Preparing Bench Top Wood With No Power Tools

[Justin Green]

Hi,

I've been lurking a while and have a question. I'm wanting to build a woodworking bench and do not have a power jointer or planer. I'm going tomorrow to try and select some wood for the top and base assembly. I want the top to glue up as nice as possible. There's a good chance this will end up being southern pine, as hardwoods are really hard to find here in Waco, Texas. I'm checking one place tomorrow that sells hardwoods, but I don't know if he stocks enough maple or ash for a top. Local borgs sell oak, but I'd rather not use it, and the top would wind up costing more than I want to spend, anyways, since their oak is way overpriced. If I can't find reasonably priced hardwood, I will be buying 12" wide joist lumber and ripping it.

I do own a selection of hand planes, but I'm not practiced in their use just yet. I want the top to glue up without significant gaps (obviously). I plan on buying the straightest wood I can find and will let it dry in the garage for a couple of weeks, but I'm still concerned that the face laminations on the top may not glue up tight without being run through a planer first.

Any suggestions? Should I buy a benchtop planer or jointer for this project? I'm really wanting to get into hand tools, so I'm not so keen about buying any more power tools. I have a table saw, router, miter saw, etc., but I was hoping to complete this bench without buying any more electric toys!

Thanks for a great site. I bought Chris' book in addition to two other bench books and I've read them all two times each!

[Jim Koepke]

I do own a selection of hand planes, but I'm not practiced in their use just yet. I want the top to glue up without significant gaps (obviously). I plan on buying the straightest wood I can find and will let it dry in the garage for a couple of weeks, but I'm still concerned that the face laminations on the top may not glue up tight without being run through a planer first.

To help you with your project, answering a few questions will help?

Which hand planes do you have?

Do you have experience sharpening the blades?

If not, you will before you are done.

A slight gap in the center of edge joined boards may actually be desirable. It is called springing the joint. By slight gap, I mean maybe a shaving or two. The ends of the boards will absorb and release moisture more readily than the centers. Springing the joint helps to prevent splits starting at the ends.

How thick is the top going to be?

What dimensions are you planning for the top?

You mention letting the wood dry in your garage, hopefully you mean to acclimate to the humidity in the garage. It would be a bad idea to buy wood that is green or needs to dry. Air drying wood can take a year or more. I see wood in the big boxes up here being sold as green. That means it may twist and warp after it is bought. I have enough problems with humidity changes between where the wood as bought when it is dry as it is. Green wood is just asking for trouble.

Are you planning on having bolts through the top to pull it together or will it just be clamped and glued?

What do you have to hold the pieces when you hand plane them?

If you follow the threads of bench building, it is often said, one needs a bench in order to build a bench.

In reality, a bench is just a tool for holding things that are being worked on.

There are many other things to consider. It is good you have a bought a few books to research your project.

I have built one bench, but not for woodworking and started to build a woodworking bench. Ended up buying a bench. Now, I have a much better idea of what I want when I do build my own for working wood.

You might consider searching threads on benches here and see what others have done. It may also give you ideas on what might work best for the things you want to make and your style of working.

Good luck, and remember we all like to look at pictures,

jim

[jeff begin]

Have you considered MDF? It's cheap, dead flat, and heavy. Or laminate a piece of MDF and ply?

I just built my first major project: a workbench to go against the wall in my garage. I laminated together full sheets of 3/4" maple ply and 3/4" MDF. I then cut it to size (about 96"x30") and edgebanded it with 3/4" maple. (If I had to do it again, I probably would have used cheaper ply, but I had the piece on-hand and didn't want to deal with hauling another sheet in this weather.) The whole thing is mounted to a frame made by double laminating eight or so 2x4's and a couple 2x6's. It's assembled using draw bolts and hanger bolts so it can be knocked down. The MDF and SYP pieces are sealed with shellac and the maple top has a few coats of tung oil.

Other than a circular saw, the only power tool I used was my router to add a 1/8" radius to the maple edgebanding, but you could easily do that with a sanding block. It's not as solid as a "real" workworkers bench, but it probably weighs 350 lbs and is certainly going to outlast me. Once my skills (and budget) improve, I'll build a solid-wood bench that is a bit shorter and accessable from all four sides.

My two cents...

Edit: Oops. I lied. I also used my 1/2" hammer drill and a 1" forstner bit to counterbore the bolts. Since all the forstner bits I've seen have a 3/8" shank, they won't fit the chuck of your standard screw gun.

[Justin Green]

To help you with your project, answering a few questions will help?

Which hand planes do you have?

