hi, on the woodpecker today, i'm starting a series of 4 episodes on the construction of my new workbench. for many years now, i've been using my router cabinet as an outfeed table for my table saw. but it's useless if i have the guide or just even a bit sticking out. with my new workbench, the problem is solved. but this workbench didn't appear by itself. last december, renã©e and i, brought a bunch of six by sixes into the shop. i promised her that for this workbench i'd be using only wood that i have on hand here. so to make the base, i'll use the small parts of my old crane. but since i begin with the top, we need to get some douglas fir.
those are the cutoffs of my braces. i don't want to lose all this nice wood. but since it's almost all in small pieces, i need to make a jig so i'll be able to joint them, end to end. i begin by cutting a piece of plywood at an angle. this is an arbitrary angle. i just traced several lines on a piece of scrap and chose the one i liked the most. my pieces are too big; i have to cut them. then i recut both of them to the same angle. next i glue and screw one wedge to another piece of plywood, which will be the bottom of the jig.
stay with me here; everything will become clearer soon. next, i use the other wedge to trace on one of my test pieces and cut it on the band saw. i do the same thing for my second test piece. now i use this bit to make the cut smooth. i begin by clamping one test piece on my new jig, and with the router, i clean the bandsaw marks. this is what the first piece looks like.i repeat the same thing for the second one. now you can see what i had in mind. but before beginning to work on the "real" pieces, i need to sharpen my saw blade.
now i'm ready.after tracing the angle, i can cut it. next i clamp everything and clean the cut. when i have the first two, i can glue them together. but with all this glue; this is way too slippery. i'm forced to drill a hole in both pieces so i can insert a dowel to hold them together while i glue them. one done; but i still have a bunch to do. but from now on, i'll drill some domino mortises to keep both pieces together; it's easier than a dowel. but all the rest is the same. after a while, all my pieces are glued.i just need to let the glue dry.
the next morning, i have longer pieces; but still not enough. i'm forced to make more scarf joints. clean them. drill mortises to keep them together.and finally, glue them together. even my longer ones are not long enough.i need to joint them with my test pieces. i also have one with a mangled corner.i'll fix it with this piece. the first thing i do is to cut the corner. after cleaning it, i can cut the wood to fill this. i just have to let the glue dry before i can go ahead.
the next morning, i can plane the excess wood. but not just my repair job; all the joint pieces also. when all the pieces are straight on two faces, i plane the rest with the thickness planer. now i have all i need for the top of the workbench. this is what it will look like. but now, i can see that one of my hemlock pieces is a little bit bowed. i fix this. now that all my pieces are to my liking, i draw a big triangle on top of all of them so i can place them in the same manner later on.
i don’t even take a chance; so i label all of them. now i glue them three by three. i begin by marking where i'll drill the domino mortises and drill them. next, i spread a nice coat of glue on all the surfaces and glue them in pack of three. first one done.second.and third. now i just need to let them dry. when it's dry, i put all three glueups together and mark the placement of the next mortises. and just like i did the last time, i drill them. spread a little bit of glue.
clamp all three glue ups together and leave this to dry overnight. the next morning, the glue is dry and i'm forced to ask renã©e to give me a little bit of help to move my future workbench top onto some wimpy sawhorses. i want to install this tail vice in one corner of my workbench top, but i just have this photo and one page i found from a magazine on the internet. i think i'll have to improvise a little... i can see this has to work like that.so i trace the size of the metal plate onto the wood. next, using the plate itself, i set my router bit to that depth. then, with a guide edge and a stop, i rout away for the plate.
i leave a little bit of wood at the end, so the router can always be supported. then i finish the job with a block plane. last thing to do is to square up the corner. the bolt’s head prevents the plate from getting properly into place, so after marking its position, i can remove some wood. i forgot to rout away a groove for the top sliding plate, but to be able to rout it now, i need to add some support where there’s no wood anymore and cut the groove. when i'm done, i clean the groove, remove the support and then i can try the top slider. since it's perfect, i drill pilot holes and screw the plate in place.
the easy part is now done. i need to start on the moving part. in the magazine they made this part with several pieces. i probably should have done this, but here's how i made it. first of all, i need to make space for the top slider, so after marking its position, i cut it on the table saw. after checking that it's ok, i clean the round end. next, i mark the position of the holding bolts and drill them. but it's a little bit difficult; my drill press can't drill to this depth. i have to lift up the table to finish the holes.
then i check if i didn't goof up. so far so good.but now i need space for the traveling nuts. so i mark its position and i use it to trace its shape. i drill a series of holes. next, i need to clean in between them. up until now, i think that everything is going well... now i need to cut a groove for the traveling bolt. i do that with a series of cuts on the table saw. this seems to work, but i still need to clean the round end.
next i put back the nut in place and screw the plate in place. but it's just after reassembling everything that i noticed that i need a channel the size of the nut... so now i decide to cut the channel with a straight bit and the router. i reassemble it all again. it's a little bit hard to move but overall, it's fine.finally... since the moving part is a real success, i can mark the placement for the mortises for the last two pieces of the top, and drill them. i also drill more mortises into the already glued top.
the last thing to do is to glue the last two pieces to the rest. this is far from being near the end; but if you're interested in the rest, you'll have to come back to the woodpecker.