Advice on building a workbench with my current equipment

[Larry Cronin]

Hello,

I am thinking of building a workbench, I cant bring myself to buying one.

The size would be roughly be 26" by 65". Bigger will not fit in my shop.

I plan to make it out of hard maple and have the top be about 3" thick. I own a 6" Delta jointer and a 13" Dewalt planer.

I am nervous that I will never get the top flat with my equipment, I have watched a bunch of videos but most seem to have at least an 8 inch jointer.

Can it be done with my equipment? Am I just twisting myself into a knot for no reason?

Thanks in advance for any advice or direction.

Larry Cronin

[Paul Sidener]

A lot of benches have been made without those tools. When I built mine, I flattened it with a #7 hand plane. You can also use a hand router. There is plenty of videos on youtube showing both methods. Flattening isn't that difficult.

[William Fretwell]

You know you're asking Neanders about power tools? I used hand planes guided by laser beams

[Rob Luter]

When I made mine I contacted a local cabinet shop that had a wide belt sander. For a box of donuts they ran it through a few passes after I glued it up.

[David Eisenhauer]

Build it. When it gets to be time to flatten it, you will find someway, somehow to get it done. The hardest part of a bench build is actually getting started. At the least, figure out which way the grain runs on each of the boards that will be glued up to make the top and then glue them together with the grain on each all running in the same direction in case you (or someone else) decides to flatten it with winding sticks, straight edges and hand planes. If you don't get it dead-on flat the first attempt, 3" will give you room to get it a little closer the next time. Dead flat is good, but does you no good if you don't get to the point of having a bench to try and get flat.

[Noah Magnuson]

Build it. When it gets to be time to flatten it, you will find someway, somehow to get it done. The hardest part of a bench build is actually getting started. At the least, figure out which way the grain runs on each of the boards that will be glued up to make the top and then glue them together with the grain on each all running in the same direction in case you (or someone else) decides to flatten it with winding sticks, straight edges and hand planes. If you don't get it dead-on flat the first attempt, 3" will give you room to get it a little closer the next time. Dead flat is good, but does you no good if you don't get to the point of having a bench to try and get flat.

This^^
Get it together, get it close, and then use your hand tools to get it flat. My bench top was made of two big ol' 5 1/2" thick sycamore slabs that had 3/8" bow in the middle. Pretty easy (heh) work with a scrub, jack and jointer plane. In all seriousness, it isn't too much work. As to your power tools, they are enough to do the job if you wish to use them.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

You own a 6" jointer? You're a step ahead of me. Build a split top or build the top in two pieces and use guide pins to align the two when gluing the two together if you don't want a split top. Flattening won't take much at all. Hand flatten each half before running through the planer and it will make the top flat. All you'll need is a little finesse.

[Larry Cronin]

Thank you all for the suggestions and encouragement.

I have to get started before I convince myself that I should wait and look at buying again.

Larry Cronin

[Matthew Hills]

Thread's advice is good.

For final flattening, you'll want winding sticks and a straightedge to identify where you need to touch up with hand planes...

I would recommend selecting the lumber in your top to avoid knots and reversing grain, and try to align the grain direction between the boards in your glue up. (I did know, and ended up using a toothed blade for a lot of my flattening)

Matt

[michael langman]

Larry, I am in the process of building a work bench also, and I only have a 4" delta jointer fron the 1950's. I am laminating 2x4x8's from the Borg and the 4 " jointer is just the right size.
I added a 36" long table extension made out of 3/4" melamine from the Borg to the front of the jointer, and use a saw horse the long way for the rear support on the jointer.
Both extensions have been set up precisely to give me straight flat surfaces.
My bench will have a tool well in the middle with 12" wide work surfaces each side of that. They will be planed flat with a Dewalt 12'' planer after jointing. Then finished with a #6 Stanley plane.
You will do just fine with your 6" jointer and planer. With the support of the forum any problems will be easier to solve.
Good Luck with your bench.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Larry, you didn't list any hand tools? Do you have any bench planes? What about a router? Lot's of people flatten their bench tops with routers. Most of the benches discussed in this forum are flattened using bench planes, but if you do an internet search you will find examples of router sleds that are built and used to flatten benches.

Most bench owners talk about flattening their bench every now and again. Most laminated tops are going to shift some, and taking a few thousands of an inch off here and there now and again keeps tops flat. Bench planes are the go-to tool for this process. So if you don't already have some bench planes, you might want to look into getting a few. Good luck on your build and keep us posted.

[Chris Fournier]

Take your time, make sure you're gear is sharp and you can do it easily! A handplane for the final flattening is indispensable.

[Robert Hazelwood]

As Joe said, it would be helpful to know what hand tools you have, and if you have much experience with bench planes.

Your jointer adn planer will work fine for preparing the laminates, which if done by hand takes much longer than the final flattening. And if you build a split top each half should fit through the planer, so you really only need to get one face of each slab flat, in preparation for sending through the planer, followed by a final clean up session once the top is assembled onto the base.

If you prepare your laminates very accurately and align them well during glue-up, the amount of work should be minimal. If you have a jack plane and a try plane (ex. #5 and #7 Stanley/LN/Veritas) you are good to go. You may not even need a jack plane if your glue ups go well.

There is a learning curve to setting up and using these tools. With some experience, I'd guess 15-30 minutes per slab to get one side flat assuming a halfway decent glue up. It could take much longer and be much more frustrating if you are just beginning. Even if that's the case for you, it is worth learning and this is a good project to cut your teeth on. It will allow you to get by with your current small machines, so you don't feel compelled to buy larger and more expensive machines just to handle the odd project that's a bit larger, wider, etc.

[David Eisenhauer]

What Robert says in regards to hand planning, plus, the greater part of hand planning is being able to effectively sharpen the iron. When gluing up your top(s), it definitely pays to take care in aligning each individual board with the others so as to make the subsequent planning a much easier task. Glue all boards with the grain running the same way if at all possible. I would not advise trying to glue up several boards for the top(s) at one time. Take your time and it will pay off. As I said earlier, if the tops do not end up dead-on flat and coplanar the first go around, it can always be re worked to tweak it in while still using the bench.

[Larry Cronin]

I do have a few hand planes which I am trying to use more and more. I own a No. 9, No 4, and a No 62.

Thanks very to all of you for the suggestions and encouragement.

If all goes well I will start next week.

Larry Cronin