Small heavy Workbench, inexpensive

[Scott Winners]

Top is 24x48 inches, 34" height. Should come in at or near 130 pounds once it dries out, a bit heavier right now. I laminated 2x4s for the top, used 4x6 green Doug fir for the legs and stretchers.

In metric that would be roughly, 61 x 122 cm top, 86 cm tall, 59 kg. 5x10s for the lam, 10x15 timbers for legs and stretchers.

For all the lumber, plus $20 vise from the BORG and 2 pints of TBII I am out $94.

I intend to use this table as a dedicated sharpening station once I outgrow it as a bench, should hold my belt sander, bench grinder and stones no problem, with saw vise and etc on the low shelf.

As you can see, there are some unresolved issues at this point, not least of which is my pics got rotated on me. If you rotate both images 90 degrees anti clockwise, or tip you head onto your right shoulder.... I have it upside down on the sawhorses. So if you stand on my ceiling you can see the bench floating right side up.

I put 8" overhang at the left end of the bench, but put the legs at the right end of the bench flush with the end of the top for stability.

I haven't cut the mortises in the top yet, or cut tenons onto the tops of the legs. I am planning to use some kind of bridle joint on the right end, with shouldered inlet dovetail braces where the chisels are propped.

I do have some very well seasoned 4x4 spruce timbers, about five years seasoned outdoors covered. I am thinking with a 2" shoulder to keep the legs from getting pushed in, and a two inch thick inlet dovetail to keep the legs from getting pulled out from under the table I will have done what I can do. My thinking is the wet Doug fir legs will shrink more than the well seasoned spruce 4x4, so as the Doug fir dries it ought to clamp down on the inlet dovetail pretty hard. I am thinking a short brace on the front so I can get to the shelf easy. Longer brace on the back so I could add a bigger vise to that corner someday just inside the leg if I outgrow the little vise before I build a bigger bench.

I have three questions, and yes I have Chris' book on order, the book is still two weeks out.

1. Does it matter where I put the mortise for the right legs in the bench top or the tenon on the leg? I have been round and round the mountain on this one and have just about decided it doesn't matter.

2. All my M/T joints are hand tight, but when I put the whole thing together I have to hammer the last joint the last half inch, and then the diagonally opposite corner opens up half an inch. I can get it closed with a ratchet strap or two. I suspect I should shave the joint that is the tightest because once the tops of the legs are in the bench top it is going to get harder to fit everything together.

3. What is the correct search term to use here to find the existing discussion about where to locate peg holes in MT joints? I am sure the subject has been beat to death, but I haven't been able to find it.

[Scott Winners]

FWIW I did shoulder all the mortises in the legs. I am not so much worried about how much weight is going on the shelf so much as trying to 1. reduce racking and 2. stay heavy.

All I did was flatten one face and one edge of each leg, and then work to the timber inside the timber, that is my nominal 4x6 were actually more or less 3 and 9/16 by 5 and 3/8. The tenons on my short stretchers are 3 inches, long stretcher tenons are 4 and 1/2. I didn't actually surface the legs s4s to 3 by 4.5, I cut the shoulders deep enough to expose that surface.

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Scot and Welcome to the Creek.

Looks like a great job so far on your bench.

You might try searching > draw bore <.

An inexpensive item you may want for your bench when it is used for sharpening is an automotive floor mat. They are inexpensive protection for the bench top when using water stones or even oilstones.

jtk

[ken hatch]

Scott,

Your bench reminds me of my first bench build back in the '70s. BTW, it just retired to the back garden a little over a year ago. This is just a guess but from looking at your lumber I expect some of the boards are doing stupid wood tricks and are out of wind, causing the opposite joint to open when the base is put together.

I believe you are asking about "draw boring" where you offset the holes drilled for using pegs to hold the joint together.

I'm not sure I understand your question about the base to slab M/T.

Good luck with completing the bench don't overthink it, as an example the last couple of benches I've built the base to slab joint is a 3/4" dowel glued in the base with the slab setting loose on the dowel.

ken

[Scott Winners]

I think this is a bridle joint... if I scooted the tenon over to be on the face of the bench it would be a half lap joint I think.

FWIW this is far and away my most ambitious joinery project ever. Slab is still upside down on the sawhorses.

[Tom Bender]

Hi Scott
That's a good start into joinery. Just a couple of challenges;

The top is going to expand and contract (mostly contract at first) so the stretcher joints are going to move, probably breaking some of the glue joints. Run some dowels or fasteners thru them and let it move a bit. Or glue only one side and dowel the other.

You have left yourself a significant flattening exercise on that top. Take a first pass while it is still wet, it'll be easier. Second pass in a few months.

