I regret not building this sooner.

hey everybody today is so exciting because I  just finished up an epic shop project that's   exciting news for years I've needed a proper  outfit and assembly table and this one is   packed with features it's got a ton of storage  for organizing small and large tools aluminum   rails for work holding and on top of that  a huge work area with an mft style dog hole   grid okay there's a lot of work to do so let's  get going so to get started on this new assembly   table I'm going to cut the parts that make  up the frame and the wood I'm going to use   for this is hard maple I chose that because  all the shop cabinets and stands I've built   in the last couple of years are all maple so  this will match that look nicely I like using   maple for all my shop projects because it's a  very dense heavy wood that's easy to obtain in   my area and relatively cheap compared to other  hardwoods it'll give the assembly table a lot of   mass and also take a good beating from day to day  work after I chop all these boards down to rough   length at the miter saw I've got one fat stack  of boards that need to be milled flat and square   so I send everything across the jointer to get one  face totally flat before I put that face against   the fence and square up one edge then I can run  him through the planer to get a nice flat surface   on the other face I love sticking rough lumber  into the planer and watching it come out the other   side nice and clean it's so magical next head over  to the table saw to cut everything to rough width   using the square edge that I made at the jointer  but more importantly look at how I'm playing   it cool and pretending that I didn't notice  that I forgot to turn on the dust collection   uh there's just nothing like a good dusting of man  glitter to make you feel like a real woodworker   okay with all my parts milled up  it's time to glue up some leg blanks   I'm using two pieces of eight quarter maple  sandwiched together to make one leg blank this   will give me enough material to mill the legs down  to a final dimension of three and a half inches   Square I like just using my built-in glue spreader  here because I'm lazy and I don't want to walk all   the way over to get a silicone brush out of the  drawer that's like five steps away I'm also gluing   multiple pairs of legs together to save on clamps  just make sure you don't accidentally glue them   together into one Mega leg and while those glue  ups are drying I need to cut all my other frame   parts to final length and I like to gang similar  pieces together this helps in making the final   Assembly Square because it guarantees that all the  corresponding sides are exactly the same length   and once those leg blanks come out of the clamps  I run them back across the jointer on two sides to   clean up those joints and get two flat Square  sides then back through the planer to get the   other two sides flat and square as well look  at those nice crisp clean legs looking so good   but after all that Milling I've been doing my  dust collector was alerting me that it was time   to empty the drum look at all that Lumber just  reduced to termite food but that's the price you   pay to get good clean straight Lumber all right  now that we're all depressed let's get happy again   and cut these legs to final length look at those  beautiful legs doesn't that make you feel better   next up joinery and here's a tip for any time  you need to cut joinery in table legs once you've   decided the orientation that you want for your  legs group them together and draw a diamond on   top of the legs this is a great way to remember  which face of your legs are going to get joinery   cut in them because all you have to do is look  for which face the line touches once I marked   out all my joints on the legs it was time to put  this in Easy Mode and use my Domino to cut all   the mortises you definitely don't have to have a  domino for this you could use a drill and doweling   jig or you could cut traditional mortise and  tenons which will both be just as good but take   way longer to cut if you could only afford to  buy one tool from Festool The Dominoes should   be it in my opinion there's no better combination  of speed and accuracy for joinery I also need to   cut mortises in the ends of all the other frame  Parts which is easy too just point and shoot   the only legs that don't get Domino's are the  middle support legs those are going to be added   later and I need to cut some big notches in them  to support the long stretchers to do this I put   my dado stack in the table saw and hogged out all  that material again you don't need a dado stack   you could do this with a regular ripping blade on  a table saw but you'll be cutting these notches   one blade width at a time so just refer back to my  previous ramblings about using tools to save time   okay enough of all that it's finally time to  bang this thing together so I start by adding   some glue and tapping in dominoes this is my  favorite part of assembly because everything   just fits together so easily without additional  tools other than a small Persuader and some clamps   I decided the best way to tackle this was to  assemble the long sides first which would be   the front and back sides I'm putting this together  all by myself so gluing the whole frame all in one   shot was just not likely to end well to get these  clamped up I had to break out my extra long pipe   clamps this is where