My First Workbench Build - A Journal

[Brian Holcombe]

Got a little more done today. I sharpened up my #7 again and started flattening the side that I straightened yesterday.

I took my plane diagonally across the slab, then went across again along the opposite diagonal.

Lastly, I started going along the length of the slab. This is where I noticed a hiccup. The center of the slab is thinner than the ends by nearly 1/8", making the length of the board concave.

Fortunately, this will be the bottom of the slab, so I'm not too worried. At least the twist has been removed. And I plan to put both slabs against each other to flatten the tops at the same time for a continuous surface across my center gap. But, I'm wondering how to avoid this issue when I start flattening the tops of the slabs... This seems to be a pretty common occurrence in my brief experience. I can remove twist and smooth out the edge of a board, but the center always seems to dip lower.

Anyone have recommendations on how to avoid this in the future?

Do you have a good straight edge? I keep one handy while planing and just keep checking as I go. 1/8"~ is easy enough to remove.

[Eric Schubert]

Do you have a good straight edge? I keep one handy while planing and just keep checking as I go.

I have a straight edge that's around 4' long, and a level that's 2-3' long (I'd have to check). But, I don't have a good reference to check them against, so I don't know exactly how straight they are. The long straight edge I have is part of a 2-piece set of saw guides I can clamp onto something when using my circular saw. They're extruded aluminum, so I figure they're straight enough for that. And they should be fairly close to straight for checking my surfaces. I could be wrong, though.

I saw your giant level in your video. I'd love one of those, if I could justify the expense. But, just starting out, my straight edge will have to do for now. I want my bench flat, but it doesn't need to be perfect.

1/8"~ is easy enough to remove

My triceps are saying otherwise, right now. All that planing has my arms and shoulders feeling pretty sore.

[Eric Schubert]

Boy, it's hard to get motivated to do the tasks that you know are all just long, 100% manual labor. Flattening this bench has felt like a daunting task, which has discouraged me from working on it.

But, tonight I found some motivation to get a bit more done.

I flipped over the slab on which I've been working, and I checked the thickness to see where I would need to take some material off of it. And holy cow! I had such a discrepancy between ends that it blew my mind. One end measured in at around 3-5/8" thick. The other end was uneven across the width, with the thickest side measuring in at right around 4". Yikes!

With not much else to do but get to it, I adjusted the depth of my iron for a thicker cut and went to town on the thickest area of the slab, just trying to even things out across the width of the slab on that end. I managed to take that end down to just about 3-5/8", but only in a section that's just under a foot long. I still have the rest of the slab to work on reducing the thickness to match the other end. Fortunately, the rest of the slab only needs to have about 1/8" to 3/16" removed to get down to that thickness. It's still going to be a laborious job.

While it doesn't seem like I made a lot of progress from just looking at the board, I definitely feel all of the effort I put in to remove a bunch of material. I'm concerned that I will have to work hard at thicknessing the other slab, too. But, I'll deal with that when I get there...

Here you can see the left side I've taken down to the bottom of my marker line. Whereas the right side still needs material removed.


What the center of the slab needs to have removed...

[Eric Schubert]

Got a bit more done today. Nothing terribly exciting. But, I did manage to remove material down to the line. And I got some exercise, once again.

I still need to smooth things out on this surface, but I think I'll leave that until after I've finished thicknessing the second slab, and then push them together to create one continuous, smooth surface for the top.

For now, I'll smooth the edges and get them squared up to the top/bottom. Then I'll get working on the second slab.

[Eric Schubert]

Took some time to smooth out the bench top surface on the first slab. It took some doing. I had marked a thickness to plane down to, but I had mis-marked it and noticed it was still showing a fair amount of twist on one end of the slab. Had to take it down a little bit more to get everything flattened up to a reasonable tolerance.

Next up will be squaring up the sides of the slab and then cutting it to length.

Then, on to the next slab...