[William Fretwell]

Is that a 2” Barr Quarton chisel? If it is the straight bevel should be changed to a rounded one!

Seems to to be coming alone just fine.

[Scott Winners]

Is that a 2” Barr Quarton chisel?

It is actually the one and a half. Came in with a square end on it. I love it as is for chopping. For paring, yes, a crowned tip would be better. It is truly a great tool, I am completely satisfied with it in every way, though I have only done a dozen mortises with it.

I think I will come up with a slick before my next project with joinery this big. If I come into some dough I would snap up a Quarton slick without blinking an eye. Instead I will keep my eye out for a 2" wide socket chisel at a flea market and maybe crown the blade on that and work up a longer handle on my shaving horse. I don't need a $300 tool for a dozen tenons, in fact two of the last three I cut slid home right off the saw.

[Scott Winners]

You might try searching > draw bore <.

An inexpensive item you may want for your bench when it is used for sharpening is an automotive floor mat. They are inexpensive protection for the bench top when using water stones or even oilstones.

jtk

Thanks for the mat idea. I got one set of results searching on "draw bore" two words and some more results searching on "drawbore" one word. Thanks again.

[Scott Winners]

Hi Scott
That's a good start into joinery. Just a couple of challenges;

The top is going to expand and contract (mostly contract at first) so the stretcher joints are going to move, probably breaking some of the glue joints. Run some dowels or fasteners thru them and let it move a bit. Or glue only one side and dowel the other.

You have left yourself a significant flattening exercise on that top. Take a first pass while it is still wet, it'll be easier. Second pass in a few months.

These are some good points. I didn't clutter up the original post because I had the three specific questions I was stuck on.

The 2x4s for the top lam were kiln dried at the BORG, weighted and stickered in my garage shop for about 6 weeks ahead of the build, and rotated weekly top to bottom. I am in Fairbanks, Alaska, my year round average EMC is 11%. My shop space is at a pretty stable 55dF and 10-15 % RH in the winter months. So winter EMC in the shop is about 4%. I did check the middle of the lam while I was chopping the mortises for the top, my meter only reads down to 7%, the top lam is drier than that. My top is likely to swell (slightly) during the 2 warm months we have each year up here.

The legs on the other hand, green doug fir, that stuff is up in the 20s % MC. I know it is below FSP (fiber saturation point) because I have plenty of checking, but when I was cutting into those pieces there were plenty of spots where the wood still felt "damp" to my bare hands, so still well over 20% in places. The legs are going to shrink, some, for sure.

I do think moisture content and shifting is an important area of bench construction that should get more attention than it often does in youtube videos and so on. Thanks for pointing it out to a noob. I do process about 10 cords of firewood annually up here and have a little bit of handle on the subject, but I do appreciate your trying to save me making an expensive mistake.

I haven't actually posted a picture of the top surface of the lam yet. The bottom, yup, I spent a little time flattening it, but not much. My goal is to keep as much weight as possible on the small footprint I have available. I spent a bunch more time flattening the top. Rather, I spent a bunch more time chasing the top around the garage with a plane while the top was held to a couple sawhorses with some F clamps ;-)

[Scott Winners]

More stupid mistakes, but the haggis is in the fire now.

The plan was to drill the holes for the pegs in the mortises, dry assemble everything, mark the tenons for drawboring, take it apart, drill the tenons, add a nailer to each of the long stretchers so I can have a shelf, and then go for it.

Dry assembled with the peg holes drilled in the mortise pieces, it was abundantly clear my through holes were not square to any surface. The saving grace was I used a 12" long bit and drilled them all from one side, so the holes were straight through, just not square to any surface. I triple checked all the timbers were square, drilled the tenons through the existing holes, used way too much glue and pegged it up.

Besides a heavy mallet for adjusting, I also used all four my ratchet straps (tow strap? load strap?) to hold it in place for drilling and glue drying.

I will get my nailers in for the low shelf and get my pegs cut flush before the straps come off, then the corner braces.

[William Fretwell]

Actually Barr tells you the crowned tip keeps the edge stronger for chopping and clearing out waste deep in a mortice. You can make the change gradually as you sharpen it by hand with no guide.

[William Fretwell]

When you have through mortices like that you can add a couple of wedges in the end of the tenon very easily to tighten up the end. I see one in the picture with a small gap. Everything you can do for softwood helps.

[Scott Winners]

I might drive some shims into the gaps in the joints, haven't decided yet.

I did one diagonal brace and stopped there for now, it is on the right rear corner when the bench is ready to work. Like a collar tie towards the base of a rafter pair in a timber building to keep the rafters, and therefore the walls, from spreading apart under say snow load. Put the vise back on, and spaced the nailers on the long stretchers so I could use offcuts from whatever two by stock to make the shelf, I had plenty of scrap for that.

