Bench Update

Doug Shepard

In Memorium
Messages
772
Location
Waterford, MI
Well like everything I start, this took 5 times longer than I estimated to complete but it's finally done (well 99% anyway). First I'd like to thank everybody who helped answer questions I had along the way with this. I'm tempted to list them, but I just know I'd forget and insult somebody, so I'm going to chicken out and say THANKs again - you know who you are.

The construction is pretty much following Sam Blasco's bench on this thread
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=22081
Things Sam forget to mention though:
1) I make this look easy
2) You're an idiot if you try this without a honkin big vacuum press bag like I have
3) Having a big slider TS sure beats trying to trim that top with a circular saw.
4) I make this look easy

This ended up at 28x78. The thickness was originally meant to be 4". The top is (from the bottom up) 2 horizontal layers of 1/2" ply, 1 layer of 1" vertically laminated ply, 1 horiz. layer of 1/2" ply, then 1-1/2" of vertically laminated ply. The bottom 2 layers and top 2 layers were glued up separately, run through a wide belt sander, then those 2 slabs were glued together. The LH 2/3rds of the top ended up with a crown in the middle so more flattening with a router sled on rails was needed. That and the wide belt sanding made for a final thickness of around 3-5/8".

The vertically laminated layers were done using yellow glue to glue 5-6 layers of ply - the most I could do and be able to cut it on the TS. Then those were cut on the TS to form sub-sections of the 2 vert. layers. After those were all formed, epoxy was used to glue those together while also glueing them down to the horizontal layer(s) beneath.

The hardwood edging, and vise jaws are purpleheart. Not the funnest stuff to work with, but I wanted something darker to contrast with the ply. Of the locally available options in 8/4, the PH ended being one of the better prices. It's glued to the ply core with epoxy. The area around the Tucker vise also has #14-4" screws through the PH as well. It seemed prudent for supporting the 50 Lb vise weight.

The rear rail underneath is a piece of Macacuaba I pulled from my No-Kill Wood Shelter.

Noden Adjust-A-Bench leg hardware underneath which I'm already enjoying. It made for much more comfortable working heights as I completed finessing and finishing the top. The caster set rolls extremely well too. Maybe I'll mount some masts and sails in the dogholes and take the bench for a spin around the neighborhood this summer

Bison leather jaw liners for the Twinscrew picked up on eBay around 1/4" thick.

I wanted to be able to keep longer work flush with the bench front which is why the Tucker vise is mounted in that setback. An LV Surface Clamp in the dogholes on the front edge works to hold the opposite end.

Still need to finish up a couple of things but probably wont get to them for a couple of weeks.
-Finish touchup in a couple spots
-Easing the dog hole edges
-Drilling dog holes in the Twinscrew jaw
-A tiny bit more shimming underneath for the UHMW rub strips

bench50.jpgBench52.jpgBench54.jpg
 
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Really nice, Doug!

Got more pictures? Those of us who are banned from SMC can't see any of Sam's pictures (although I did go to his Photobucket site.)
 
Nice work there, Doug. Very nice.

Now get busy with that WoodRat!

Well I do at least have the mounting points on the back edge of the bench for hanging a Rat board. I buried 2 cross dowel nuts about 4" into the core with a hole through the back to thread a long bolt into. Just gotta get the Rat board made.


Jim
I've got scads of pics along the way. What in particular do you want to see?
 
Doug, that looks great. Really, REALLY nice. Well done!

I think I might be afraid to bang on it for fear of denting it!. I'd have a cow if I ever dropped a chisel!!!
 
Forgive me, Sam!

I clipped the pic I was most fascinated by!

06LetsSee7AfterTrim2.jpg

Now, that is one novel way to make a benchtop! :bow:

Wow!

