My First Workbench Build - A Journal

[Eric Schubert]

Gary, I could absolutely have cut everything to length first. Being my first major project, I wasn't sure in which order to do this. So, I just smoothed everything out first. I could have probably saved myself some work had I cut them short first. And I'll probably still need to do additional planing to square some pieces up. My thought process was, if I'm going to get multiple usable pieces from one board, it helps me plane them all flat/square at the same time. I just hadn't really noticed all of the major bowing and twisting until I got into those pieces...

Honestly, I'm probably not going about things in the most-efficient manner. But, I'm trying to learn as I go, and I'll build off of that for my next project. That's a big part of why I started this discussion was so I can get feedback and direction, learning as I go. And I really appreciate all of the tips and guidance people have given me, so far.

[Eric Schubert]

Didn't make physical progress on my bench tonight, but I did go back and make some minor revisions to my plans. I lengthened the tenons to 3" and widened them to 1.5" x 2", though I think I'll take the mortises about that deep and cut the tenons just a little short of that to ensure the mortise bottoms don't need to be perfect. I also added in the bored holes for the barrel nuts to make sure they would clear the mortises for the short stretchers, which they just do. Thru holes for the barrel nut bolts are just estimated at 5/8" diameter. I'll see what auger bits I have for my brace and go from there. But, the extra clearance shouldn't matter too much.

Main concerns are how to clear the bottoms of the mortises out by hand. A chisel will not make it easy. I may be able to use a Forstner bit to hog out the waste and get most of the bottom flat, and then clean it up using my 1/4" mortise chisel (the only one I have) or my 1" bench chisel, though I'm not sure if that's the ideal way to do this... any ideas?

[David Eisenhauer]

I would definitely drill out all I could on these large mortises and then use a chisel to pare the sides and ends down. Your 1" bench chisel will work (don't have to use a "mortise" chisel on mortises) to pare with. Use a small square to check that the mortise end and side walls are vertical, as it is easy to drift off plumb when doing deep mortises. Typically, mortises are chopped an 1/8" or so deeper than the length of the tenons to allow for glue clearance. Completely hand chopped (by chisel) mortise bottoms are smooth enough for use as is and do not require extra smoothing of the bottom surface. I used an 18" long Wood Owl Auger type bit to drill my 1/2" diameter long drawbolt holes through my legs and into the ends of the long stretchers. Amazon and Traditional Woodworker have these that I know of. Most folks tend to drawbore (with wood pins) the cross stretchers into the legs and I could not tell from your drawing that you intended to do that or not. Go buy some construction lumber and sticker it up for a week or two and then get started. Starting is the hardest part. You should be able to TS rip the rounded edge off of the 2x material, just have to see if a midline rip will pinch the blade or not.

[Robert Engel]

Eric, with a captured bolt you don't need a tenon deeper than 1". The shoulders are more important I would leave 1" top and bottom and 1/2" on the sides.

Both workbenches I built this way when you tighten up those bolts its quite sturdy. Personally, I would question whether a 3x3 stretcher is wide enough. Maybe you don't need to with the through tenon legs, but it seems to me a 5-6" wide stretcher would be more sturdy. The stretchers on my big bench are 2x8 with a 1x6 mortise.

A flat bottom be achieved with a Forstner bit then just clean up the corners and sides (or round over the tenons).

[Eric Schubert]

Robert, that's definitely a concern for me. Will the bench be sturdy, or will it wobble? I do have enough material that I may be able to laminate two 3x3 pieces together to get a wider stretcher. I just don't know if that will work, due to the amount of warping/twisting in those pieces. I can at least take a look and see if it's a possibility, though. Thanks for pointing that out.

David, thanks for the suggestions on hogging out those mortises. That will definitely help. As for your question, I plan to drawbore the short stretchers on either end of the bench. The long stretchers will use the barrel nuts.

[David Eisenhauer]

I don't have the exact dimensions handy, but the Benchcrafted plans call for wider (taller) stretchers than your planned for 3". I think I remember that the lower short (side) stretchers call for of 4-1/4" wide, with the upper stretcher being a little narrower, maybe 3"-3-1/2" ? If you have not yet sourced them, Benchcrafted sells the drawbolt/barrel nut combos. The Benchcrafted plans call for a 1" tenon length on the long stretchers where the drawbolt will be used and the drawbolts will pull it up tight to remove all "wobbling". Better be on the look out for long drill bits so you can drill out for your side stretcher pin holes plus the long stretcher drawbolt arrangement. I used a 1/2" diam. 18" long Wood Owl bit to get the drawbolt hole drilled out through the leg and into the end of the stretcher.

[Eric Schubert]

David, I plan to use a brace/bit to bore my bolt holes, but I'll have to check how long those bits are. I also have already purchased the Benchcrafted hardware, as you had suggested. Those should hopefully arrive within the next week or so, depending on how quickly they ship.

One alternative I'm considering is using a couple of angled corner braces above/below the m/t joint in the long stretchers to create a lengthened shoulder for more rigidity. (Think just a 45/45/90 degree wedge of material, glued to the stretchers and screwed to the legs in addition to the barrel nut hardware.)