1) Three Stanley #4s (two from grandfather)
2) New stanley block plane
3) LV scrub plane
4) Stanley #7 plane on the way from recent e-bay purchase.



Do you have experience sharpening the blades?
If not, you will before you are done.

Not so much. I've read a ton about it in the last couple of weeks, but have not tried to do much with the planes yet. I'm pretty much starting from scratch, although I do have a nice 1' square piece of plate glass to use for a flat surface for sharpening & lapping.


How thick is the top going to be?
What dimensions are you planning for the top?

I'm thinking that I would like the top to be 7' long by 2' wide by 3-4" thick. I had planned on starting with a thicker top so I would have room for error when flattening the top (in case I screw up and have to remove a lot)...


You mention letting the wood dry in your garage, hopefully you mean to acclimate to the humidity in the garage. It would be a bad idea to buy wood that is green or needs to dry. Air drying wood can take a year or more. I see wood in the big boxes up here being sold as green. That means it may twist and warp after it is bought. I have enough problems with humidity changes between where the wood as bought when it is dry as it is. Green wood is just asking for trouble.

Unfortunately, the wood sold in the 5 or so lumber yards here seems rather wet, and hardwoods besides oak and poplar are not to be found. I do not have a moisture meter, but from buying boards locally before (for decking, etc.) I have found them to be fairly wet, some even wet to the touch. Perhaps I need a moisture meter? I'd rather not wait a year, but for this project, I'm also not willing to use wood that's wrong.


Are you planning on having bolts through the top to pull it together or will it just be clamped and glued?[\quote]

I had thought about going this route but decided that I would just glue and clamp. I do have a decent start on a collection of clamps (10 or so). I

[quote]What do you have to hold the pieces when you hand plane them?
If you follow the threads of bench building, it is often said, one needs a bench in order to build a bench.

I just built some bookshelves for the living room (using plywood and power tools) and have a makeshift assembly table made from two sawhorses and two sheets of 3/4" birch ply. I had thought I would use that for my working surface and clamp the boards to the plywood.


In reality, a bench is just a tool for holding things that are being worked on.

There are many other things to consider. It is good you have a bought a few books to research your project.

I have built one bench, but not for woodworking and started to build a woodworking bench. Ended up buying a bench. Now, I have a much better idea of what I want when I do build my own for working wood.

You might consider searching threads on benches here and see what others have done. It may also give you ideas on what might work best for the things you want to make and your style of working.

Good luck, and remember we all like to look at pictures,

jim

Jim, thanks so much for taking the time to respond. I don't have any pictures of the bench or wood yet, as I haven't bought anything yet, but I do have pictures of the planes and the bookshelves that I'll post tomorrow. One of the planes I got from grandad (that I won't be using) is a Stanley #1, I believe from pre-1900. I'll post a pic of that as well in the morning. It's neat, but missing the front knob and the mouth is chipped.

Thanks again!

[Wilbur Pan]

Hi Justin,

You might have run across the thread here in this forum where I showed how I wound up building my bench top. That was almost all done with hand tools. I did do some initial milling with a small combo jointer/planer machine. But since the 4x4s I was using for my top were 8 feet long, that was really pushing the limits of my machine, and I had to get my neighbor to help me handle the long beams. I don't know how long you are planning to make your bench, but my guess is that a lunchbox planer won't be a whole lot better than my J/P combo at milling stock that long.

In any case, I used the planer function to plane down the rounded corners of the 4x4s that I used for the benchtop. I tried using the jointer to square up the corners, but wound up squaring them by hand anyway. So overall, I'm not sure how much time I actually saved with doing the initial milling by machine, but it's probably not as much as I thought.

As far as planes, the only ones I used was a jack plane, a jointer plane, and a smoothing plane. I didn't use the smoothing plane all that much, either -- I only was working on the sides to be glued and the bottom of the benchtop so far. You could use one of your #4s as a jack plane -- just open the mouth and put a good camber on the plane. But a #5 would be better because of the added length. Luckily, they are cheap to pick up used.

Most of all, as Jim mentioned, you need to learn how to sharpen plane blades, and how to put a camber on them to help adjust the thickness of the shavings you can take.

So go for it! This project is eminently doable with just hand tools.

[Carlos Cabrera]

Justin,

You can always take a trip up to Dallas and I am sure you will find any type of wood you want in the local lumber yards. Good luck with your project !

Carlos

[harry strasil]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=43195&highlight=jointer

[Jim Koepke]

One of the planes I got from grandad (that I won't be using) is a Stanley #1, I believe from pre-1900. I'll post a pic of that as well in the morning. It's neat, but missing the front knob and the mouth is chipped.

