, though I expect to have more later and build a full size workbench. In part, this mini-workbench is to get a useful tool, and in part, it's so I have more experience when I build a full size bench later.
So with everything laid out, but without gluing, I clamped everything down. 30" x 15.5" top, and essentially a 3.5" (2Ă—4 size) height, though I expect to do a fair amount of sanding/planing to smooth out the top (and likely the bottom.)
But I don't have a jointer, and I don't have a planer. Clamped down tight, I can still see some "daylight cracks" through some spots. Overall, it looks pretty good, but if I set it on end and look through, I can see light making it through in several spots. None look huge, but I'm sure if it was right, I wouldn't see that.
I'm not sure if I should go ahead with glue-up and just let the glue fill those small gaps, or if those gaps mean that it's just going to fall apart as soon as I take the clamps off.
If this is a "no, you can't glue it, you have to fix it right first" thing, then I don't know what my next step is.
Advice? Suggestions?
So I'm building a sort of mini-workbench inspired, in large part, by this video.
I've cut down 2Ă—4's to about 30" long, and trimmed edges off the flat sides to help clean them up. The wood is cheap 2Ă—4 pine. I will be installing a Irwin 6 1/2" vise (roughly $20), which is the most expensive piece. I don't expect this to be fancy, but it should be a big improvement over the "nothing" I have now.
I laid out the pieces, tried turning them different directions and such to keep the best part of the wood on the top, etc. It's super cheap wood, so I can't expect perfection. I think this will give me something solid to work on, a small front vise, and edges I can use to clamp things down with bar clamps. It's big enough to be pretty solid and heavy, but small and light enough I can move it into the house if needed. Space in the garage is very limited, though I expect to have more later and build a full size workbench. In part, this mini-workbench is to get a useful tool, and in part, it's so I have more experience when I build a full size bench later.
So with everything laid out, but without gluing, I clamped everything down. 30" x 15.5" top, and essentially a 3.5" (2Ă—4 size) height, though I expect to do a fair amount of sanding/planing to smooth out the top (and likely the bottom.)
But I don't have a jointer, and I don't have a planer. Clamped down tight, I can still see some "daylight cracks" through some spots. Overall, it looks pretty good, but if I set it on end and look through, I can see light making it through in several spots. None look huge, but I'm sure if it was right, I wouldn't see that.
I'm not sure if I should go ahead with glue-up and just let the glue fill those small gaps, or if those gaps mean that it's just going to fall apart as soon as I take the clamps off.
If this is a "no, you can't glue it, you have to fix it right first" thing, then I don't know what my next step is.
Advice? Suggestions?