How to Build a Workbench - Ep.1

Today we’re gonna make a workbench When I started contemplating the idea of creating a YouTube channel, three years ago, the very first video I imagined to post was about me building a workbench. That project never happened, until now. Of course I took inspiration from many other workbenches out there on other maker’s shops and I decided to go with a very sturdy split top not so huge but still very heavy workbench. So I went to my local lumber store and bought a whole bunch of hard maple boards that I asked them to joint, plane and cut into smaller pieces. So I started by observing and placing them together the way I found to look best to create the tops. After having them arranged, I started the big glue up. And I wasn’t sure about how much glue should I apply so I ended up putting way too much glue and that resulted in huge squeeze outs. But well, I preferred to have any gaps filled with glue than filled with air. I applied just a little bit of clamping pressure at first and then clamped some blocks with packing tape to the ends to try to level up the components and finally when turning the rest of the clamps a little bit more, a little bit more until they were super tightened. I collected the excess glue from the top side and allowed for about 24 hours before unclamping everything. Some boards had big snipes from the planner at the lumber store so I had to re planed them before gluing up the second half on the top. These pieces were a bit of a nightmare to move around as they were very heavy for me but I manage a few ways to do it. I decided to make a basic longboard just by screwing 4 wheels on a piece of the thickest plywood I had and of course these wheels are not ideal as they are terrible to move around and super weak, but that’s what I had on hand and it did work in the end. Here I started working on the base structure and this time applied the right amount of glue. I wanted to get the best look possible from these boards so I observed them carefully and kept the curly grain pieces for the bottom stretchers as they will be more visible than the top ones. I am not a huge fan of crazy wood grains and I would probably never make a piece of furniture for myself using it, but for a work place I think it’s nice to try it out. To joint the pieces I gave a shot to this Beadlock Pro joinery kit from Rockler. This jig can create lose tenon joinery just by drilling holes. It’s a strong jig, all made out of metal and can be used with several sized inserts. Here I am using the 1/2” kit since it is the biggest one. It has these white lines that you can align with your work piece but the lines are a little too thick so to achieve a better precision I ended up aligning it always to the outer side of my pencil line. You jut drill the holes fitting the drill bit on the metal guide and then move the guide to the other position and drill only on the alternating holes. I wish I had a vise already to make this job easier. This is the 1/2” Tenon stock that will fit the wavy shape holes I’ve just created. The kit also comes with a rectangular guide so after drilling your holes, you can chisel out the remaining material and use your own regular shaped tenons. After making a dry assembly, I got a bit nervous because then I couldn’t remove some of the tenons that were so perfectly fitted, so I recommend you sanding the tenons a little bit before jumping into the dry test. I made a rabbet just on the bottom stretchers in case I decide to install a shelf after the workbench is fully assembled and I always prefer the router table because I can get a very clean finish. To secure the tops to the base I will be making some elongated holes to allow for wood movement. Finally it was time to glue the base and yes, some of the tenons didn’t receive glue on one of the sides because I couldn’t remove them as I explained before but I think it’s going to be just fine. I forgot to make the long stretcher mortices on one of the sides and at this point I couldn’t fit the jig so I had to remove the backer piece and use a couple of clamps to secure it in plane. Again working out my muscles to bring this heavy animals up in the base. There was no way for me to joint the sides of the tops so I just run the plunge saw to define a straight line and finished it with a hand plane. At this point I could finally cut the end in two passes and flip it over to make more two passes. It’s time to install the quick release bench vise and first we cleaned the protective grease a little bit. Then I extended the front face so I can actually insert the vice rods into something. I followed the instructions from this video so I won’t go into details on this one. Ok, so vise installation done and now I can put the tops in place. The vise jaw needs to be flushed with the top and this seemed to take forever. somehow I didn’t seem to be able to take thick shavings, maybe it’s because this is a smoothing plane? I don’t know but I adjusted the plane mouth to be as open as possible and the blade was freshly sharpened and still not getting thick shavings. Maybe it’s me not having enough force to push down the hand plane. Anyway, the next step was to flatten the entire surface and make both tops coplanar and levelled and again I followed a video from The Wood Whisperer on this matter. I went out and bough this pieces of steel because I couldn’t find any perfectly straight edge that could work around here. So I built the same jig that Mark did on his video but I added two stoppers on the bottom so I don’t hit the metal rails with the router bit. I want to be able to use bench dogs and other clamping accessories so I drilled a few 3/4” holes with this big boy using a scrap block as a template that I previously drilled vertically using my drill press. I also want to be able to move the bench around occasionally so I got this strong casters meant specifically for that purpose. And the workbench is done for now! I still need to make the central piece, sand and apply some finish to give it some protection and well as some other details that will get covered on a future video. As I made it the same height as my T-track table, I can actually get infinite clamping possibilities which is so awesome. Hopefully this anti-fatigue floor mats can help my leg and back problems from now on! A big shout out to Rockler for being a great supporter and providing me a whole bunch of tools and accessories for this build as well as to all my Patreon supporters! we just hit the first goal so I guess that I got some extra work to do soon! Thanks everyone for watching, I hope you found some useful ideas and inspiration to build something awesome and I’ll catch you guys later.

Channel: GET HANDS DIRTY

Views: 2,511,690

Keywords: make, build, woodworking, diy, workbench, roubo, maple, heavy, sturdy, work, table, bench, vise, rockler, easy, yt:cc=on

Id: _OzEZBetJR0

Length: 16min 24sec (984 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2018