Too bad the mouth is chipped. The knobs on the Stanley 98 & 99 are the same size as the #1. I think the bolt and nut are the same as the 98 & 99. They are different than all the other bench planes.

They are kind of a nice plane for somethings, but not real practical for everyday work.

One thing you may want to consider when preparing your wood for the top is to mark the direction of the grain on the top of the different pieces as much as possible. Then, you can have it all pointing the same way for smoothing the top in the future.

jim

[Tim Sgrazzutti]

Building the top 3-4" thick and 7' long without much experience may be biting off too much, IMHO. I would have a hard time getting a good glueup on that, even with a proper bench to work it on. I don't want to discourage you, but I personally think that's too big anyway. Mine is 2 1/2" thick, and 30" x 60", and is heavy enough (even for a softwood benchtop) and large enough for handtool work.

I made mine on an old solid core door clamped to a pair of heavy steel sawhorses, so what you want to do is certainly possible. The door wasn't flat, and I'm sure your plywood isn't either, so don't clamp your boards to it, or they won't be straight after you unclamp them. I screwed a 3/4" board across one end of the door to use as a planing stop, which works way quicker than clamping the boards anyway. Especially when you need to flip the board around, or pick it up to check your sides for square. A jack plane, jointer plane, winding sticks, a straightedge, and a combo square are all you need to get two sides straight and square to each other. Don't buy a jointer for this if you plan on using handplanes after it's built. I did borrow a thickness planer to do the other two sides, which was a godsend.

Best of luck

[Justin Green]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to check one store here to see what they have and then I might actually drive to Dallas to see what I can find. Any recommendations on a good lumberyard in Dallas? At this point, even if the bench takes me severl months of weekends to complete, I'd like to have a laminated top with bench dog holes. I don't mind spending the time planing, I just want the glue up to go well. Thanks again for all of the suggestions!

Here's a few pics of the shelves I built and the #1:

[Richard Magbanua]

Hello Justin!

I'm just about finished with my Roubo bench made from SYP bought from the borg (I'm in Indiana). I've kept a photo log of its creation here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/magbanua/collections/72157611520940064/

My experience so far has been to just get it done. Don't over think it. Get the SYP and save some cash. Let it sit for a few weeks to dry out a bit. Bone dry ain't that important. Schwarz even says so. If it does warp a bit after you build it you'll be glad you used SYP!

Even for someone with hand tool aspirations a planer is a good purchase. You will not be sorry you got one. I'm still practicing dimensioning by hand but it's been a key for me at least to have "apprentices" to keep me from getting too frustrated and staying productive. You can use the money you saved by getting SYP (and possibly switching to Geico). Even though I WILL be able to flatten and thickness from the rough by hand someday, I'm not going to beat myself up about it for hours just building a small hanging shelf like I did yesterday :eek:. I know if I had to master flattening and thicknessing by hand first and on my own, I would not enjoy this much and would probably burn out from frustration very quickly.

I did build my bench mostly with hand tools. Initial milling was with my table saw, power jointer and planer but virtually all of the joinery was done with hand tools. It did fret over flattening the top for a week or so but I got over it, flattened it by power in five sections, put it together and attacked it (methodically, of course) with my restored #5 and a straightedge. I thought I would ruin it but flattening took only an hour or two and I got a great workout!

Another thing I learned is that this is a big project and it is very different from the projects I'm working on now. Even though I think it's a thing of beauty it's more importantly a very large tool for me to learn to woodwork on. It's a great way to learn, but I am finding out that even more lessons will come after the darn thing is built.

And remember, you're on the slope just like the rest of us. Electric or not, you can never have enough toys!!!

[Justin Green]

Thanks for posting the pics, Richard! Did the knots give you any trouble? I would imagine they are a little harder to smooth? Maybe I'm being a little too picky about the lumber...

Oh, and I just noticed - you may be a lefty as well?

As soon as I find some left handed chisels and planes, I'm ready to get started!

[John Schreiber]

I'm almost done building a bench using a similar process as you. I did buy a used lunchbox style planer though. Without that, getting the raw SYP from lumberyard rough to workable would have been just too much hand work for me. After I let the wood sit for a couple of weeks, I cut all the pieces (and a bunch of extras) to length and width with a circular saw. (96 by 4 1/4 for my bench which ended up at 90 by 3 7/8) and ran that through the planer. After that, every surface was done with hand tools.

I let the wood acclimate for another couple of weeks, and after that it did require a lot of hand work to make glueup ready.

If I had the money, I would have used a jointer though. It would have saved me a lot of time. I'd guess each board took between 10 and 40 minutes to prepare by hand. SYP is pretty unpredictable regarding straightness, grain, hardness and texture. In fact, if I had the money, I wouldn't use SYP again.

