My First Workbench Build - A Journal

[Karl Andersson]

Hi Eric,
I built my Scandi bench out of Doug Fir 4x4s from the BORG several years ago and it's held up pretty well, although it probably dings more easily than a hardwood bench. My top sits on crosspieces at the tops of the trestles like you mention, and there's no tenon to prevent sliding, so I used a single 3/4" diameter lag bolt through each trestle top, about 6" in from the front face so the top would stay flush with the frame below as the top expanded and shrank seasonally in my unheated shop. I didn't smooth the whole bottom, just the two crossways paths that the trestles would contact (basically dadoes in the underside of the top). It has worked fine, and the tusk tenons worked out very well too, as they haven't loosened since its initial construction, so technically it is portable even if I haven't moved it.

Two things to consider regarding the thickness and board orientation:

if you go much over 3.5" thick, you may have difficulty getting holdfasts to work (at least the Gramercy ones), although some report that slightly larger holes or counterbores under the top to bring it locally to about 3.5" will solve the problem. You likely WILL want holdfasts if not now, then after a short time of use.

The thickness of your top - whether 6" or 8" at this point- should be determined by the ring orientation in your wood. Especially with a softwood top, I think it is important that the growth rings are perpendicular (or as much as possible) to the plane of the bench surface - the hard rings provide the bearing surface for your work, the soft rings tend to compact between them. If you orient the rings parallel to the surface so you're working on a plain-sawn or "cathedral pattern", I think the soft wood would wear too easily and the hard rings would tend to catch on clothing, workpieces, etc., and tear out - likely even during your initial flattening of the benchtop. Either way, you might end up ripping the 8x6's down to something more manageable or with better ring orientation... don't mean to make more work for you, but DF is plenty rigid; if I were going to use that wood (after using my bench for a while) I'd make the base from the 8x6 lumber and use the 4x4s for the top so it had a heavy, low center of gravity - but you've already bought the wood with a plan, so let us know how it turns out
Karl
my bench:
bench01.JPG

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate the feedback. I'm starting to rethink my bench top idea of laminating all the 6x8's. Looking back, I probably should have went with the 4x4's, but I'd rather not buy more 4x4's and spend more on lumber. So, I'll try to make do with what I have already.

What about if I just laid all three of the 6x8's on top of the base, clamp them together, and then use a single lag bolt on each end of each board to bolt them to the base? Would that work okay? Or would I run into issues with that setup? (e.g. gaps opening up, lack of stability because of only one bolt, etc.)

[Brian Holcombe]

5" is probably still way overkill, but depending on how the grain looks I'd probably take the best two of those 6x8's and rip them down to 4x6 then process them down....if you wind up at 3.5" x 5.5" then laminate them you could wind up at 3.5" x 22" which would be pretty awesome and still have 6x8's left over for legs, which I'd probably mill down to something like 5x5 and use the cut offs for stretchers.

3.5 x 22" by 7 can probably be handled by two men. 6" x 24" x 7' may become a perminant part of your house...

In other words, you can probably get the entire bench out of the 6x8's with some planning, and have a very stout bench that is actually moveable.

I work by myself, and so I tend to avoid making things that I can't flip around or move in some manner entirely on my own. My bench top pushed the limit of that once all of the vises and so forth were added.

[Eric Schubert]

Boy, I don't know that I want to think about ripping boards that thick and long by hand... I only really have hand tools. I do have a small contractor-type table saw that may help. But getting a 100lb board on that little saw could be...interesting. To say the least. And it won't cut all the way through, with only a 10" blade.

But the idea of cutting the 6x8's down to 4x6's is intriguing... and I'd have lumber left over, in case I needed it for another bench or something.

Oh, I did forget to mention earlier, I do have a pair of the Grammercy holdfasts already. I also have a Veritas surface vise. Definitely looking to add dog holes in the top.

I also planned to make the bench movable with casters. I'd likely make them fold down under the legs for moving around, then fold out of the way to set the bench on the bottom of the legs to keep it in one spot. Something like this. But, I imagine that might be extremely difficult to manipulate with a 6" thick bench top.