pipe clamps really save  my bacon because it would be expensive if not   impossible to find parallel or f-style clamps  of this size one thing about pipe clamps though   is that they can exert a lot of force quickly  enough that I can easily Bend this stretcher so   if this happens to you just back off the clamping  pressure until you see both the pipe and the board   straighten out again that'll be plenty of force  to hold the joints together okay fast forward   and both the long sides are out of the clamps but  before I continue building this is a great time to   install leveling feet any type of outfeed table  should have these because you never want to try   to build it exactly to the height of your table  saw and unless you have dead flat floors there's   always going to be one side slightly higher than  the other all that headache can be avoided by just   making your table about a half inch short  and adding nice beefy leveling feet I just   countersink a tiny bit to allow for this plate to  sit flush and then I can drill down into the leg   then I could just screw this thingy to the  leg and make sure to drill pilot holes first   then the feet just screw in and now this  table is going to be fully adjustable to   get it to just the right height okay now I need  to add a bunch of dominoes to all these mortises   I don't know why but tapping in dominoes  is one of the most satisfying feelings and now I'm realizing I'm gonna have to take  this thing to the floor before I can add the   sides and stretchers and these just slide  right over those dominoes and into place   sometimes you got to tap it a little bit and I  made sure to add some support under the middle   to make pressing these stretchers on a little  bit easier okay now comes the most stressful   part of the whole build somehow I need to make  these 20 dominoes line up perfectly with the 20   mortises before all this glue begins to dry once  I got this side lined up I worked on the other   end and slowly but surely every Domino fill  into place get it Dominoes falling into place   never mind even without clamps this thing is rigid  enough to flip it upright and that's when my plan   almost hit a major snag my longest parallel clamps  are 50 inches and I've got plenty of those on hand   but this Frame is 52 inches wide right before I  began cursing my lack of forethought I discovered   that by luck I could squeeze a couple more inches  out of these clamps and they just fit and I was   able to apply clamping Force crisis averted I get  everything clamped up and surprisingly everything   is pretty square but let's say in your case that  it's not what would you do if you suspect that   it's not just take a tape measure and measure it  from corner to corner and see if it's the same   distance than the other corners if One Direction  is a little longer than the other one apply a   light amount of clamping pressure to those corners  and then check it again until both diagonal   measurements are the same so while that glue up  is drying I can move on to cutting the cabinet   parts for the cabinet sides and bottom I'm using  three quarter inch pre-finished Maple ply the same   thing that I build all my other shop cabinets  from first I like to rip off the Ragged Factory   Edge and make them nice and crispy once that's  done I can cut everything to final dimensions   okay now I'm going to attach these Center  support legs and these are going to prevent   the middle of the table from sagging over time  as well as provide a nice visual divider between   the two Banks of drawers so installing these  legs is pretty simple really I just need to   find the exact center of the apron and  lower stretchers and Mark that position   then I can mark the exact center of the legs  after that I just add some glue to these notches   and line up the marks on the legs with the marks  on the table then I'll just add a couple clams   before doing the same thing on the back side now  with those legs installed I Can Begin installing   the cabinets I start by countersinking some holes  into the side panels with this cool countersink   drill bit and then I can clamp the panels  into place then with cat-like nibbleness I   maneuver my way into the center of the table I  have a couple of friends that call me whiskers   and that's where I'll just screw these panels  into place and now to maneuver to the other   side for more fun with contortion and with all the  side panels in place I can go take some ibuprofen   and work on installing the back panels these are  pretty easy but I did need to cut a notch in the   top to make way for the center support to run  through it you'll see what I mean in a minute   this Notch is easy enough to cut with  a jigsaw and a drill bit can make a   nice little relief to quickly remove the  center and clean up the bottom of the notch and now you can see how it slides over that Center  support so I can screw it into the side panels   and down at the bottom I added some small  plywood cleats and this is going to give me   a place to drop in the bottom of the cabinets  because these cabinets will be filled with   drawers a bottom panel is kind of unnecessary  however it will keep the cabinets free of dust   cobwebs and any kind of Critter who might try  to make their home in here this also gives you   the flexibility that if you don't want all those  drawers but would rather have shelves and doors   you can still use this cabinet for storage okay  so behind the cabinets I'm gonna