So after moving to a new house and leaving behind a gigantic built-in plywood bench, I was pondering how to go about obtaining a new workbench of my own. Out of the blue I was gifted with a reasonably suitable maple top. It's not PERFECT, mind you, but the wax-filled voids are all on the lower side, and the existing jeweler's vise holes don't really get in the way of anything. Happy day!
So now I needed to turn a big, heavy slab of wood into a bench. I turned to my old standby, Lee Valley. They've got a nice combination of traditional and innovative tools, and they also had a Basic Workbench kit that seemed eminently suitable. In addition, I ordered their massive twin-screw bench vise kit.Those, along with a few bench dogs and such ought to give me quite a workable bench.
Of course, I still had to BUILD the thing! I tracked down some 4x4 douglas fir post material to use for the frame, and after a bit of time with the tablesaw, I had a nice base assembled, with truss rods dadoed into the various members. The tabletop sat nicely on top of this... And there it sat for a year and a half.
What can I say? sometimes I get lazy.
Anyway, in the Fall of 2005, I suddenly found myself with the urge to work in the shop again. There were just too many things left undone around the house, and I needed a good work area for so many of them.
So I surveyed my bench, and saw that I needed to drill dog holes, fix the top to the base, attach the levelling feet, build the skirts, and assemble the vise.
I also couldn't find the instructin book.
I almost went back upstairs.
No! I needed to do this! I had the plans, that should be all I really needed.
So I decided that a good place to start was by creating a jig to drill the vise holes. I took a piece of scrap melamine-laminated particle board, and set out. A bit of layout work later, and I had what I needed, three holes spaced appropriately. I drilled them accurately on the drill press so that I could get straight dog holes. Unfortunately, I didn't count on the fact that once the forstner bit I was using entered the hole, it was no longer being guided... My first three holes only turned out so-so. As of this writing, I have not yet ordered the (out-of-stock) 3/4" brad-pointed bit I need to drill accurately.
Time for a new task: I set about to attach the levelling feet to the base of the bench. This turned out to be quite easy. I used my digital calipers to determine the size of the insert cylinders, drilled holes in the base of the bench about .005"oversized, and drove in the inserts. Then it was simply screw in the (1/4" x 20) legs and turn the bench over. Job done.
Next issue: The top was too wide. It took me a while to set up the board I used as a fence, and my grandfather's old circular saw didn't care much for the thick and dense material, but I got the top ripped down to the correct width. Unfortunately, that still didn't make it light enough to handle easily. That was a shame, because I was about to handle the bench top a lot.
I decided that once I got the top properly affixed to the base, I'd have something I could actually call a bench, even if it wasn't quite complete. I had been dreading this task, as I knew aligning things could be tough. I have a length of 3/4" hardwood dowel which I bought to pin the two pieces together, but in the end I decided to go with 1/2" CRS rod. I cut four 1.5" pins on my metal-cutting bandsaw, ground some chamfers into them and set about to use 'em.
I decided on the 1/2" CRS for a couple of reasons. First of all, I HAVE a bar of the stuff sitting on the shop floor. Second, I have 1/2" dowel centers in my toolbox. In the end, the job turned out to be easier than I expected. I got the top off the base and onto the ground, and drilled holes for the pins. I used masking tape as a depth guide, not realizing that it was getting pushed up the bit with each hole...
I inserted the dowel centers, and spent way more time than I should have aligning the top with the base. I say more time than I should have because as soon as I began removing the shims I had stuck in the top shifted. *sigh* However, that turned out to be a minor problem, and I was able to get the first end aligned nicely and then seated down over the dowel centers. Rinse and repeat and I was done with the other end. Then I turned the top over, drilled the corresponding holes (this time NOTICING that the tape was getting deeper, but not realizing all of the consequences. I inserted the pins into the base, and nearly lost one of them, which only sticks up about 1/8 of an inch. It was nearly tragic, but I suppose it sticks up enough to engage the top... Maybe I'll cut a new two-inch pin to replace it though.
As of this writing (10/15/2005) that's as far as I've gotten. The pin episode was just last night. While I haven't yet decided whether or not to replace that short one, I do know that if i choose to, I have to do it next, because once I attach the skirts I fear that the top will be too heavy to lift off again solo.