Super frustrated

[Matthew Hills]

James,

While I certainly understand your frustration and know you want to get the smooth plane problem diagnosed and addressed, consider NOT smooth-planing your workbench. It's not going to stay smooth for very long anyway. What matters is that it's level and flat. After getting it flat with a jointer plane, I'd call it done.

Would you still put a finish on the bench?
(asking as I haven't, after stopping with my bench flattened with a toothed plane)

Plane tracks still good to resolve for any work planned for the bench.

Matt

[Megan Fitzpatrick]

I put two coats of oil/varnish blend on my bench at work in 2009 when we built it...so that it would look pretty in pictures. For the bench I have at home, no finish. A finish does make it easier to clean off glue drips or what have you, but I just wipe them up if/when they happen; problem solved. No finish, in my experience, makes the top a little "grippier." (FWIW, Chris used to use an o/v blend on his benches; these days, he takes a toothing plane to the surface to rough it up so it "grips" stuff better; I have not yet succumbed to that temptation.)