And now I have a place to stash my shooting board and drilling guide and saw vise. It's awesome. Next step is to sharpen _everything_ .

Thanks for your input everyone.

[ken hatch]

I might drive some shims into the gaps in the joints, haven't decided yet.

I did one diagonal brace and stopped there for now, it is on the right rear corner when the bench is ready to work. Like a collar tie towards the base of a rafter pair in a timber building to keep the rafters, and therefore the walls, from spreading apart under say snow load. Put the vise back on, and spaced the nailers on the long stretchers so I could use offcuts from whatever two by stock to make the shelf, I had plenty of scrap for that.

And now I have a place to stash my shooting board and drilling guide and saw vise. It's awesome. Next step is to sharpen _everything_ .

Thanks for your input everyone.

Scott,

Congrats on finishing the bench. Now work on that sucker until things about it drive you barking mad then build another. Trust me it can become addictive :p.

ken

[Scott Winners]

Wow. Four months. I have been kinda stewing on reviewing this thing, got my first commission this morning, so it is time.

1. Overall I am happy with the build based on reading a ton of (free, online) stuff written by Christopher Schwarz while waiting for his book to come in off Amazon. In general, following Chris' 10 or 12 or 18 rules (guidelines) in numerical order for bench building served me well, but the book, second edition, was worth the money.

If I was stuck with a small bench like this, I mean truly stuck for years and years with a 24 x 48" workbench top I would do whatever I had to do to get the weight up to 300+ pounds, greater than 136 kilos. Maple top eight inches thick and 8x8 spruce legs, Ok fine. Crucible makes holdfasts that will work, according to an email exchange I had with somebody over there, up to 9 inches thick. Or should anyway. I think it was John somebody. He seemed kinda non plussed but he answered my question without asking for more background info.

I do like having plenty of room at the left end of the bench (right hander) so I can work on stuff from the end, and I like having room to get to the backside of the bench at get at stuff from back there without having to release and re-clamp. Now that I have used this thing a while I am glad I left room for that, when I look at pictures of benches up against walls I just kind of cringe inside, but whatever works for you, you should do.

Should have built even heavier. My other beef is the $20 BORG vise. I bet i could trying closing that thing down on my pinkie finger and the vise would wrack before I felt pain. i would try it right now except it is Friday night and I have had a couple glasses of wine. Maybe I'll try it Monday morning. I am pretty much going for the $500 double threaded 3 inch diameter maple screw (Vermont retired syrup maker tree that used to be owned by the Ethan Allen) with the $18 unobtanium garter and the 6 million dollar chain tensioner instead of the old fashioned peg, so now that I have been using the $20 vise for four months I am ready to spend $6,000,518 on a leg vise for my next bench.The $20 vise is OK for saw sharpening, and straight grained hardwoods, but when I get into figured hardwoods the combination of inexpensive vise with light weight bench is quite painful.

Another drawback to this short bench is it is pretty crowded on the shelf under there already; I made a drilling guide, a shooting board, a saw vise, a holder for auger bits, I have 6 planes under there, three strops, a mallet for the holdfasts, and it is crowded.

I do have a planing stop on the end of the bench that is worth it's weight in gold, but beware the hardware labels at the BORG. I bought three screw-bolt hanger thingies labeled 3/8s, but two of them were actually 1/4 inch when I got them home. I should remake the vise jaws to clear the ends of the bolt hangers, I have about 3/4" unsupported stock when sawing in the vise that could go away with a little planning.

Besides building the bench and ancillaries, I have made a bunch of 6s6 pieces and done soap finish on them. My personal favorite is palm oil soap on hickory. I honestly don't love any of the olive oil soap pieces. Haven't fooled with any of the palm/olive oil blends. Working on a white oak hanger for my framing chisel. The poplar one is OK, but aesthetically lacking. Hoping the wee boxes I have made for my various planes will make my first drawers less painful.

And a pair of boot jacks. That is the commission. One of my co workers picked up the walnut one this morning, spanned to opening width with her hand and cussed. She asked if I could make a boot jack with a wider opening so she could use it help take off her insulated winter boots. I said yes.

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[Jim Koepke]

My other beef is the $20 BORG vise. I bet i could trying closing that thing down on my pinkie finger and the vise would wrack before I felt pain.

Learning how to control racking can turn it into a useable advantage. Start with a way to counter the racking:

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?183743

When planing thin pieces the spacers help to regulate the vise so the thin piece isn't bowed.

It looks like you may benefit from making a second shelf under your bench.

