Shop Project: Finally flattening my main bench top

I've been meaning to "actually" flatten my main bench top since I made it a number of years ago, but never got around to it. Back at the old shop, the plan was to take it to Bucks County Hardwood and have it run though their big old wide sander as I have done a few times with big table tops, but it never happened. And then we moved three years ago. It was certainly "ok" but I knew there was a dip in one area and knew a few other things needed to be addressed for it to be truly flat. Well...today was the day. And it was surprising just how much I had to take off to take care of everything...about 4mm or so "in general". But it's now quite flat. I still need to remount it on the Noden base, sand it thoroughly, re-run the chamfer for the dog holes, etc., but here are a few pictures of the, um...mess...I made this afternoon over about an hour or so.

Here's the starting point. Rather than taking the vice off, I just pulled out one lateral rail from my flattening table so that there was no interference and that also made sure the vice jaw was brought to the same level. It may or may not need minor tweaking with a hand plane but I'm not worried about it. This is a thick benchtop, and so that I didn't have to take off the sacrificial rail tops that protect it when it's being used as a tracksaw table, I blocked up the TrueTrack side rails about an inch so that the gantry would clear the top of the bench. Hot glue kept the bench in place.

Attachment 518865

Because of the necessary "bite" to take care of things in all of this hardwood (purple heart, cherry and oak), I kept the stepover at about 4% (five cranks of the wheel) and rested the router about every ten minutes.

Attachment 518866

Here's the evidence of the "dip" I mentioned...

Attachment 518867

And at this point, the surface of the benchtop is most certainly flat and ready for some "finesse" work like easing the edges to avoid purple heart splinters and cuts (!), sanding and re-chamfering the grid. That darkish area where the dip used to be is just weirdo cherry...I may address that further depending on what I see while sanding.

Attachment 518869


No question what I'll be dealing with tomorrow. LOL

Attachment 518870

One more thing crossed off my list of "things that need done in the shop". :D

Wow Jim, > 1/8" is quite a bit but it looks great now! LOL, looks like you've got a pile of chips to take care of!

I finally had it with my old workbench that has a slight hump in the middle. On the last project, I said enough is enough. To be fair I built it years and years ago when I was a n00b and while it isn't fancy, it worked well. But this weekend, I designed a new bench and uploaded the CAD BOM to 8020 and parts are ordered. Nothing more important than a good workstation IMHO.

Looks great, Jim! I new bench top has been on my "Someday" list for at least two years now.... I'm currently rearranging my shop, so it will continue being on the someday list

Nice work Jim. Only issue is it currently looks way to clean. Got to hurry up and get some scars on it. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by George Yetka

Nice work Jim. Only issue is it currently looks way to clean. Got to hurry up and get some scars on it. :D

---

It was pretty nasty for sure from the grey tinted Rubio that happened to drip on it during some recent projects as well as the natural darkening and color changes. It will sparkle for awhile when I'm done with the reconditioning, but in the end...it's a workbench that I slice and dice on. :D

Looks fantastic!

The cleanup went surprisingly easy...I created the "world's largest shop vac" and sucked it all up. :) :D The hose wouldn't reach on it's own and I had a spare 5' piece of 4" quick connect duct. Voila! Now to be clear, since I use a Harvey G700 in my shop which does not have pre-separation, this whole area was already cleaned prior to the benchtop flattening so I knew there was no metal on the floor. When I was done with about three minutes of waving that heavy thang around, there was only a very small amount of remainder to be sucked up by the shop vac.

Attachment 518945 Attachment 518946

I moved on to the sanding and finishing stages and will post a final photo when this little flattening and reconditioning exercise is complete.

Looking good, can not wait to see the final photo.

Frank, thanks for the reminder...I've been remiss in posting those photos due to distractions, including four days with a five year old blond tornado staying with us (my grand nephew) when his dad had to go to the ER and deal with a serious medical issue. The age-old "trying to be three places at once" thing. LOL

At any rate, here's the end result. I normally only put BLO on work surfaces, but decided to actually use a film finish on this bench despite the risk of it getting cut up over time. The top is assembled from "scrap" purple heart and cherry with just a little white oak and it's kind of a "beautiful" element in the shop. So I did three brushed coats of Varathane oil based "poly" that I had in the cabinet to build and fill, followed by flattening, three wiped on coats and then polishing to bring out that beauty. I can verify that glue cleanup is easy. I'm really pleased with the end result. I physically made this benchtop in 2020, intended to get it flattened in the big sander at Bucks County Hardwoods, but with the pandemic and other distractions, that never happened. That's now been rectified.

Attachment 519441 Attachment 519443 Attachment 519444

That looks so nice Jim, well done. I'm actually mid-way through building a new workbench after a decade of knowing how I like to work. Aluminum isn't nearly as beautiful as cherry, purple heart and white oak, but it's going to be awesome!

Thanks, Michael. It's a satisfying completion of the project.

-----

I added something to this bench recently that I forgot to mention. Having the grid of 20mm holes for worksupport is both a great thing and a small liability. The latter is because "stuff falls through". Anyone who uses a grid or a pre-made solution like the MFT has not question had this happen. Recently Jason Bent mentioned a guy who was 3D printing all kinds of things including little plugs that can be used to seal off the hole when they are not in use and are easily removable with a magnet. The guy trades under "Bad Yorkie Woodworking". These plugs are designed to leverage the chamfer created by the UJK reaming setup that is designed for many of the UJK bench dog products so they fit flush or below the surface. If I owned a 3D printer I likely would have tried to make them myself, but I don't. At any rate, good product that's a nice enhancement to my very versatile main bench setup. The plugs come in various quantities and include the orange magnet for removal.

Attachment 519486

Nicely done Jim! I have been looking at one of those leveling systems for the table I am building. Boy, none of them are cheap! Some just more expensive than others.

I don't have a jackplane yet, so I did order a Metabo HPT belt sander to replace the Craftsman I have had for decades. My old one is missing the belt guard and is so aggressive that I'm hesitant to use it for this table. On the other hand, the Metabo is variable speed and tested well by several testers for flattening. I will put it to the test. It is supposed to deliver tomorrow. Later this week, if you see blue smoke to the west of you, you'll know where, who and why!

Again, nicely done! Beautiful bench!

Ken, my flattening system is from TrueTrac, but yes, there are a number of them commercially available as well as lots of "shop built" solutions. What I bought is USA made by a small business, so while it wasn't inexpensive, it was supporting our economy for what is essentially a specialty item. The support structure was built from their plan and disassembles easily for storing away should I want to have the space available. But my ulterior motive with it that keeps it setup all the time is that it's also a support table for track saw work as well as a great clamping table for larger things.

For your table project, before you attack it with a belt sander, see if there is a shop somewhere near you that will run the top on a wide sander for a few shekels. It's usually pretty inexpensive and will get it dead flat so you can just go right to all your finish sanding.