[ken hatch]

I'll add to the others, if you work alone and/or want to move the bench a split top is the best way to go. I've built both symmetrical and asymmetrical slabs as well as solid, of the three I find asymmetrical is the better option. The working (front) slab on my current bench is approximately 470mm wide with the back slap being a touch over 200mm. Giving a 25" or so (in American) total top surface. Each slab is narrow enough to run through many home shop planers and is possible, not easy but possible, for one man to move around during the build. While building a bench it is a PITA to have to get help, much better if you can do it without another set of muscles.

Each slab has housed M/T joint at the legs that are pegged but not glued and a Spaz screw through the short stretcher and the off side of the slab. You couldn't move that sucker with a "Jimmy" but it could break down into moveable pieces.

From a working stand point, having a split top is no different than a solid slab plus it offers more clamping options and with a well designed "split fill" a convenient place to hold some of your tools while working. It is pretty much win win.

Good luck,

ken

[Eric Schubert]

Ken and David, thanks for your feedback!

I do have a workbench book from Chris Schwarz. I'll pull it out again for another read to see if there are any things that can help me out.

I had considered the idea of a split top. I definitely like the extra clamping options it brings. How wide of a split between slabs would be ideal? Splitting up the top like that would definitely make it easier to disassemble in the future. And I've wanted to try the double through-tenon/dovetail that is typical of many benches. So, that could be a fun way to accomplish both goals.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Eric

My bench build is here, if it helps promote questions, rather than answers ..

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/index.html

Unless you are 6'6" tall with gorilla arms, I'd advise a bench about 21-22" wide. More than this is difficult to reach across.

For reference, the top is 3 1/2" European Oak.

Bench height also creates much controvesy. I followed the thoughts of CS, but in retrospect I think he is incorrect, and have raised it 2". The added height is better on the back.

Keep us posted.

Derek

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks, Derek! I'll have to read through your bench build. It's different than my basic design, but I'm sure I'll find many helpful tidbits in those pages.

A little bit of searching later and it sounds like a 3-4" gap in a split top is pretty good. Since my bench will be in the middle of the room, I'm not too worried about depth. So, I could go with a symmetrical split. Maybe a pair of 10-11" slabs, 3-4" thick, with a 4" gap in the middle for clamping. I'd also likely make a small sliding tool tray that can sit in that gap to hold a few items while I'm working, but still slide out of my way when I need to clamp something.

[Karl Andersson]

I wouldn't try to rip something that thick with a table saw unless it was a beast of a saw - not only would you likely bind the blade while trying to muscle the wood over it, but the wood may move (twist, warp) as it's cut - even a little and the blade is pinched. I've had success ripping 6x8 and 8x8 treated lumber using a handheld 7 1/4" circular saw with a rip fence attached and a rough cut blade (about 3/16" kerf). Thick wood loves to move as you cut it, especially wet treated lumber- you need to be ready to lift the blade out when you hear it start binding, and don't have your face/ leg right behind it in case it kicks back. I did have to rescue the blade once with a wedge... and the 8x8 lumber had about an inch left between cuts which I took care of with an unpowered rip saw.

If you don't have a circular saw, you can rent one at HD or other rental place - just make sure it has the rip fence in the box. I recommend you screw a 1x4 about a foot long to the fence to keep the blade as straight as possible as you go -and use the same side of the wood as your reference side when you flip the beam to cut from the other side. Don't try to cut the max depth at once -depending on how dry your wood is inside, take 2 or 3 passes (the dryer, the faster). No need to rush - this bench will be with you for a long time.

Or, make friends with someone who has a large bandsaw... like Brian, I tend to work alone, so this was my solution
good luck
Karl

[Christopher Charles]

+1 on friend with a bandsaw. Or a local cabinet shop may be able to do the rips for a nominal cost.

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks, Karl. We do have a bandsaw at work that I could likely use, but we only have metal-cutting blades, so that's not a good choice... I do have a circular saw with a new-ish blade that should do fairly well. It does not have a rip fence, though. However, I can clamp a straight edge onto the surface to use as a guide.