Over time my below bench storage has been reduced to being limited to a couple of clamps, holdfasts and a few other things that are always used on the bench top.

jtk

[Rob Luter]

Nice job. I like that big Barr chisel.

I built a bench with very similar underpinnings (below). I didn't have the guts to try and chop all the mortises so I glued the legs up using 2x6 lumber and just left voids for the tenons. For me it was one less opportunity to screw something up.

https://live.staticflickr.com/2583/4103275307_f30a5080da_z.jpg

[chris carter]

For some reason I can't view the original photos. Something about not having appropriate permissions. But....

My workbench is actually smaller in size and weight. I deal with the weight issue with an yellow 80lb weight on the shelf. That keeps it anchored down fine. A 5 gallon bucket filled with sand will also work. Or anything heavy. My choice is just dual purpose :)

409220

For the racking in the vise, I made a simple anti-racking device. It's made from 1/8" pieces of wood which is convenient because if I know the thickness of the wood, say it's 3/4" I can just count out 6 pieces. Otherwise, just lay your board and anti-rack and on the edge of the bench and just slide over all the excess pieces and you are left with the thickness of your board - very quick and easy. I made mine long enough to cover the entire vertical height of the vise so it not only stops racking horizontally, but also vertically if I have small pieces in the vise. It is 100% effective.
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In action:
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(thumbnails of my images aren't showing.... not sure why....)

[Jim Koepke]

[edit]

(thumbnails of my images aren't showing.... not sure why....)

Sawmill Creek is going through some changes related to members not being able to see or post images.

There has been some discussion of this of late.

Thogh your images are showing up on my screen.

jtk

[Scott Winners]

Didn't mean for this to take a week. As part of my review I re-read the Christopher Schwarz work bench book, and paged through the blog entries at lost art press. Mine is the second book, 'Art and Philosophy of building better benches.'

I do think my build punches a bit above its weight class for over all stiffness especially, and wanted to try to get at least a reasonable hypothesis on why. I did my build before the book came in, based on reading Chris' free stuff online, and I read all the books about timber framed buildings at my local library. What I have here is sized to fit my space, design direction from Christopher, and built like a barn.

I reserve the right to change my opinion later when I learn more facts, but i think three things are working for me.

Tenon size.
House/ barn joinery.
No lag bolts.

The only tenons in Chris' book bigger than the smallest tenon on my build are the leg to top braces on his Roubo. "When you design those massive mortise and tenon joints" what I did was look at building a small barn or a spacious shed. I got a 1.5" Barr chisel. I bought 4x6s for the undercarriage. My leg to top tenons are 24.375 cubic inches, 3.25 x 5.0 x 1.5 inches. The tenons on my short stretchers are 3.0 x 1.5 x 5.5 inches (24.75 cu in) The tenons on my long stretchers are 4.5 x 1.0 x 5.5 (24.75 cu in).

When I was reading up on Lost Art Chris has a recent (since I was there last) blog entry about how the leg to top joints are the most important joints in the bench and should be as large as possible. Each of his Roubo legs has two tenons on it, each nominally 1.25 x 5.5 x 4.875, 33.5 cu in each, but there is two of them per leg. When I read the rest of his book and recall "when thinking massive joinery" from priority one I think piffle.

Barn joinery. The idea of putting a shoulder on all four sides of a tenon, pointy heads be damned, does not seem to be (my limited research) an actual joint used in buildings from back in the day. It is a form found in palatial mountain chalet built timber frame style with metal connectors using Wyoming oil money. The history of such a joint in furniture making is not explored by me. I did also find a late 20th article from U Wyoming stating the best place to put a through peg was smack through the middle of a tenon. This hypothesis is also historically incorrect, as relish failure as the wood dries is more likely with less relish between the peg and air. See photos of, for instance, George Washington's threshing barn at Mount Vernon, though it was rebuilt in the 1990s.

NO metal bolts. I was in the home stretch, top was laminated and I was ready to cut my legs to length from the timbers. I just could not bring my self to put bearers across the tops of the legs and fasten the top with lag bolts. I at least had to try joinery here. I cut my legs long, so if I failed I could cut them down to use bearers and lag bolts. I cannot see going to a bunch of effort to make 8 solid MT joints and then wimping out on the last four to finish a bench. The other side of that coin is I process enough firewood annually to see cord wood both shrink and swell with my local seasons. You just can't put a lag bolt in wood here and expect it to stay together, the annual humidity change is too severe. It would be smarter to use wooden wedges and keep a mallet handy.

End of the day, me casa, su casa. If you are in Fairbanks someday, drop me a PM. I'll come to your hotel, drag you back to my shop and let you try working some faces edges and ends on this little thing. This thing is not built like no baby high chair, it is built like a barn. Might stuff some BBQ down your throat too.