Progress pics on the bench/assembly table project

[Jim Izat]

Hi Folks,

I thought I post some pictures of my bench/assembly table project as I've worked on it for the last couple three weeks. Below are the pictures of the leg assemblies before and after I glued on the sled feet. The wood is all ash but must be from two different sub-species. The legs and sled feet are a creamy almost butter color and are very hard and very heavy. The legs and sled feet are 4x5 inches in cross section with the sled feet about 32" long. The cross member is also ash (bought from the same sawmill) about 2 1/4", but is a dark brown and is a bit curly. It looks more like the ash I'm used to using. Mortise and tenon throughout. I used gorilla glue. Working on this scale is about half way between cabinetwork and timber framing. As frustrating as it is satisfying. All mortises and tenons had to be cut by hand as their scale is beyond any sort of machine that I have available. Even the legs and sled feet I couldn't cut on my table saw as they are so thick.

[Jim Izat]

The next step was to glue up the to leg assemblies to the stretchers.

[Jim Izat]

Here are a couple pictures of the base after the glue cooked and I removed the clamps. I figure it weighs at least 200 pounds.

[Jim Izat]

And over the last couple days and nights I've been working on the top (been putting it off). It's made of strips ripped from construction SPF. I tried my best to use the larger dimensions as much as I could but two or three two by fours snuck in. The top was first glued up in 8" subassemblies so I could face joint and plane them the the same thickness. Then I glued up two larger subassemblies of about 20 and 17." Then after a bit of head scratchin I glue those two together. It was a good first attempt, but I'm sure glad I didn't use maple. Next time maybe. Any way after I took off the clamps I had a heck of a time squaring up the ends as my circular saw wouldn't cut deep enough to cut all the way through. I got both ends straight and square to the top, but if I told you all how, nobody'd let me post any more. After that battle I took out my new PC belt sander and worked the top reasonably flat.
I plan to mortise a one inch bulletted dowel in the top of each leg and set the top on the legs (it probably weighs at least a hundred pounds). My only challenge is that the bottom of the top is nowhere near flat. Well, if it was easy I guess anyone could do it.....

[Tom Scott]

I don't think you have to worry about that thing going anywhere.
You can take shelter underneath it when the next hurricane hits.
Nice work!

[John Schreiber]

Man is that stout.

You gotta replace that picture of the guy with the suit and tie with a picture of a chip covered he-man in a leather apron.

[Von Bickley]

Jim,

Great looking bench / assembly table. I hope you are building it in place because I don't know if you'll ever be able to move it. Looks like a quality bench that you can be proud of. Thanks for letting us see it.

[Bob Oswin]

That is one fine looking bench Jim.

You're going to really enjoy the sense of accomplishment every time you use it.
Makes me want to replace that bench I made (temporarily) 5 years ago!

Bob

[Dave Anderson]

Originally posted by Jim Izat
It's made of strips ripped from construction SPF...

Pardon my ignorance, but what is SPF? :confused:

[Jim Izat]

Hey Dave,

SPF is an abreviation for Southern Pine-Fir, what's used around here for common construction 2x stock.

Jim

[Jim Izat]

Originally posted by Von Bickley
Jim,

Great looking bench / assembly table. I hope you are building it in place because I don't know if you'll ever be able to move it. Looks like a quality bench that you can be proud of. Thanks for letting us see it.

Hey Von,

I know I can pick up the base and the top individually. When I move next (hopefully not till my boys are both off to college) I can heft both parts in a U-Haul I think.

Jim Izat

[Dave Anderson]

Originally posted by Jim Izat
Hey Dave,

SPF is an abreviation for Southern Pine-Fir, what's used around here for common construction 2x stock.

Jim

I guess the correlation would be Douglas Fir for us in SoCal as that is the primary construction lumber in these parts.

I'm especially interested in this sort of thing at the moment because I'm about to start work on my TS Outfeed/Assembly Table/Workbench combo unit. Space is a factor for me and a multi-purpose unit is the way to go in my shop/garage/warehouse!

Thanks -- great looking unit! Exactly what I'm looking to do.

[Jay Kilpatrick]

Originally posted by Jim Izat
Hey Dave,

SPF is an abreviation for Southern Pine-Fir, what's used around here for common construction 2x stock.

Jim

Hummmm.... and all this time I thought it was an abbreviation for "Spruce, Pine, or Fir". Well, you learn something everyday...;)
~Jay

BTW...Nice bench, hope I can get around to doing something about my lack of one.

[Dave Anderson]

What are the overall dimensions of the top? And, is it 3-1/2" thick?

Thanks!

[Jim Izat]

Originally posted by Jay Kilpatrick
Hummmm.... and all this time I thought it was an abbreviation for "Spruce, Pine, or Fir". Well, you learn something everyday...;)
~Jay

BTW...Nice bench, hope I can get around to doing something about my lack of one.