Doug, that's one gorgeous bench! Wish I had something like that! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Here's a couple more

This pic shows the stack of lam subsections sitting on top of the horizontal ply pieces. Both the 1" and 1-1/2" portion were done from the same glued up lamination. Everything else from this point forward was where the fun and epoxy started.
bench16.jpg

Here's after doing the bottom 2" portion. This and then the top 2" similar sub-slab were what got hauled to Armstrong Millworks in Highland, MI for a few passes thru their wide belt sander. Both of those lost 1/8" in the process.
bench21.jpg

Here's one gluing the 2 slabs together. This is probably where at least some of my center crowning problem cropped up. Shoulda used cauls here too, but realistically both of these slabs were so blasted heavy I thought the weight of the top slab alone would take care of things.
bench27.jpg
 
Okay, Doug, I gotta ask: Are you married?

After looking at the bottom picture in your last post, with the glue-up sitting in the middle of what looks like it's probably your living room (carpet, fireplace, TV, etc.), I just can't imagine my wife of 42 years, or the wife of anyone else I know, letting me/them get away with that! :rofl:
 
Okay, Doug, I gotta ask: Are you married?
...

:rofl:Nope. But normally that room isn't used during the winter anyway. That's an addition that connects the original house to the garage (shop). There used to be a furnace in a corner of the garage that was just to heat that room, but just to save money, it was hardly ever turned on. The furnace needed replacing a year or so ago, but it was completely removed instead and a gas fireplace insert was put in the fireplace for heat if/when it was needed. The old furnace closet in the garage became my Cyclone DC closet area.
Anyway since the garage isn't heated, the whole bench project got moved inside so I could keep gluing, finishing, and even just plain working. I kept the fireplace insert running around 60 degrees but even that jacked my gas bills up quite a bit. Thankfully some Festools picked up in the last couple of years allowed me to do powertool work inside with very little mess. And the handtool work was pretty easy to keep up with. Just lots of periodic breaks to vac stuff up from the drop cloth.
I gotta admit, it was pretty cool having a workshop with a TV, couch, and 2 Lazy Boys.:D
 
Here's a few more.
This part was actually kind of fun because I got to preview how cool the Tucker was to use before I had it on the bench. I had it mounted to a dumpster dive piece of butcher block straddled between 2 Workmates. I did this so I could nail down the dimensions to plan out that notched setback area.
TVise1.jpg


So I put the Tucker to use cutting joinery for the hardwood in that corner notch. With the vise rotated it gave me a nice stable edge to hang the router edge guide and laminate trimmer on and cut some spline slots.
TenonSlots02 (Small).jpgTenonSlots03 (Small).jpg

The slot for the maple splines on the OS corner were done on the short leg while also in the Tucker. The matching slots on the longer benchfront weren't put in until after it was glued to the bench and short leg. I could complete the slot with hand/coping saws & chisels on that piece after it was in place, but had to have it done on the short leg before gluing it to the bench. There's just no way to get tools in there in place. So I glued the short leg, splines, and LH end of the hardwood togethr, then glued/screwed that whole section into the notch. If you look close you can see 2 of the plugs covering the 4" screws that go into the core. The inside corner splines are more purpleheart. The OS corner ones are just some scrap Borg maple.
bench31.jpg
 
Couple more of the Re-flattening after discovering my middle crowning problem. Thanks to Alex Shanku for pointing me to this for the How-To
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=58

Here's one with the router sled/rails afterwards. By the time I had made it to the last 12" on the RH end, that ply had pretty much spent the router bit and I was getting quite a bit of burning.
Flattening02.jpg

After scraping the snot out of it with the LV Scraper, Stanley #80, card scrapers, etc.
Flattening05.jpg
 
More from the belly of the beast

One right before flipping it over for the last time.
The counterbored hole & washer in the lower right is one of 2 holes for a cross-dowel (barrel bolt). There's a hole into the back edge for threading a long bolt into the cross-dowel. Since I've got no other place to put one, this is where a Woodrat mounting board will hang when I'm using it.
Underneath04.jpg

The UHMW rub strips for the twin screws. I didnt like the idea of not gluing the shimming between the UHMW and bench bottom. But with it glued in place, there's no way to be able to get the vise flange nuts on/off if need be. My compromise solution was to glue the shimming in place but leave the gap. I still need to cut a short piece of shimming & UHMW that's just wedged in-between and held with screws.
UHMW01.jpg
 
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