So, what the heck is a "Learning Bench", you may ask? For me, that's exactly what this experience has been, since it involved a lot of "firsts" for me. Part of me says this should be appearing on the Neander side, as its intended use will primarily be for hand tool work, but many, MANY electrons gave up their lives in this effort so here it is.
Rewind back about a month or so ago. Woodcraft was having a decent sale on their Sjobergs bench tops (19"x66"). I like the top, didn't like the cheapo leg set they were offering, as well, on sale. Decided it was time for me to make an attempt at building my own base. I looked at many designs from others, as well as those provided by OEM's. It's not a real large top and therefor, not very heavy. I figured early on that two things were paramount in the design: 1) It's GOT to be solid, with no fear of wracking. 2) I need to make it as heavy as I can. To that end, I chose to use solid Hard Maple (ALL taken from "rough" to finished here in the shop) for the majority of construction, albeit, there was also some 3/4" MDF used for shelves.
I had read where full cabinets under the bench tend to amplify noise created on the top, such as in a speaker enclosure. I *know* my own tendencies and, even though its primary function will be that of hand tooling, I can easily see the occassional excercise with powered sanders and such, so that design element was considered. I had also thought about drawers. Again, I know my own habits and realize that any drawers in there would NOT stay completely free of clutter. That said, any heavy duty work on top of the bench would transfer into rattling noises as I work. Didn't want that, either. Hence, I elected to keep the general design pretty "open" and decide on what to use the open cavity under the main shelf for later on. I have since decided on what to do with one half of it, the other remains open to discussion, hopefully suggestions from fellow Creekers with more experience than myself! There you have "Phase 1" of my learning experience. I spent a lot of time considering what my needs would be and what I would expect out of these various pieces of lumber once assembled.
Even though I have been playing with WW for several years now, I had not experienced a need for stuff like M&T or even loose tenons! Yeah, I had accumulated some of the necessary equipment, but never really used the tools. So, that became a part of the assembly process. The main legs going into the horizontal structure, which ultimately makes contact with the ground, were full M&T. I ended up doing those on my DP with a mortise adapter. Done on a C-man DP, which inherently hasn't been very accurate, proved to be a bit of a challenge, but do-able. I cleaned up the mortises with chisels & mallet. The tenons were done on the good old Laguna, 16HD and cleaned up with chisels, as well. A couple of them ended up just a wee bit loose, one of which, I even ended up gluing in a sliver in the mortise to help close it up a bit. To that effect, I also elected to pin all the M&T joints with 3/8" dowels, 4 per joint, as well as use poly glue to further help with filling and voids. The rest of the meeting joints were loose tenons, where I employed the help of the BeadLock System. Now THAT was money well-spent, IMHO! Worked great. At any rate, I now know how to use either method quite well, if I do say so myself.
Another consideration I had through the design phase was, how would I attach the main stretchers along the length of the base? I had seen where many incorporate the threaded rod, set in a groove of the stretchers. For whatever reason, that just didn't appeal to me, but I still wanted to allow for seasonal changes in temp/humidity. I spotted the "Bench Bolts" LV sells and thought this would be the ticket. Yet, even though I liked the nice brass look, I figured I would need eight of these puppies to do it the way I felt was necessary and that would set me back about fifty big ones. I've seen this type of assembly method used elsewhere, but not nearly as pretty or heavy duty. I thought about just drilling a hole and sticking the nut & washer in there to attach the bolt, but felt it was tacky. I came upon the idea of splitting a 1" dowel (Cherry) into a bit better than 1/2 of it and drilling a hole through it. I then took some "T" nuts, and bent the tangs out and grinding two opposing sides to better fit within the confines of the dowel. I applied some epoxy to them and pressed them in with my bench vise. Bingo! Worked like a champ. The through-bolts themselves are 3/8" and 6-1/2" long.
The shelves are supported across the stretchers, as well as another support running perpendicular in the middle, to help alleviate sagging. As mentioned above, they are 3/4" MDF. I embelished the bench a bit with end panels, framed in Cherry with some figured Maple in the middle. I also threw together a rack for my main planes, which I think may make its home on the bottom shelf as shown in the pictures. I'm still trying to decide on the second half of the cavity and am open to suggestions. As a note, I already have a home for my chisels in real close proximity to the bench, though expect a few more planes, though most of those will be of a smaller variety.
The finish is Arm-R-Seal, Oil/Urethane Topcoat on the base (3 coats) and 3 coats of BLO on the top. Some specifics of material used: Main base is 48" x 16-1/2" with a 2' footprint for the legs. I had to use the threaded, adjustable glides, as the floor in this shop is extremely uneven throughout. The bulk of the components are 1-3/4"x 3-3/8", while the main stretcher is 1-3/4"x7". The upper shelf sits with a full 4" of open space under the top, giving me enough room to stash tools on it while work is being done on the top. The unit stands 34-1/8" tall and is positioned in an area where it can act as an extension to my current outfeed table on the TS for extremely long pieces. It's also positioned, so that I can have access on all four sides. As far as solid or potential problems with wracking, I think not! I feel pretty confident that, if you could balance it properly, you could park a truck on top of this guy!
That about covers it. Lots learned, lots more left to learn and I sincerely believe this piece will play its part as a tool in that learning experience. Questions, comments, critiques, suggestions are all entirely welcome, without fear of retribution! Thanks for taking a peek!