My main concern is that I live in a townhome that has other units attached and nearby. I really don't want to annoy my neighbors by cutting outside. Plus that means having to move those heavy hunks of wood upstairs again. Even though our homes are pretty well-insulated from noise, I also don't want to use the saw inside and spray sawdust all over our basement (and consequently, around our home as it's pulled into the HVAC system). I'm thinking I may have little choice but to rip these by hand.

Oh well, it'll give me some experience with ripping large boards, and also help with getting down my sawing technique. I have a couple of hand saws that should work fine for this job. TPI may be a bit fine for this size of log (maybe around 6-8tpi), but that's fine.

On a side note, I spent a couple hours last night sharpening up some plane blades to prepare for surfacing all of the lumber. I now have a couple blades for my #4 and I finally sharpened up my #7C.

I actually had a bit of an "ah-ha!" moment last night when I sharpened up that #7C. I've read many people discussing how certain stones or sharpening methods work better for different steels. And I finally found out for myself how true that is. I was sharpening up a brand new PM-V11 blade for my #4, and it was definitely slower going than other blades I've done. It was already very flat on the back side, and getting a burr was pretty easy, but it took a while to do on finer grits than I'm used to. Then I grabbed the blade from my #7C, which is probably an original blade. Someone had already put some camber on it, but it was a bit rusty and chipped and needed to have some metal removed to get a good bevel again. That steel must have been quite soft, because metal came off easily on my DMT coarse diamond plate. Once I had that cambered bevel smoothed out again, it was easy to get it nice and sharp.

Now, I also need practice sharpening. (I currently use the DMT Coarse for rough work, then have a 1K Naniwa SS, and honing/lapping film for the rest of the finer grits.) I'm learning to sharpen freehand, rather than using a guide. Though I do have flat and cambered rollers for my Veritas MKII honing guide I can use in a pinch. So my camber isn't a perfect radius. But it should be sufficient to get the job done so I can move on to my smoother.

Anyway, just a little anecdote. But I finally got to see and feel what others were saying for myself. Might be time to get a coupe good stones, like the Sigma Power ceramics, to take my sharpening to another level.

[Tom Bussey]

Why not put a stretcher a crossed the top of the legs also. The put two cleats on the underside so they are touching the stretchers at the top. Screw the cleats on . you will have to elongate all the holes except for the first screw. That way the top just sets there on the legs. To move the bench all that is needed is to lift the top off and if you make the legs knock down you can mode it very nicely. Most benches are never built with moving to a different location and or fasten it to a wall also and then they have a mess.

This is just my personal opinion but I feel a person should be able to work on all four sides of a workbench.

[Eric Schubert]

Tom, I was actually planning to put a stretcher across the tops of the legs so that I could lag screw the top slabs down to them, making a split top. I might still do the double dovetail/tenon joint on the outer edges, just because I'd like to try it. But, the top slabs will rest on the stretchers, and I'd still use lag screws to hold the slabs down.

I also plan to put the casters on the legs such that I can lift and roll the bench around, if I need to. That way I can keep it in the center of the open area and work on all sides (I very much agree with you on this!), but I can also roll it out of the way if I need more room for some other reason.

I've also poked around a bit on bench styles, and I like the concept of the Roubo and 21st Century benches. I want to be able to clamp through the center of the bench. But, I also was intrigued by making a box or two to sit in the gap for holding items, or so I can flip them upside down and use them to fill the gap and make a full work surface without a gap in it.

[Eric Schubert]

So, managed to get just a bit more done on the final leg of my bench. Unfortunately, the second side I'm working on is significantly convex, so it's going to take some time to get it flattened out. It's getting there, but I tired out before I could finish it. I'd say I need to take the center down by somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2" to get it flattened out.

[Eric Schubert]

Really just updating my journal here, not much exciting. Finally got back to it a bit. I put in a couple of hours working on flattening the convex side of that board again. It's nearly there, but I just ran out of gas. Next time I should have that side flattened and squared.