Finally-First project completed-Workbench

[Larry VanWinkle]

Just yesterday (Sunday) I finished my first project - my workbench. This project has been in the "works" for three years. It was a matter of slowly collecting the necessary machinery and the place to put it.

The center of the workbench is actually a chunk of a bowling alley that my step son gave me two years ago. I had to flatten the surface (bowling ball wear - I guess) with a router sled and rails. I then wrapped it with 4x4 oak, attached a subframe, laminated the legs (oak and walnut),attached the feet (walnut), attached the stretchers (all thread through the centers with walnut caps), attached the skirt and end vise (hard maple), installed the t-track and twin screw vise hardware and finally finished it all off with boiled linseed oil.

It is not perfect but it sure beats using my table saw as a workbench. It is not as long as most workbenches (55") but it is fairly wide (33") and a little bit taller than most (39" - this ole back doesn't bend over as easy as it used to). I plan on building boxes, treasure chests and hope chests so I figure it should be adequate.

This sure was quite the learning experience! When glueing - you can never move fast enough or have enough clamps. Plan your work and then work your plan. Never, ever sneeze while routing - see attachment! SHARP tools (chisels and planes) are SO much easier to use. Measure, think about it and then measure again - hard maple is expensive!

I would like to thank all of you SMCers for all the ideas, tips and tricks I gained by surfing the posts - it was a tremendous help!

Larry

[Jim Becker]

That's a great bench!!!! Wow...nice...

[Don Bullock]

Larry, that bench looks great. The chunk of a bowling alley seems to make a good top. Perhaps I'm a sucker for projects with contrasting wood, but the legs are super. That's an idea I've saved to possibly use when I get started on a bench. Thanks for posting the pictures.:D

[keith ouellette]

3 years!
I bet the night you knew it would be finished on the following day you didn't sleep a wink. Looks fantastic. I like the use of the router to flatten the top. I'm going to do that on my next bench.

[Glenn Clabo]

Sweet Momma! That is one nice bench!

[Robert E Johnson III]

Wow that is a great bench, I'm jealous! I can see that you took your time and it shows.

[Chris Padilla]

That is velly velly nice!! Interesting idea putting the track into the top. LOVE the laminated legs...very slick and really adds a nice touch to the whole bench!

[James Nolan]

Wow, time well spent, now the hard part: not being afraid to break it in. Great job!

[Paul Fitzgerald]

Nice bench Larry! I really like the contrast between the oak and walnut. That's a very nice touch.


Never, ever sneeze while routing - see attachment! ...hard maple is expensive!

I know what you mean! I ruined a piece of hard maple yesterday while routing a dado. At first the bit started wandering past my layout line and I thought "that's weird." Then it started going farther and farther. It took me about 3" to realize my straight-edge wasn't clamped very well! Ouch. Lesson learned.

Again, very nice bench Larry!

Paul

[Rich Torino]

That's about as fine a looking work bench that I've seen home made or commercial... great job....

[Darren Fast]

That's a beautiful bench! Great job.

I'm impressed with your patience. 3 years is a long time.

[Mark Blum]

Very nice bench Larry. I used the same router sled method to flatten my workbench when I built it, and it works like a charm. Were there any nail heads to deal with in that bowling alley slab?

I also used the same method of a sandwiched board in the leg to make the tenon for the sled base. It results in a flawless mortise and tenon joint with little effort.

Have you figured out the weight on that thing yet?

[Ben Martin]

What are the dimensions of your bench? I have a 6' and 4' piece of bowling alley out in the garage that I am waiting to do something with. The six footer is going to become a shuffle board table, but I am not sure about the 4'. The 6 is pine and the 4 is maple, although they both weigh about the same. I also have a 5' piece of butcher block that I might use for a bench.

Do you have a link where you found out how to use to router sled to level the top? I am going to need to do something like that.

[gary Zimmel]

Larry

Sweet looking bench...
I to like the contrasting woods for the legs.

You did a great job!

[Brian Fulkerson]

Much better than my first bench. Great Job!!!

[Matt Lentzner]

I know what you mean! I ruined a piece of hard maple yesterday while routing a dado. At first the bit started wandering past my layout line and I thought "that's weird." Then it started going farther and farther. It took me about 3" to realize my straight-edge wasn't clamped very well! Ouch. Lesson learned.

Paul

I feel a little better knowing I'm not the only one who's done that! :D

Matt

[Larry VanWinkle]

Very nice bench Larry. I used the same router sled method to flatten my workbench when I built it, and it works like a charm. Were there any nail heads to deal with in that bowling alley slab?

I also used the same method of a sandwiched board in the leg to make the tenon for the sled base. It results in a flawless mortise and tenon joint with little effort.

Have you figured out the weight on that thing yet?

I scanned the wood and found no metal - just a bunch of old glue. It found it interesting though that when whoever put together this bowling alley lane they put in some wood with a bad side to the, what I would call, underside of the alley (i.e. they were using and hiding some inferior wood). Therefore, I obviously used the "better" side as my topside. I do not think the "inferior" areas will affect the integrity of the workbench - it seems real solid.