add more cleats   this time the cleats are full length because  I plan on storing a bunch of items like air   compressors and jigs back here and so these  bottoms need to be able to hold that weight now that that's done I need to  fill these cabinets with drawers   I like making my drawers out  of 5 8 inch Baltic Birch ply   it has a clean look and 5 8 of an inch is the  perfect size even for larger drawers I'm gonna   go ahead and make it easy on myself and make all  these drawers the same size because past me knew   that future me would want this part of the project  done quickly so I just set the distance on my   fence and cut all my parts and then I cut a Groove  down all the sides to capture the drawer bottoms   this is easily done with a single saw blade you  just sneak up on the cut until the drawer bottom   fits just like this now for all of you who may be  thinking that I'm some kind of elitist woodworker   who only uses Festool you can think again because  I love using pocket holes to build all my drawers   I think this is the perfect application for them  quick to do and all the pockets are hidden even   my solid Maple kitchen drawers have pocket hole  construction and for a drawer assembly I adhere   to the kiss model just keep it simple with my  parts aligned like this they fold up and I can   align the joints and make sure they're nice and  square before I add a pair of clamps I pop in   my pocket screws and I find glue to be optional  here if you did add glue to these just make sure   to tape off the inside of those joints so that the  glue squeeze out is easy to remove and then I can   just slide the bottom in from the back side and  tap it into the groove in the front of the drawer   I like adding screws here especially for shop  drawers because they're going to end up holding   a good amount of weight and I just repeat that  process five more times and all my drawers are   done now to install these I'm using under mount  drawer slides you can save some money for sure   and use side mount slides but I already had  a ton of these under mounts on hand from all   my cabinet projects in my opinion though if you  build drawers using this method that I showed you   then installing under mount slides is a breeze  and there's so much more adjustability don't   worry I won't bore you with any more talk about  drawer slides but I do have a video explaining   my dead simple process for installing them that  I'll leave a link to in the description below   and in the meantime I'll wow and Amaze you  with this crudely edited animation foreign so wouldn't you know it I decided that I didn't  need all this dead space on the back side of the   table and then I could squeeze in one more bank  of drawers if I planned my cuts correctly with my   remaining plywood I quickly cut some new parts  and assembled the cabinet outside of the table   using screws for the bottom as well as the back  and now if I made all my measurements accurately   this thing should you drop straight in from the  top bam I secured it with a few screws from the   inside and whipped up three more small drawers  so for the drawer fronts I'm making them all out   of pre-finished maple ply the only additional  step is adding Edge banding for a clean look all right so with the new bench basically  done it's getting really tight in here and   I need to get it into position which means  I need to get rid of the old bench [Music]   so I'm going to need a minute to  say goodbye to my old bench [Music]   ah who am I kidding let's get it out  of here okay so I'm not gonna make   you watch me tear this old bench apart  but I did have one tip that I wanted to   share and that's before you discard any  Cabinetry or shop Furniture make sure to   salvage as much usable Hardware as possible  things like drawer pulls hinges and slides   because those things are all expensive  and easily reused in Future Shop projects   foreign with the new assembly table in its  place I have a lot more breathing room and   I can go ahead and add the finishing touches to  the base cabinet starting with the drawer fronts   since these cabinets are in set I can add spacers  to the bottom rail and position the drawer   front where I want it and then fasten it to the  cabinet using the holes that I made for the pull then I can just fasten the drawer from the  back side before removing those two screws   and drilling the holes completely through then I  can just install my drawer pull and then do that   same process two more times so one thing that my  old table had that this new one won't have is a   vise and so that means I need to come up with  a new solution for vertical work holding and I   think I may have found it with this aluminum  Extrusion the only problem is how to access   the slots with these legs in the way so my first  thought was to create a wooden spacer that was   thick enough to extend the slots beyond the face  of the legs and the rail is going to fasten to   the spacer with these drop-in t-bolts I just used  my old friend two-sided tape to secure the spacer   while I drilled the pilot holes into the apron  then with the t-bolts in the rails I slid the   bolts through the holes and fastened them with  washers and nuts on the back side so now I can   access these slots with my Festool clamps and even  my micro jig dovetail clamps will fit which makes   me super pumped I was so happy that I went ahead  and added a second rail to the end of the table   and the final little bit of detail