Hi, i had the bright Idea of trimming the edge of my work bench to even the surface but I screwed it up, now it is worse than ever. I need a flat surface for a twin screw vice. Is there an save to this thanks Mike
You could take the top "off", trim the whole front with a straight edge and saw (looks like that's what you might have tried?), and glue an additional piece to bring it up to width,
here is a picture of the edge, it looks just a little wavy but look at the thickness of the 2×4 at each end. I put a long straightedge on it and it is about3/8ths off on the far end. Any way to fill some of the gap
Add a temporary brace below.
Unbolt and remove the top ledger.
Rent a beam saw so your top can be cut in one pass.
Plane your unbolted ledger to the thickness you need.
Repeat on remaining sides as needed.
First, I would remove the lower 2 X 4 (the one with lag bolts), and either use a hand plane or a powered planer, reduce the thickness to clean up the mess on it. Now, use your handplane to dress the top piece. Match the lower piece to the top and re-assemble. Not hard and won't take that long (only a bit of sweat).
Time to break out the jack plane. If you cannot get it quite smooth enough for the vise, you can add a new face to it. Adding a face might not be a bad idea anyway so that you can replace it as it as it gets beat up with use and abuse.
thanks for the suggestions. First off I don't have a router so thats out, I said it would be hard because the back legs are bolted the an iron framed work bench and if I start taking it apart I am not sure If I can put it back together like I took it apart. What is a ledger.
Another idea, what if I knocked off the screwed up 2x and replaced it with a new one. i don't see that removing the one thats laged in will hurt, I may leave it off
I think that I would lay the whole thing on its side and try using a hand plane before I decided to deconstruct anything. You can't really make it any worse and it will be a good time to improve your hand plane skills. Be mindful of grain direction and use your new block plane for any knots or difficult areas. The pine or spruce should be pretty easy to work. You can then decide if you want to attach a new face over the entire end.
Yes, please use a jack plane and clean it up. it's what that tool does! Remove those lags if you have to, while planing, or just increase the countersink 1/8" so you'd don't hit them.
I took off that lower 2x however I need a grain check. Should I plane this board from right to left facing the bench top pic is left bottom right thanks Mike
It looks like right to left is going to work best. You may still see some tear out in a few spots around the knots. Its hard to tell but it looks like some circle grain around a couple of the knots. Those areas always give me minor fits. But its a workbench so I assume flat and square is more important than shiny and smooth.
On doug fir and spruce I call these the spear points. I learned the hard way to never plane at them. If I wouldn't run at a guy holding a spear I shouldn't plane towards these.
What Bandit says! Also, since you have quite a bit of material to plane, it might help if you post what kind of plane you have. Also, what is your sharpening experience.
Bear in mind, this is a workbench - use this to gain experience for your future woodworkig! This bench ain't a church piano!
Just remember that the grain direction can be a problem around the knots so you may have to change directions there. If it is really bad, I will use my block plane to smooth those and any other areas where the grain just would not cooperate. It is also pretty common to have the spear points change direction in the middle somewhere and you may have to plane out from the point in both directions. This is a great opportunity to experiment and learn.
Hand plane would be my choice, or failing that, a belt sander would work.
It's a workbench made out of construction lumber, not a museum piece.
Plane from right to left, as suggested above. Don't overthink it.
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