New workbench build thread

[brian zawatsky]

Thanks Chris. My plan for the cabinet carcass is a quick & dirty frameless Euro-style box out of plywood with dividers in the necessary spots to carry the drawer slides. I will likely just dowel and screw the box together (after all, it's a shop fixture not fine furniture) and maybe veneer the ends to hide the screws. Working in a commercial cabinet shop i have a nearly endless supply of plywood cut-offs and leftover veneer sheet shorts so I will call upon those reserves for this one.

The drawer boxes are going to have poplar sides & backs and cherry fronts to match the top. I like to use half blind dovetails on drawer boxes, and the front of each box will have rabbeted half blinds to overlay the edges of the cabinet box. I love cutting dovetails so I'm looking forward to that part of the build.

[brian zawatsky]

Cabinet built and installed. Itching to start making the drawers and finally begin to de-clutter my shop.

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[brian zawatsky]

Spent some time making drawers over the weekend. I may have made it more complicated than it needed to be, but that's kinda my MO. I wanted the look of a full overlay cabinet, so I decided on rabbeted half blind dovetails for the drawer fronts. I have one drawer left to do, but so far so good.
The time consuming part was laying everything out. The rabbets are different sizes depending upon the position of the drawer and what part of the case is being overlaid. I cut the cross grain rabbets with tenon saws & shoulder plane, and the long grain rabbets with a metal rabbet plane similar to a Stanley 78.

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[brian zawatsky]

I had to mark the pin board with a pencil, because the rabbet prevented me from getting my marking knife in there. This was less than ideal, so I struck a knife line just inside the pencil mark before cutting.

I gave myself permission to overcut the baseline on the inside face of the drawer fronts, as it was tricky to saw the sides of the pins without cutting into the bottom of the rabbet. You can see a bunch of little marks where I stabbed it with the tip of the saw inadvertently. The rest of the dovetail process is straightforward.

While I really enjoy cutting dovetails, I'm no Derek Cohen As you can see from my pics lol. I'm always learning and always trying to do just a little better on the next joint.

My first couple joints were nice and tight mechanically, but still showed some gaps on the outside and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized that my tails weren't perfectly square across the thickness of the board, and that produced a joint that had to be tapped together yet still showed gaps. I cut the next set of tails more carefully and ended up with a bit tighter joint.

Still have to cut the dovetails in the bottom drawer, then take them all back apart and hit them with the smoother to clean them up.

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[Brian Holcombe]

Brian, there is an easier way to make those dovetails. Since this is for an application where the sides must be set in, if you make through dovetails and then make an applied face, it's much easier.

[brian zawatsky]

Brian, there is an easier way to make those dovetails. Since this is for an application where the sides must be set in, if you make through dovetails and then make an applied face, it's much easier.

Thanks for the suggestion Brian. I've done that before on other things I've built, and wanted to give this method a shot. Since the cabinet was a bit of a quick & dirty, thought I'd put some extra effort into the drawers. It was fun as well as challenging.

[William Fretwell]

Splendid bench Brian, I look forward to the BLO job as the bench will be stunning after that.

[Nathan Johnson]

^ phrasing

[brian zawatsky]

^ phrasing

Hahahahaha!!! The praise is always highest after the BLO job. At least that's what she said...

[brian zawatsky]

Splendid bench Brian, I look forward to the BLO job as the bench will be stunning after that.

Thanks William, it's been a great project. The finish will unfortunately have to wait until the spring when I can open up the Bilco door and casement windows in my basement shop, otherwise the boss may make me sleep down there! She doesn't like when I stink the house up with the beautiful aroma of aromatic hydrocarbon solvents. Go figure.

[brian zawatsky]

So I finally finished up the drawers this past weekend, which pretty much brings the bench build saga to a close. Still remaining are a little planing and scraping to remove some pencil marks & smooth out a couple funky spots, and a treatment of BLO+varnish+turpentine which will have to wait until the spring since it is rather stinky (depending upon who you ask) and my shop is in the basement.

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I will remove the drawers and take them to work with me, where I can get some finish on them to protect & stabilize them. The tulip poplar really likes to move for some reason and I think getting finish on them will help tremendously with that issue.

The Emmert vise is an absolute beast, and installing it rather than a twin screw was the right decision for me. I've already found several joinery operations that it simplifies. I may remove the front jaw and clean it up a little better, but not too much. I kinda like it looking old and well-used.

I may also update the thread in a few months after I get some finish on it; the cherry will really glow after that. Thanks for following along.

[Jerry Olexa]

Really Excellent work, Brian....OUTSTANDING results!!!! I envy your bench,,,

[Mark Rainey]

A very impressive bench Brian

[Christopher Charles]

Hello Brian,

I really really really like my bench, but yours has me a wee bit jealous Beautiful work and looking forward to seeing the projects that you use it for.

Best,
Chris

[brian zawatsky]

Thanks guys. I had been wanting to build my own bench for at least 5 years now. I'm glad I waited - by the time I had the extra money and time to build it, I actually knew pretty much what I was looking for in a work bench.