That also throws out the concept of angled bracing. If the bench is wobbly, I can always install angled brace pieces under the middle of the top slabs going from one upper short stretcher to one lower short stretcher on the opposite end. Bolt those together and fasten them to the short stretchers. Seems like a band-aid fix, though...

[David Eisenhauer]

I am not very sure at all that you are going to see any wobbly, but you can cross that bridge when you get to it. Your angled corner braces, flush with the outside of the face of the bench and fitted in place with loose tenons or largish dowels would most likely do a world of good. Wait and see. I used the 18" long Wood Owl in my brace to finish the long 1/2" draw bolt holes that I started with my drill press. I would have gone for a 12" bit if they offered it, but it was either 7-1/2" or 18".

[Robert Hazelwood]

To be honest your bench's legs are so large that, as long as your leg-to-top joinery is halfway decent, you probably don't even need stretchers to avoid racking (of course you need them to make the split top design work, but you get the idea). I would not bother with corner braces. 3x3 will be fine for the short stretchers...would be sufficient for the long stretchers too, but wider would look better to my eye, to be more balanced with the legs. You can spend $15 on a couple of 2x8s, let them dry for a month or so (should dry very quickly this time of year in CO), and make them out of those. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with 3x3 IMO if that's what your available wood can yield.

[Eric Schubert]

I'm feeling exhausted and mentally fried tonight, but I forced myself to at least get something done so I don't lose momentum.

I evaluated each of the 3x3 boards to see which ones were the straightest. After picking out three of them, I cut one down to make a long stretcher. Then I started working on squaring and flattening it. It's much easier with a shorter piece. And this board is fairly straight, so I shouldn't lose too much of the material as I work on it. I got it about halfway done. Just need to square up the remaining sides and start the next one. Once my pieces are cut and squared/flattened, then I plan to start cutting down the legs.

[Eric Schubert]

Got to it again tonight. Continued working on squaring up my first long stretcher. (If you think 42" is "long".) I got the second side finished up, but ran into a snag on the third side... another screw... *sigh* I guess just looking in all of the holes isn't good enough. I'll have to start poking a small punch into them to see if they hit any metal. Initially, I tried to punch the "nail" farther into the board, because I didn't want to have to chisel out a chunk of wood, pull it out, and then try to fill it back in with the chiseled pieces or a bit of scrap. Unfortunately, it didn't budge. So, I took a chisel on all sides to get a grip on it with my vise grips. It still wouldn't budge... I tried twisting to loosen it up and found it turned fine, it just didn't pull out. As I twisted, I realized it was a screw. Well, I did get it out, but not before chipping up my plane again. It's so hard to notice them until you're close to the metal, but by that time the hole has filled in with sawdust, making it impossible to see the nail until you hit it. Just gotta be more diligent about checking all of the holes, I guess. Just part of my learning process.

Time to sharpen up again before I continue. Too bad, because my plane was working beautifully until then.

Fortunately, this is actually the longer piece of the two from when I cut my 3x3 down. I'll cut it to 42" and then cut my tenons. As you can see from the image below, I'll cut right through where the screw went, so it had to come out anyway. But I'll cut the tenon shoulder below the screw hole and cut away the gouged area. You'll never even know it was there, except for the screw hole.

On the upside, I also got my barrel nuts from Benchcrafted. These things are beefy!

[Brent VanFossen]

...but ran into a snag on the third side... another screw... *sigh* I guess just looking in all of the holes isn't good enough. I'll have to start poking a small punch into them to see if they hit any metal.

I keep a wand-type metal detector in my shop. Every piece of suspect wood undergoes a full sweep on each surface before I apply a hand plane or run it across or through any of my machines. There's no telling how many brads, staples, and nails I have found even after I have removed everything that I could see. I don't remember what I paid for it, but I got it from Harbor Freight and used one of their "percent off any item" coupons. Well worth the money.

[Eric Schubert]

Brent, that's a fantastic idea. HF has two styles of wand detectors. The one with better reviews is $40. With a coupon, sounds like it would easily pay for itself in time savings. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Robert Engel]

Eric,

Although I've never actually hit a nail with a hand plane (ouch!) this brings to mind that I keep spare plane blades sharpened and ready to use.
It can be helpful to have one or two plane blades with different cambers. My 4 1/2, 6 and 7 all take the same size so you only need 1.

Keep in mind sometimes only the distal part is hardened so you have to be extremely careful not to overheat when grinding. I think this may be especially true with the thin Stanley blades but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

[Eric Schubert]

Robert, I'd love to have extra blades ready to go. Unfortunately, I don't really have the money to put into blades at the moment. I have one PM-V11 blade for my #4, but I still need to figure that plane out. It just tends to dig and chatter. My #7 has an original blade, I think. But, I just can't drop $40 on a new blade right now. That's on my list, though.

The blade I had gotten wasn't exactly flattened on the back, so I used a wet surface grinder to get it flattened along the inch or so near the edge. I also used that surface grinder to get the bevel started, because it was so chipped and pitted that it would've taken forever to get the bevel set by hand-sharpening. Then I flattened and squared the sole and sides of it, as well. In any case, it works really well when it's sharpened up. For some reason, my other planes do not, and they got the same treatment. I really should take some time to sort those issues out. It really sucks not being able to use my other planes for anything...