I can't imaging doing it by hand without a #7 or #8 jointer.

[Richard Magbanua]

Thanks for posting the pics, Richard! Did the knots give you any trouble? I would imagine they are a little harder to smooth? Maybe I'm being a little too picky about the lumber...

Oh, and I just noticed - you may be a lefty as well?

As soon as I find some left handed chisels and planes, I'm ready to get started!

Nah, the knots weren't that much trouble.
Yes, that is a "sinister bench" as some would say.

As far as the lumber goes, I actually liked working with the SYP. And with linseed oil I think it looks nicer than other options especially for a "working" project. Now that I'm using my bench for creating, I'm glad I didn't spend a ton of money on expensive hardwood. Since this was one of my first major projects I would have been scared to death of messing up. But the SYP was cheap enough I didn't worry much. So, just to reiterate... IMO, get the planer, get the SYP, get it done! After that your real work can begin!

Take care and good luck!

[James Carmichael]

If you're in Waco, you could always pay these guys a visit:

http://www.homesteadheritage.com/

[Brian Kent]

I built mine using a table saw, #7 Stanley, a Jack plane, and a #4 smoother, using the basic pans for a Frank Klausz traditional woodworker's bench but with a metal vise instead of a tail vise.

Yes, you can. Go for it! It was completely worth it, including the process of learning to sharpen plane irons and learn about grain direction.

Go the distance to get wood that will satisfy you - dry, and whatever you want the most. I used cheaper ash for the base, maple for the top, and purple heart for the trim.

[Justin Green]

James - I do plan on taking the Homestead Heritage class on hand tools. It covers sharpening, setting up, and using hand planes, and cutting mortise and tennon and dovetail joints by hand. I think it would be worth the $100 or so as I've been out to their showroom and they make very nice furniture (and some of the tools as well, since they also blacksmith)...

I did not buy any wood today, instead opting for some products to use to get the hand planes in better condition. The scrub and block planes are the only new planes I've bought. The rest need cleaning, de-rusting in places, sharpening, etc. Picked up some oil stones and sandpaper, wire brushes, etc. to get some of these planes in working condition.

[Robert Rozaieski]

I have built two benches now. The first using only hand tools, the second with the aid of a jointer and planer. My advice is to forget about laminating the top. I don't think it's necessary. I do all my work with hand tools now. There isn't a power tool in my shop. If I were to build another bench, I wouldn't even think of laminating the top.

The problem is this just isn't traditional construction for hand tools. In the 18th and 19th centuries when all work was done with hand tools, bench tops were typically made from 1-3 thick, wide planks. This is how I would do it. Take a look at the Nicholson bench. This is the perfect bench for building using only hand tools.

The Ruobo bench is a great bench. However, the original was not laminated like Mr. Schwarz built his bench. The top was a single solid piece. This type of timber was readily available for benches in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's not typically available now.

If you have to have a 3-4" thick bench top, look for 8-12" wide 12/4 -16/4 boards from the hardwood supplier and use those to edge glue up a wider top. Any bench will need to be reflattened occasionally anyway so laminating isn't going to save you from this task. If you look for boards with generally diagonal end grain, it will be plenty stable enough. Even if you can't find this grain, flat sawn will be fine. After the first couple of flattenings it should settle down.

Just my 2 pennies. Take them for what they are worth. I can tell you though that laminating a top with hand tools is a lot of work and I enjoy using hand tools. If I build another bench it will be a Nicholson style.

I will say that if you plan to do a lot of hand tool work, make the bench as long as you can. Mine is 7' and it is often too short. An 8' bench would be better and 10' still wouldn't be too long. If you are more of a power tool user, a shorter bench will work fine, but not in a hand tool only shop. I don't know about you but no place I buy lumber from sells it any shorter than 8' long. When planing moldings for a large case piece, you want to plane it in long lengths prior to cutting it so you will need a long bench for this. As for width, I've found about 24" ideal. It's not too shallow that cases fall of either side but not so deep that I can't reach tools on the wall behind the bench.

[Justin Green]

Thanks Robert. I was definitely thinking no shorter than 7'. Will keep you guys posted as things progress.

[David Keller NC]

"Should I buy a benchtop planer or jointer for this project?"

Planer, yes, jointer, no. I'm not trying to throw cold water on your plan, but you should at least have an idea of how difficult this might be.

I regularly 4-square rough lumber without the aid of any power tools. However, that's a skill that, while not rocket science, does take quite a bit of practice to do correctly without seriously thinning out your lumber. And it's a lot of hard work.