As I move the workbench around I figure it weighs around 275-300 pounds. If I were to change anything I would probably bore two holes through the underside supports to allow the twin screws of the vise to pass through so that I could move the legs on the vise end closer to the end of the bench. Since the workbench is shorter than most all that weight of vise jaws and hardware makes a little heavier overhang (tippier) than what it would be if I moved the legs.

Thanks for the comments.

[Larry VanWinkle]

What are the dimensions of your bench? I have a 6' and 4' piece of bowling alley out in the garage that I am waiting to do something with. The six footer is going to become a shuffle board table, but I am not sure about the 4'. The 6 is pine and the 4 is maple, although they both weigh about the same. I also have a 5' piece of butcher block that I might use for a bench.

Do you have a link where you found out how to use to router sled to level the top? I am going to need to do something like that.

The finished dimensions of the bowling alley slab were: 20.5" wide x 40" long x 2.75" deep. The original slab was 21" wide x 97" long x 3" deep. I cut the ends off because the glue was failing on both ends and the laminates were seperating. I suppose I could have attempted to reglue the ends to get a longer slab but I opted to cut the ends off and use them for sacrificial backers on drilling and sawing.

The finished dimensions of the workbench are 31" wide x 55" long x 39" high.

I do not have a specific link for the router sled construction. I surfed the SMC posts and gathered ideas from a variety of posts. I made the sled out of MDF with jointed rails glued and screwed to it for some added rigidity. I drilled a hole and screwed my router to the sled with a 1.25" dado bit mounted. I then screwed two 3/4" x 3" boards to each side of the bowling alley slab. The inside board was a sacrificial board and the outside board (jointed for straightness and leveled both ways) was for the sled to slide on (I shimmed the slab to level it both ways before I attached and leveled the runner boards). I waxed the bottom of the sled and the runner rails, found my highest spot and started routing away. I would drop about 1/16" to 1/8" with each new pass. It routed fairly well but I found that with the different wood species in the slab that sometimes that big bit would "grab" more and had a tendancy to try to run off. But overall I was pleased with the results. I did "level" both sides of the slab and I did the bottom first so if I screwed up it would at least be on the bottom. I then took a belt sander to both sides to finish the initial smoothing. When the workbench was fully assembled I leveled all the components (slab, 4x4 rails, skirt and vise jaws) with a hand plane. That hand planing is quite the experience. I had never attempted such an effort and it took HOURS! A well tuned and sharp (I had help with this) plane is a pleasure to use and makes for quite the finish!

[Scott Velie]

Wow really nice Larry.
I am just starting my bench. I will be using walnut and purpleheart as contrasts. Right now milling 3" thick sugar maple planks is wearing me out !

Scott

[Ray Meche]

Awesome job! Nice legs ;)

[Ben Martin]

The original slab was 21" wide x 97" long x 3" deep. I cut the ends off because the glue was failing on both ends and the laminates were seperating. I suppose I could have attempted to reglue the ends to get a longer slab but I opted to cut the ends off and use them for sacrificial backers on drilling and sawing.

I am afraid that my 6' piece might suffer the same fate. The 70 year old glue seems pretty weak, but mine also has nails going through the individual slats keeping it together. I am scared to remove the 2X4s that are nailed to the bottom to give it support.

[Jerry Olexa]

VERY nice work and results....Looks sturdy...Like your router leveling approach

[Mark Blum]

Do you have a link where you found out how to use to router sled to level the top? I am going to need to do something like that.

Here is a link that describes the process in great detail. (http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/story.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/wood/story/data/408.xml)


I also describe how I did it using the same method on my web page (http://home.mindspring.com/%7Ehobbesct/Workbench%201.htm) that chronicles the entire build of my workbench, if anybody is interested.

[Doug Hobkirk]

My son didn't give me part of a bowling alley - I feel cheated...
but maybe I can sneak into a bowling alley tonight with my saw and a pry bar...

Looks great, well built, good height for most work, and I like that it's not long.

[Brian Dormer]

Sweet!

You know - if you have some wood dust left over - you could mix up a slurry with some PVA glue and patch that sneeze right up. Nobody would ever know. Of course, you'd need to take another picture.....

Please don't ask me how I learned that. I'm sworn to secrecy.

[Jim Solomon]

Nice bench! Looks great. I had the same idea about bowling lane material. I was in contact with a guy at that auction site, he has bowling lane material for sell. From what I have learned it is a Phenolic of some kind, 1/16 on each side, both of which look like maple, with a highly compressed, plasticized core. Total thickness is 1/2 inch. It can withstand a bowling ball dropped from 60 inches and is flat to 40/1000 in a 42 inch radius. It does not absorb moisture, is dead flat, slick and hard as nails. So he said. Now that I have the Pm66 w/50" fence an the DJ20 my small shop is getting crowded. I planned on using this as an extension table top on the PM 66 for glue ups. Make it like the PM2000 with workbench ext. table. I assume your material wasn't this, but solid wood. Now that I saw how nice yours came out it made up my mind to do that. Now if I do as good as job as you did I'll reclaim some space.
Jim

[John Cooper2]

Would love to find a chunk of bowling alley, anybody have any ideas? contacts?

Northern Ca.

thx
J
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