My First Workbench Build - A Journal

[Eric Schubert]

I got a bit sidetracked today working on another project, so I didn't make a ton of progress tonight. However, I took care of a few tasks that needed doing in my shop area. Cleaned up a bit. Took out a huge bag of shavings to the trash. Sharpened my #7 again. And I did get about halfway done on my last 4x4, so I'm almost done with this phase of the project.

[Eric Schubert]

Finally got all of my lumber smoothed out. The 4x4's aren't exactly flat/square, but I'll deal with that as I need to. I might be able to get away with using one flattened face as an outer surface to clamp against, and forget the rest. Just measure off of that one face and get my tenons cut. We'll see how it goes.

In any case, next steps are to cut down all of my pieces to length and prepare for assembly. Still need to order those barrel nuts, too...

[Phillip Mitchell]

I don't intend to come off as preachy, but for the parts that you're working on, I believe it would pay off to get them square. At the very least, ensure that the ends where you're laying out and cutting joinery are really square. Layout and joinery on out of square stock is, at best, an annoying challenge to remember how to handle everything bc it's not square and, at worst, results in poor joinery.

I say this while building a bench of my own at the moment and dealing with laying out and cutting mortise for the legs into the underside of the top and having one leg tenon slightly off from where I wanted to be. Having to deal with that issue at the joinery stage is a pain.

Keep up the good work!

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks, Phillip. I do appreciate you sharing your experience on this. My main issue is that most of these 4x4 boards have twist or bow in them (or both) to the point where getting both ends square and parallel may not be possible without removing some major amounts of material. I'm not sure if it's terribly noticeable in the pictures, but you might be able to see which ones are the worst of the bunch.

As I prepare to cut them down, I'll look for the best pieces for the long stretchers. Then I can see how I can make adjustments from there.

Would you simply get both ends square and aligned with each other?

[Gary Focht]

Is there a reason you didn't cut them down prior to squaring them up? Wouldn't that have minimized the amount of wood you needed to remove to eliminate the bow and twist?

Can't wait to see the final bench and am enjoying the updates.

[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...

[Chris Hachet]

I got a bit sidetracked today working on another project, so I didn't make a ton of progress tonight. However, I took care of a few tasks that needed doing in my shop area. Cleaned up a bit. Took out a huge bag of shavings to the trash. Sharpened my #7 again. And I did get about halfway done on my last 4x4, so I'm almost done with this phase of the project.

I have found a zen like life altering mindset with hand tools. It helps with the "just keep making progress..." way of thinking. Since I adop0ted the "I got further along, I am in no hurry..." mindset, I am actually getting a lot more done.

#7 is a sweet tool, mine lives on a shelf under my bench.

[Robert Engel]

Kris, I understand. Sometimes you can pick up used Stanley blades in the $20 range off Ebay.

BTW, the back bevel technique aka the "Charlesworth ruler trick" may make life a little easier for you re: sharpening.

[Eric Schubert]

Nothing very exciting tonight. Got my #7 in shape to continue after "The Screwing" incident.

I did have a minor epiphany while sharpening, though. I realized I wasn't spending enough time on my first honing film (around 1k grit). After my coarse DMT, I needed to spend more time removing the coarse scratches from that diamond stone. After doing that, I got a really nice, smooth shaving when I reassembled my plane. I'll have to pay more attention to that step...