Beginner - building a workbench

jags217 · Nov 8, 2019

I'm building a workbench. I asked for some advice here. Well I pulled the trigger, bought a bunch of tools and got started.

I spent the first few days trying to learn to make things sharp. The Lie Nielsen tools came sharp, but they all recommended putting an extra five degree micro-bevel. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos then proceeded to do it wrong anyhow for a few tries. Then I finally got wise and made a stropping block.

Then I was able to get things paper-slicing sharp.

The wood came Tuesday and I was out with a friend last night. Tonight I decided to try gluing up the legs. If I ****ed it up, I'd lose less wood than if I tried starting out with the top. I took out the jack plane, waxed the bottom, and tried to get two pieces so they would lay flat against each other. I should have tried harder because the glue-up did not go well.

Check out this gap:

Realizing my mistake only after clamping failed to rectify the problem, I tried to get the pieces apart. But even after five minutes it seemed the wood glue was way too strong for me to pull apart with my hands. Impressive! I guess we'll just go with it and see how we do. If I have extra wood left over at the end or some extra time to go by the lumber yard again, maybe I'll remake this leg.

I also machined another leg tonight. This one seems to be sitting much flatter against itself. I can press the edges together with my hands so I hope that with some luck and a little more glue, I'll have a proper glue-up tomorrow night.

My parents were also kind enough to give me a home depot gift cert for my birthday. I think I need some more clamps. It would be nice to be able to glue up more than one thing at a time. I've heard good things about pipe clamps . . .

Doug in NY · Jan 19, 2020

How is the build of the work bench going? This was the first post I started to read in December and what made me decide to join this forum. Fantastic progress so far.

jags217 · Jan 21, 2020

It's still going! I'm in the midst of cutting the mortises and tenons for the second set of legs. Slow going this weekend but on the plus side the quality of my joints is getting much better.

jags217 · Feb 5, 2020

Apologies for the lack of updates. I've been having a bit of insomnia and haven't been motivated to work in the evening. But! I got into the office today and knocked out two tenons for the last stretcher of the second pair of legs.

I think I finally have the hang of them. The process of splitting away the offcuts is finally clicking, and I think I understand the mechanics of wood grain that was causing me to go too deep before. What do you think?

I did this in about an hour and a half, which is encouraging because normally a tenon will take me longer and won't look this good. Faster and better is a solid combo! The best thing is how repeatable it felt. Each of the four tenon faces took about the same amount of time and look about as good. So, mortises tomorrow night, hopefully. Then one last pair of long stretchers, assembly, and finishing.

Scurvy · Feb 5, 2020

You’re right, you’ve got the hang of it, those look great! Thanks for sharing this project.

Doug in NY · Mar 15, 2020

This post got me motivated and I built a work bench of my own this weekend. Finishing it up today. Thanks for getting me started.

youngdrume · Mar 15, 2020

woodworking

i have a link help you out check it out
(Link Removed - non operational)

John Smith_inFL · Mar 16, 2020

welcome to the forum, YoungDrume.
where are you from ?
I removed the link that you mentioned as it does not work.
please check it out and see what's wrong.

.

jags217 · Mar 16, 2020

Hah. Ironically, I'm very blocked at the moment on this project. The vise is . . . not good. I think the problem is that it requires you to put the metal piece so low, but the work pieces want to be high in the vise. So basically the clamping force has a huge amount of mechanical advantage and is pulling the vise jaw away from the hardware. I am experiencing screw pull out so I'm reluctant to use it at the moment.

Honestly I think this vise is just not suitable for a thick work bench. They should have design the front of the vise with some vertical support to prevent the mechanical advantage situation I'm talking about. Now I see why the Lie Nielsen vise wants to be embedded in the bench: it reduces the mechanical advantage of the clamping resistance pressure from the workpiece. It moves the center of force closer to the middle of the bench. I am planning to get one of these and replace the vise I have with it. If it's good enough for Paul Sellers it should be good enough for me.

Beginner - building a workbench

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