If you intend to build a Roubo-style bench that's 3-4" thick and laminated, accurately planing both face-grain sides so that they form a reasonably tight glue joint is at least several days of work, and you will absolutely require some sort of straight, flat, long surface with a planing stop. And it is indeed critical that you get these two surfaces parallel. Otherwise, the multiplied error over 10 laminations or so is going to give you a very curvy/wavy top surface that will need 1/2" or more removed to make it flat.

One solution to the "have to have a bench to make a bench" dilemma that I've seen work reasonably well is screwing and gluing 4 2"X8" together, and that assembly placed on a couple of very sturdy shop-built horses that are either bolted down or heavily weighted with sandbags, with a planing stop screwed to the end, and the whole thing flattened and shot straight with handplanes.

Even a fairly crappy benchtop planer will take a massive amount of work out of the project, and will also allow you to practice your handplane skills after you get a proper bench built, not frustrate the crap out of you trying to build a proper bench.

If you're dead set against a planer for room/money/noise/dust issues, then I would jump up and down and second the motion by Robert to build an English-style bench, as it's way easier to learn to shoot a straight edge than to get a 4" wide face flat, with no wind, and the other side parallel with the first.

I take it you've bought (and thoroughly read) Chris Schwarz' book "Workbenches: From Theory and Design to Construction and Use"? If not, do so. It'll be the best $ you will spend on your bench. You will also need instruction on how to square rough lumber with hand planes. The best way is to have one individual show you how to do it in their shop (bring the beer). The second best way is to have one individual show a classful of you how to do it - bring $$$ instead of beer. The 3rd best way is with a video - I recommend Rob Cosman's Rough to Ready. The 4th best way is with a book - check out Charles Hayward's Carpentry for Beginners through Interlibrary Loan.

And the worst possible way (including worse than just puzzling it out on your own) is to have two or three of the local woodworking guys try to show you how it's done - simultaneously! :rolleyes:

[Justin Green]

Thanks David. I'm not dead set against buying a planer, but I'd prefer not to. That said, it seems to be a preferred piece of equipment, even in Chris' book, which I've read cover to cover twice now!

One other option that I have, that did not occur to me (don't know why) is to use lumber I already have in the garage. I'd like comments on this and then I will stop bugging you guys so much. You've all been really helpful, and I appreciate your time and responses.

I have put pine wood flooring in the house. It's SYP. I have leftover boards that have sat in my garage for probably 2-3 years now, in the way. They're 14' long. I don't know how many are out there, probably 30 or so. I had a mindset of laminating up 2x material. Would laminating up 1x (3/4") stock be worse? I was thinking I would cut them to length (plus an inch or two) and then run them through the table saw for initial sizing. At 3/4, it will take quite a few laminations, though, for a 24" bench - approximately 32 boards wide. I do know that after this much time, they should be as dry and acclimated as they're going to get in Waco, Texas.

[David Keller NC]

While a bunch of work, I don't see why laminating thinner material would adversely affect the stabilty of the resulting bench. After all, bent laminations are often used for furniture, and it seems to be a sturdy technique that doesn't result in real movement issues. Besides, this is basically what plywood is, and that's certainly a proven material.

I think you'll find, thought, that you're still going to have to surface that stock - it's probably shrank/expanded differentially enough as it's sat in your garage to the point where it will give you problems when it comes time to glue it up.

[Michael Faurot]

I do plan on taking the Homestead Heritage class on hand tools. It covers sharpening, setting up, and using hand planes, and cutting mortise and tennon and dovetail joints by hand. I think it would be worth the $100 or so as I've been out to their showroom and they make very nice furniture (and some of the tools as well, since they also blacksmith)...


I've been to Homestead Heritage for their one day course Woodworking With Hand Tools. It is a very good course and you'll learn a lot. However you should be aware that you're not going to be learning about using planes, except a router plane.

108015

As mentioned in the description of the course, you will learn how to sharpen plane blades and chisels. But the meat of this course is about joinery. To do dovetails, mortise and tenon, and dado joints you'll primarily be using chisels and hand saws. For the dado joint you'll also be using a router plane.

What you may want to do, is take one of your own planes with you and use it during the hands-on exercises. During the exercises the instructors will be available to help and to ask questions. You could take that opportunity to ask questions about using your plane in the context of those exercies.

Another option you may want to investigate, if you're more interested in just working with hand planes, is their one day course Working With Hand Planes. I have not taken this class, but intend to when my schedule permits.

Even if you don't take any courses from Homestead Heritage, you may want to go out there and talk to Paul Sellers or Frank Strazza and ask them where they're getting their hardwoods from.