You are absolutely correct! Back when I did some framing the older hands always called it Southern Pine Fir so that's what I thought it stood for.

Jim

[Steve Clardy]

Btw, how did you do the double pic?

Also, you said the bottom was far from flat. Have you though of doing it with a router? Very simple, just put a nailer board on each side, build a jig to slide the router back and forth, and poof, a litle sanding and its flat. Steve

[Jim Izat]

Originally posted by Steve Clardy
Btw, how did you do the double pic?

Steve

Hey Steve,

I used photoshop to resize then copy and paste two images into a new image. It'll have to do until I get some webspace to call images from.

Jim

[Jim Izat]

Originally posted by Dave Anderson
What are the overall dimensions of the top? And, is it 3-1/2" thick?

Thanks!

Hey Dave,

The overall dimensions of the top are 37" wide by 68" long. The two 2" think jaws of the Veritas twin screw vice I'm going to install will make it 72" long, which is the same as the length as my 52" Unisaw. The top is about 2 5/8" thick overall. I cut three inch strips from the 2x stock and then jointed and planed it approximately four square. I also face jointed and planed each 8 inch wide subassembly. I am hoping the hight of the surface will come out about 1/8" lower than my table saw as I will be using if for outfeed as well as an assemble surface and traditional hand operations work bench. Were it 3.5" thick it might well be too heavy for me to lift.

Jim

[Bruce Page]

Very nice Jim, that is going to be one stout bench!

It’s obvious that you are a lot better with a belt sander than I. If I tried to level something that big with a BS, it’d turn out looking like a roller coaster!

[Jim Izat]

I don't know how it's supposed to be done, but what I did was use a straight edge about every six inches along to work everything flat. I went down and back with that method twice until it looked pretty good. Then, remembering that twist might also be a problem I did the diagonals with the same method and they came up flat (Thank God!). I tried to use winding sticks but with that kind of width separated by six feet, I just couldn't see well enough to tell.

Jim

[Dave Anderson]

Originally posted by Jim Izat
The top is about 2 5/8" thick overall. I cut three inch strips from the 2x stock and then jointed and planed it approximately four square.

OK, really two last questions, promise... :p

First, what do you mean by "four square?" Surely, you can't be saying that the individual boards are square by dimension...

You started with a 2x4 (3-1/2" x 1-5/8"), cut down to 3" x 1-5/8", jointed and planed to about 2-3/4" x 1-1/2", glued up and then sanded to final size.

Do I have the process about right?

Sorry to be such a pain about this but I've been pondering my project for a long time and what you did is exactly (including top material) what I want to do except that I might use Douglas Fir on the base as well.

Thanks again for the help!:D

[Jim Izat]

First, what do you mean by "four square?" Surely, you can't be saying that the individual boards are square by dimension...

<font color=green> You're right. The biggest challenge was to take the 2x material and make it into something straight and 90 degrees all around. I also had to plane away all the rounded over edges. As I started mostly with 2x10 and 12 stock I ripped strips to start with that maximized the number of strips I could get per stick.</font>

You started with a 2x4 (3-1/2" x 1-5/8"), cut down to 3" x 1-5/8", jointed and planed to about 2-3/4" x 1-1/2", glued up and then sanded to final size.


<font color=green> After I got about 30 strips that looked like they might work I glued them up into 7-8" wide subassemblies and let them cook over night being careful to get the glue ups as flat as possible. When the glue was set I scraped off the excess, and then face jointed one side and then ran each subassembly throught the planer to the same setting. I also edge jointed and ripped parallel on the table saw (they were the heaviest thing I've run through the saw so far). To finish up I glued the four subs into two larger subs, and then glued the final two together. I thought it would turn out a lot flatter than it did, but it was saveable.

The only other thing I did was to leave the last three strips on the back of the surface about 1.75 inches thick to clear the angle of the rear fench rail.

If you come up with a good idea on how to cut the two ends square to the full thickness, I'm all ears. A circular saw came up about a 1/2 inch shy. Hopefully your cussing and head scratching quotient will be less than mine.....</font>

Do I have the process about right?

Sorry to be such a pain about this but I've been pondering my project for a long time and what you did is exactly (including top material) what I want to
do except that I might use Douglas Fir on the base as well.

[Mark Rakestraw]

Jim, I really like that bench, it should serve you well. You've probably already thought of this but if you use a dowel on each leg to register the top you'll need to allow for the top's movement by making elongated mortices in the top. But then the top could move around on you while you are working. Perhaps a better solution would be to use one dowel in the center on each end, thereby allowing the top to expand and contract with the seasons.
Mark