[David Eisenhauer]

I know you are at the point where it seems tedious, but keep plugging away when you can and lay it down when it is time to do so. Pick it up again when the bad stuff has departed the front-side memory. Fortunately, this should only have to be done one time to this extent as long as new twist does not appear. Re surfacing and flattening from time to time will be required, but the main thicknessing should be over with at some point during your lifetime (:. I have always wondered about using a toothed plane iron in this instance when one needs to take an amount of thickness down. I have never had the opportunity to try one.

[Eric Schubert]

I know you are at the point where it seems tedious, but keep plugging away when you can and lay it down when it is time to do so. Pick it up again when the bad stuff has departed the front-side memory. Fortunately, this should only have to be done one time to this extent as long as new twist does not appear. Re surfacing and flattening from time to time will be required, but the main thicknessing should be over with at some point during your lifetime (:. I have always wondered about using a toothed plane iron in this instance when one needs to take an amount of thickness down. I have never had the opportunity to try one.

Thanks, David. It's definitely tedious work, but I feel good after getting some of it done. Seeing the slab finally getting flattened is satisfying. But, at this rate, I'll be lucky to finish it within a year or two! I need to pick up the pace just a bit.

I've yet to try a toothed iron, so I'm not sure how it would help. But my #7 has some camber to it that will let me take down some wood in decent time, if I'm going across the grain.

[Christopher Charles]

FYI, you can make a very accurate straight edge without a reference surface and lots of $. Here's a simple way to check for straight; there are also more elaborate methods, depending on the degree of accuracy you seek.

Best,
Chris

http://www.hntgordon.com.au/using-ha...-straight.html

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks, Chris! Might just check my level to make sure the edges are nice and straight. I also have longer aluminum circular saw guides that are extruded material. They should be pretty straight, but I've always wondered.

[Nick Stokes]

Also, don't be afraid to use it as is... It's not essential for the bench to be totally flat to work on for most tasks.

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks, Nick.

Are there certain tasks where it makes a significant difference to have a flat bench top? Obviously, it helps no matter what. But I want to keep things moving along instead of spending extra time working on something that isn't that important.

I'm going to guess the top will move anyway. The wood I picked up was a bit wet in the center. Hopefully it doesn't move too much.

[Glen Canaday]

If the 7 is a bit too heavy, you can also consider a transitional, #30 or #31. They're as big as the 7 and 8, but weight muuuuch less. They are also much less expensive. Worth a look-see, for sure.

[Joel Thomas Runyan]

Thanks, Nick.

Are there certain tasks where it makes a significant difference to have a flat bench top? Obviously, it helps no matter what. But I want to keep things moving along instead of spending extra time working on something that isn't that important.

I'm going to guess the top will move anyway. The wood I picked up was a bit wet in the center. Hopefully it doesn't move too much.

Top flatness is most important for working stock that is thin enough to conform to the top when under the pressure of planing. Which is surprisingly often.

If you're constantly planing concavity into things, my bet is that your No. 7 is mildly banana shaped.

[John Crawford]

If you feel yourself tiring, here is something to consider: if there is a cabinet shop in your area, and if you are able to transport your slab, you could likely rent some time on one of their giant drum sanders, and have the whole thing flat in 20 minutes. I know this isn't the neander way.... I ended up doing this on my bench, and was really pleased to be able to finish up the top and get on to the more fun parts of the project (and to building things on the bench). After a couple of years, you can re-flatten it the neander way.

[Eric Schubert]

If the 7 is a bit too heavy, you can also consider a transitional, #30 or #31. They're as big as the 7 and 8, but weight muuuuch less. They are also much less expensive. Worth a look-see, for sure.

Thanks, Glen! I'll check them out. But, I'll probably just continue to get some practice with my #7. Gotta keep at it to get better, and it's good to get a little exercise in too!

Top flatness is most important for working stock that is thin enough to conform to the top when under the pressure of planing. Which is surprisingly often.

If you're constantly planing concavity into things, my bet is that your No. 7 is mildly banana shaped.

Joel, that wouldn't be surprising. I made use of the surface grinder at work to flatten my planes, and I have a feeling I got impatient and went to quickly, heating up the metal a little bit as I went along. So, it wouldn't surprise me if it warped due to heat just a touch and now it's not entirely flat. I'll check it with a straight edge to see.