Re: How to build a workbench in 2 years or less
Figured I'd resurrect the old "workbench saga" thread, to let folks know what I've been up to lately. The reason for the delay was that I was trying to work out a wood deal with a friend of mine. As a few of you know that didn't exactly work out, but I finally got some more maple to work with last week:
When I left off, I was in the process of making the trestles. I decided not to use the feet that I made previously, due to the spacing issues between the mortises. I did use the legs that I made before, though. I glued up the trestle tops and feet, and cut the mortise & tenon joinery for the legs and stretchers. I used my hollow chisel mortiser to make all my mortises, but had to clean up a pretty good deal by hand. The tenons were all cut with the table saw to make the shoulders, then with the band saw to cut the cheeks.
The thumbail profile on the feet were made using the 2-1/8" radius, which allowed for more space between the legs. This will give me a MUCH bigger and more usable space to add a tool cabinet under the bench at a later date. I used a 1" forstner bit on the two feet clamped together to make the ½" radius under each foot. The notch on the thumbnail was cut on the table saw, and the radius was cut on the bandsaw and cleaned up with the belt/disc sander.
So, here is what I have so far:
I plan to finish up the joinery and glue it all up probably this weekend. I will use the
draw-boring technique to reinforce the M&T joints on the trestle tops & feet, and I will wedge the through tenons on the legs.
