[Rebelwork]

How much did you have in the accessories? Bench vices, etc..

 

[BigCountry79]

The leg vise wasn't cheap, but I decided to go with a premium one from benchcrafted. I could have gone cheap with the jost.

 

[Rebelwork]

?

 

[Rees Viking]

I know everyone has opinions on benches, and I appreciate that, but I have also found that if you try to take everyone's ideas from their use case and combine them into a "one bench that combines all the features", then you usually wind up with something awkward and compromised...so I'm going to stay relatively close to the design in the book (except taller because I'm 6'7", and with a tool tray because dropping bench planes sucks.)

I also didn't realize there were bragging rights associated with building a cheap bench from construction grade yellow pine...I consider the Scandinavian style benches and houndstooth dovetails more of a fancy/bragging rights bench, but maybe there's something I wasn't aware of (?)

I am not putting through tenons on the top. Just tenons formed through laminations of the leg, and some 2.5" x 5" mortises that I will mostly drill out and just chisel square. The author recommends against using lag bolts on the SYP, so I will heed that advise. The joints don't scare me. I've done them a ton although never quite this large.

I don't know...I kinda figured this would be the easy route towards building a noice bench. My shop is so small I've not wanted to upgrade my tiny bench until I got more space and I'm tired of the wobbling and fighting on the current bench. It weights over 100lbs.

I finally got a little extra room so I'm putting my bench in its own area, and I can go bigger and heavier like I've always wanted!

Yeah, I agree with you about there being no substitute for a heavy work bench. Mine has a huge 10 inch cast iron vice on it, and it measures 8ft long and nearly 3ft wide. Its got to be a good 300kgs and unless I take all the draws out and everything it contains, I cannot move it all lol. But, then I can apply as much force as I like to stock in the vice, so that's the pay off. For a moveable bench around the workshop, I have folding trestles at 400mm, 600mm, 900mm and 1100mm.

 

[BigCountry79]

I got the bench assembled and the glue is drying!!!

I'm really happy how tight all the joints are! This thing is massive and it's totally rock solid!!!

I still need to finish some things, but I can honestly say its a bench now. I'm really satisfied with this!

 

[Andros69]

I've been following your progress for a number of weeks now and I really appreciate you sharing it all. It's been inspiring to see, as I plan on doing the same this coming spring and summer. Mine will be more like 6ft as I don't have the space for an 8ft one. I'm very new to this, but I'm up for the challenge!

The bench looks great already!

Sorry to hear about your loss, i recently took up woodworking as i was dealing with the loss of my mother a bit over a year ago. It's been a great help. Sending you strength.

 

[m.n.j.chell]

That's a great looking piece of wood craft !!!

 

[BigCountry79]

I appreciate the nice words @Andros69 ! For some reason I had it in my head I would finish this bench before dad passed. I was a month and 5 days late...

In general though, I put this off a long time. I'm glad you enjoyed watching my progress. Hopefully it encourages others to jump into the project...

Mine will not be the full 8' after I cut down the sides, I will lose 6" or so. That might be in the wash now that I type it out

 

[DrRobert]

Nice work, BC. I am in SYP country and I don’t think I’ve ever seen wood with that few knots or resin pockets!

I’ve heard people say “it’s just a bench” but I think when you work on a nice looking and well functioning bench that is a positive on the mind set.

Sorry your dad didn’t get to see it, but I know he’d be proud of it.

 

[BigCountry79]

I did a lot of leg work finding those boards, and I also found the 16' boards were a ton cleaner than the 8' boards. You pay a premium for those by about $5, over 2 8' boards, but a $20 difference in materials cost was minimal to me. One caution though...each of those 16" boards split pretty deep on the fresh cut ends when I crosscut them, so paint or wax those ends after you break them down.

I also had a number of knots and pitch pockets that will never be seen. And I matched the leg pieces to get the best faces forward and the most consistent grain on each leg and stretcher.

Thanks for the nice words DR. Dad never much understood how mom and I had so much attention to detail. He was always a quick and dirty sort of guy. He cared more about people and my character, perseverance, and intelligence.

 

[BigCountry79]

Not a whole lot of progress, but I flushed the dowels, flattened the top and installed the planing stop.

Still need to
Install chop
Drill dogs
Crosscut ends
Install shelf
Finish the bench (probably Danish oil)

 

[BigCountry79]

...and one more for @Kenbo

 

[Kenbo]

...and one more for @Kenbo

View attachment 436579

I didn't realize how big the bench was until you put that lighter there. That's huge!!! LOL. Nice job!!

 

[Bob Bengal]

I didn't realize how big the bench was until you put that lighter there. That's huge!!! LOL. Nice job!!

That's a mini lighter on a kid's bench.

 

[BigCountry79]

That's a mini lighter on a kid's bench.

Right...kid sized cigarette lighter...sounds like something from the '50s.

Do you guys remember the candy cigars and cigarettes they used to sell? Those don't fly anymore today!

 

[Kenbo]

Right...kid sized cigarette lighter...sounds like something from the '50s.

Do you guys remember the candy cigars and cigarettes they used to sell? Those don't fly anymore today!

I used to love those things. And the liquorice pipes. All the good stuff is gone.

 

[m.n.j.chell]

That's a hefty looking bench. Looks great.

 

[BigCountry79]

I lost a lot of motivation to finish until this weekend then I started getting into my next step...

In the @Kenbo Theme...

Milling this black locust was legit hard work. The board had a lot of "character", which included the pith...so I ripped along the pith, but still had to deal with super reversing grain. I wound up jointing it on my spiral jointer, then thicknessing it in super tiny passes before taking a cleanup pass on the jointer to get rid of the tearout. Whew!

#madGlueaupSkills

 

[BigCountry79]

Now my bench rocks for all the right reasons!

 

[BigCountry79]

I'm not completely sure when I'm done with this...the holdfasts don't hold in the bench because it's too thick. I probably have some things I can do with the chop to releive a little material for a bevel...At some point, i will install a shelf...I'm sure I'll modify a bunch of other stuff too...but I think this will be my last post on this bench series.