My First Workbench Build - A Journal

[David Eisenhauer]

For me, it would be easier to get to consistent thickness now rather than try to angle tenon shoulders. Others may disagree. I'd pick the flattest side and use it to register a marking gauge against to create my target thickness gauge line on the opposite side. The leg can't be that wide and, at 3' long (and a tapering surface at that), you should be able to remove 1/8" - 3/16" thickness in a reasonable amount of time. Suppose you could spot target the (too thick) area where the stretcher will tie in to the leg and concentrate on getting a consistent thickness at the tie-in spot only as opposed to the entire 3' length.

[Brian Holcombe]

When working by hand we usually work from a single reference face to account for minor inconsistencies. That said 3/16" over 3' is a lot. I would get them down to a consistent knife mark first. You've been working at this for a while, might be better to joint one corner (two sides) on each leg, then put them through a thickness planer so you can move onto another aspect of this work.

[Eric Schubert]

Unfortunately, I don't own a planer. Nor do I know anyone with a planer. So, any adjustments will be done by hand.

[Brian Holcombe]

I've been doing it that way for years, so I have no qualms with that. I'd likely just knock it off with a jack plane. You only need to make sure that you're setting yourself up for the joinery to go smoothly, so make everything as consistent as possible. It is technically unnecessary but practically useful to do so.

Truly, the most important things are your reference faces, everything else can be accounted for in the planning and markout of joinery.

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks for all the feedback. I decided to go ahead and make things consistent thickness/width to ease the joinery.

I already went through the the legs I already squared up and got the wide sides consistent. Next I'll do the narrow side width. It went much faster than anticipated. I'm not sure if that's a reflection of my growing skills or just because it's not a long job. But I'm okay with it!

[Eric Schubert]

More progress. I checked the first three leg pieces and adjusted width and thickness to be consistent. Then started on the final leg and got two sides flattened and squared. Almost there!

[Eric Schubert]

I've been really distracted and unmotivated recently. I've focused on other hobbies, like photography, which have near-immediate returns on the efforts. And I got some cool eclipse photos, too!

But it's high time I made progress on my bench. And so I got at it tonight.

Finally have the fourth and final leg squared and flattened again, with consistent thickness. Next up is a look at some assembly planning. Most-likely, it will be cutting tenons.

[Eric Schubert]

Been working on a side project for the workshop. I'm building an air cleaner using a furnace blower. Hopefully that will improve air quality, not just in the shop while I'm working, but maybe even in our entire home. The 1-micron filter should really remove a lot of fine particles.

[Eric Schubert]

I've been very distracted by other projects lately. The eclipse in August. Then I started on building an air cleaner. And I put together a sky tracker for astrophotography. Well... I've finished those projects. Time to get back to it and finish this build. I've procrastinated enough already. I need to put the hammer down and go forward.

Yesterday, I started the first mortises. One leg now has both mortises done. And I have to say, it's surprisingly easier to make larger mortises than small ones. Sure, it takes a bit more physical labor, but they don't seem to require the same precision as a smaller mortise. Both of them fit very nicely.

My one main concern is that the legal aren't a consistent thickness. But I can compensate for that by adjusting the tenon position and still get the legs create parallel, coplanar faces on the outside of the bench. The inside faces won't be coplanar, but that's not a huge deal. So that's how I'll deal with that issue. Otherwise, I'll need to plane another quarter inch off of one leg... no thanks!

Anyway... On to the next leg!

[Eric Schubert]

Got back to it today. I also pulled all of my photos off of Photobucket and will be hosting on Flickr moving forward.

Anyway... Chopped more mortises and prepped them for drawboring. I also assembled the first end of the bench! Making the mortises has taken some effort, and I'm feeling it in my elbow from using my mallet. So, I'll probably take a couple of days to let that settle down before I start pounding away again. But, I've been drilling out as much of the waste as I can prior to picking up the chisel and mallet to speed up the process.

Drawboring wasn't too terribly difficult, which made me happy. But, you do need to be careful to get your holes drilled straight. One thought might be this: drill holes prior to chopping mortises to see if it will help better-align the holes on either side of the mortise with the hole in the tenon. I did have a hiccup on one of the holes where the holes didn't line up very well because the bit wasn't straight enough drilling through the mortise. But, overall, it went well.

Only have one more leg to chop mortises for the short stretchers, then on to doing the long stretchers.

Final assembly of this one end of the bench (2 legs, one thin short stretcher, one thick short stretcher) ended up at over 64lbs. I then weighed all of the other main components and came up with a weight estimate for the bench. Not including the vise, casters, an optional tool tray between the slabs, cutting down the top slabs to length, the barrel nut fasteners, etc., the bench itself should weigh approximately 270lbs. With the rest of the hardware, I anticipate a final weight somewhere around or over 300lbs.

Some pics from the last couple of days' efforts:




I did have to compensate on the tenon shoulders for the difference in thickness between the legs. Since two legs are nearly identical in thickness, I only had to adjust stretchers on one side so that everything would be square. You can see here a comparison showing that I took off approximately 1/2" from one tenon to compensate.

[Eric Schubert]

Also, for anyone looking for the previous photos, here's a link to my Flickr album:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsm6eecNE

Hopefully all of the photos are in there.

[Phil Mueller]

Great progress, Eric!

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks, Phil! It's great to see some significant progress on this project. It sucks, but the flattening/squaring portion of such a large piece really is tedious and doesn't look like you're getting very far very quickly. But, chopping mortises, fitting them to tenons, driving in drawbore pegs... man, that feels good! I can see it starting to come together.

I worked on this a bit more. I have all the mortises for the short stretchers done on the final two legs. I also have the short mortises assembled on one side. I'm short on oak dowel, so I need to hit the store to get more before I can finish off the rest of the leg pegs. (LOL... leg pegs... like peg legs, but not! I crack myself up...)

So, that's where I'm at. I plan to hit the store tonight, if possible. I want to get that phase completed and move on to the bench top.

I think the deep mortises for the top won't be too terrible. I'll likely try drilling through to get a starting point and then make some major headway by sawing out most of the waste with my coping saw, if I can. Then, I'll clean up the sides with a chisel.

[Eric Schubert]

Didn't get anywhere this weekend. Was too busy attending the Great American Beer Festival with a friend.

Planning to get back to it...

[Phil Mueller]

Beer feels good too! When you go about picking up the oak dowels, spend some time going through the pile to find ones with the least amout of run out...you’re looking for straight grain. Not always easy to find, but there’s usually one or two better than the rest. And yes, the joinery and seeing it all come together is satisfying.