My Hybrid Workbench Build Log

[Greg Parrish]

Rear slab mounted and then both slabs pulled off to apply danish oil to slab bottoms.
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then both slabs put back onto the base and secured with 6” Spax Powerlags (4 per slab). Next up is sliding tail vise chop, dog holes and then danish oil on top and sides of slabs
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[Greg Parrish]

Spent some time over the weekend working on the top. Using my straight edge, it was good end to end long ways, but front to back was off down the middle because my cross braces were about 1/64 to 1/32 lower than my leg tops. I tried some shimming, but this small difference combined with the slabs sitting for 2 weeks awaiting attachment to the base frame meant they were not quite level.

Again, end to end the slabs remained perfect, but checking front to back the gaps were 20 thousands and more. I wanted the top to within 10 thousands more or less to match up with the Saw Stop tolerance specifications so I used my no 7 plane to slowly bring down the high spots. Got the slabs to where I want them and moved on to the tail vise chop.

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Its certainly a FrankenBench with regards to color and texture. Need to get the tail vise chop planed level with the bench top, and then marked for dog holes across its top and face. Will remove it to drill them on the drill press, but will have to drill the bench in place using a bushing and hand drill. The tail vise chop will also get some smoothing and easing, as well as a coat of finish before going back on.

Once the dog holes are all drilled, the top will be ready for its coat of Danish oil and then its down to the lower shelf and center filler/plane stop to finish it. Will have to decide if I feel like building a lower tool cabinet for it or not but that was in my initial plan.

[Greg Parrish]

Got the top and tail vise chop finish applied.

Used Danish oil on the top slabs.
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And used homemade wipe on poly for the chops.
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After a few days of dry/cure time, I got the chop reinstalled and reamed out the dog holes to clean out any finish residue and/or swelling.
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Still need to make the center filler/plane stop, as well as my lower shelf, but for now the bench is functional. My next step will be to drill out holdfast holes in the rear slab once my holdfasts arrive.