Workbench Build

[Graham Haydon]

I'm nearly finished with the project but thought I'd share what I've done so far.

I wanted it to be a bench easy on the wallet and to fit into my garage at home. The base is made from glue laminated bearers that come in with timber deliveries and one piece of 9" x 2 1/2" softwood for the back rail. Joinery is wedged mortice and tenon with the back rail draw-bored too. I removed the rail from the front so I can roll my tool chest underneath. With the back rail so stout and framing members all very heavy it all feels very solid, for the moment. I painted the base black as the quality of the timber is very poor and not good to look at.

The top is made up from offcuts of waste fire door blanks that we had left over. These aren't chipboard core but solid wood. https://www.jewson.co.uk/timber/shee...1200-x-2440mm/ This makes an 88mm thick "slab" that is mortice and tenoned to the legs and reinforced with glue and screws along the top rail of the leg frames and into the shoulders of the tennons. I put a trim around the fire door blanks, making use of some beech and sapele. This was then glued, screwed and pluged to the balnks.

I then found the cheapest beech worktop on ebay which I simply glued into place. It's almost like an oversized version of the the plywood flooring with a top wear layer of hardwood, that's where I got my inspiration anyway. https://www.iwood.co.uk/engineered-f.../oak-european/ I know I'm pusing my luck with the construction method but this has been a slow, slow (months and months of 15mins here, 30 mins there) process and there have been no issues yet.

Both of the vices are ebay, one Record 52 QR at the end and a big Woden QR on the front. The Woden is their version of the Record 53, it has a really big capacity. Hope to have the thing home soon. I can then start setting up my home tool chest.

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[Joe A Faulkner]

The bench looks great. Congratulations on the build. How did you glue the beech counter top to the "sub-bench top"? I would have been tempted to counter bore some holes, and used lag screws in slots to allow the top to move some, but depending on how the factory counter top was made, maybe it is not as susceptible to movement as most shop laminated tops are. Looks plenty stout. Enjoy it.

[Kevin Hampshire]

Graham, The bench looks great. From the written description I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it turned out very nice.

Like Joe, I was curious about the lamination of the top.

I’ll also ad, are you doing any planing on it and do you notice any stability issues from not having a front stretcher?

[Megan Fitzpatrick]

Looks great!

[Stew Denton]

Graham,

+1 on every one above that say it looks great! Nice job. Thanks for posting the photos.

Regards,

Stew

[Graham Haydon]

Thanks all. The feedback is appreciated.

Regarding the top, the points raised are totally valid. The top is only 27mm thick beech so having it floating was going to be tricky. However, as the fire door "slab" is relatively inert coupled with the counter top having reached an equilibrium with it's surrounding over many months, and I don't expect any substantial humidity changes so I'm reasonably confident. If I was in a situation with big swings in humidity it would not be such a great idea! Top was secured with PVA, clamps around the edges and 56lb weights sprinkled over the top. Spring cauls would of been a good option too.

Kevin, a few weeks back I levelled the top with the aid of winding sticks, straight edge, jack and panel plane. There was no movement and it was rock solid. However! Losing that stretcher fron the front could be and issue. Once I have it back at home and I've wheeled the chest under I will see if I can add a diagonal brace or a ply panel to the back to brace it. This would give an area for mounting clamps and stuff.

I'm currently fitting a planing stop. Kees sent it to me, must be nearly three years ago now. He made it himself which was pretty cool. Would be great if he could post here again as he had good skills.

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