to add to the  base was to cover the exposed plywood edges with   a piece of trim this is nothing fancy it's just  glued in place and clamped with painters tape   okay so with the base finished I can focus on  the top which I'm making out of MDF I don't   want anything complicated like a torsion box and  I don't think it needs to be real thick because   I have all those thick supports built into the  frame of the table but to really make the top   pop I'm going to laminate it with this sheet of  black formica formica is used every day to make   kitchen countertops and it's pretty durable and  wear resistant wood glue won't stick to it and   with it being black stains and other blemishes  are going to be harder to see you can get this   stuff in lots of different places I like to get  mine from my local plywood dealer but you can   also order it online through your local Lowe's  or Home Depot and have it shipped to the store   or even directly to you in a roll it's easy to cut  with this special scoring tool that kind of looks   like a Sawtooth welded to the end of a hook knife  and once you score it it snaps pretty easily right   on the score line and if you're brave enough  you can even cut it on your table saw which I   don't really recommend it's kind of like trying  to cut a giant flour tortilla on your table saw so the go to method for laminating formica  is contact cement the good news is is that   contact cement is really simple to use you  can just roll or brush it on and within 15   minutes it's tacky to the touch the bad news is  this stuff has a powerful noxious odor and you   really need to use it in a well-ventilated  space until it fully cures you can't see it   but behind the camera my garage door is  wide open so that these fumes can escape once both sides are dry to the touch I can just  Place some spacers between the two surfaces and   line the laminate up carefully then working  from the middle I remove one spacer at a   time pressing the formica down contact cement  forms a powerful Bond so you want to go slowly and once I have all the spacers out I  use this special roller to press the   formica into place and drive out any air  pockets that might compromise the bond   and then you can use a trim router literally to do  the job that the tool was designed for and flush   trim this laminate to the edge of the MDF and just  like that I've got a nice Darth Vader looking top   so I'm making my top in two halves and I'm doing  that for a reason I have one more feature in mind   that I want to add to the top a while back I asked  my viewers what kind of work holding they liked on   their work tables and the clear majority said  dog holes were preferred and I have to say I'm   in the same camp I have an mft workstation that's  in the front of the shop and I love being able to   use bench dogs and fences and clamps in the same  system so I want to replicate that on one half   of my new assembly table to create the mft style  grid of holes there are several options like the   UGK parf guide system or there are other YouTubers  who've developed accurate ways of doing this job   but I have a faster and easier way which is a CNC  and this is the perfect job for it after designing   up the whole pattern in my design software I let  the CNC do the Precision cutting I will though   link to that parf guide system below and I'll  also link some videos that explain how to use   it and create an mft style top and of course you  could skip the holes all together and just install   t-track effects or go blank slate and have a fresh  clean worktop and then to protect the edges I'm   trimming it out with some Maple Edge banding I  could have easily added this Edge banding before   I laminated the top had I had just one ounce  of forethought oh well still looks good though   to secure the top to the base I drilled some  pocket holes along the perimeter this way if I   need to replace either half of the table it's  just as simple as unscrewing it and I don't   have to deal with replacing the entire top if I  don't need to and since this is an outfeed table   the last little detail I need to add is to route  two slots to match up with the miter slots on the   table saw to do this I'm just using a router with  a one inch rabbeting bit I used a strip of wood   that's secured with two-sided tape to be my guide  and I took it in a couple passes just to be safe   now my miter gauge or cross cut sled can slide  without running into the edge of the outfeed   table and just like that this thing is ready to go  to work that was a lot of work but this thing is   ready to go and I couldn't be more stoked if there  are any other features you think that I should add   to this in a future video go ahead and let me know  down in the comments below thanks for watching   this video and please subscribe if you're not  already and until next time have fun in the shop

Channel: MWA Woodworks

Views: 247,081

Keywords: mwa woodworks, ultimate table saw out-feed table, out-feed table done right, outfeed table, how to, assembly table, table saw, diy workbench, table saw outfeed table, outfeed table for table saw, how to build, how to make, out feed table, outfeed table build, tablesaw outfeed table, folding outfeed table, table saw out feed table, table saw accessories, workbench drawers, workbench storage, table saw table, outfeed workbench, diy outfeed table

Id: 8SiuMTZJDqI

Length: 19min 54sec (1194 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 29 2023