New Workbench - Part 2 - Beginning to Build the Top

I ended up buying some 2x12x8 Southern Yellow Pine on sale for the top. For now this is a better alternative to using some of the reclaimed oak I've brought home recently. I'll save that for future furniture projects down the road a bit. Final dimensions of the top will be 6'x2'x2.5". I know for some the thicknes may not be thick enough but for me it's a balance between budget and the type of work I do.

The 2x12's were ripped to 2 1/2 inch widths, marked for grain direction and surface planed to make them all the same thickness. Sorry, no jointer as of yet, not a perfect solution I know but I have to make due with what I have. Each of the 2 1/2 inch strips are then glued up in sets of 4 to make 4 large individual sections. Those individual section will then be jointed with my No. 8 Stanley and then surface planed to uniform thickness. Then they will be glued in to one large piece that will eventually be flattened with the jointer plane once they are attached to the legs.

The photos are from the a glue up of one individual section and one section that has already been glued and jointed.

New Workbench - Part 1

Time for a new workbench. For some reason I woke up one morning and that is the thought that popped in to my head and I just went with it. Could be something to do with the fact that my current, scrapped together, workbench has finally overstayed it's welcome in my shop. Could also have something to do with the fact that I recently finished reading Christopher Schwarz's book Workbenches: From Design And Theory To Construction And Use. Good book by the way. I've also had a new vise sitting around for about a year that I was planning to put on a new workbench - retrofitting the old one to fit the vise was not really an option. Sort of like putting new wine in old wineskins.

Initially I thought I would use all reclaimed materials but I opted to use some Southern Yellow Pine that was on sale at a local home center for the top. I'm still using reclaimed lumber for the base which includes the legs and the stretchers.

The photos are some of the 2x4's that I pulled from a small barn/shed late last fall. They were pretty rough but a few passed throught the planer did wonders.

Reclaimed 2x4's before removing the nails and planning. One important thing to note here is that I use a Lumber Wizard III to check for any remaining metal or nail fragments that may have been missed when pulling nails.

Legs beginning to take shape. Here they are cut to size and aligned so the grain is going the same direction for further planning.

Leg blanks getting glued up in one shot.

Pine Blanket Chest

Blanket chest made from pine bought at a local home store. They were selling as “value wood” and pricing it as such. I was able to get quite a bit of usable stock out of what I had purchased and ended up with what you see. The overall shape is very, very loosely based on a design from a recent issue of FWW. Finished with amber shellac and with a coat of paste wax. A gift for my sister-in-law.

Chair / Stool For Small Child

A chair made for one of the kids my wife babysits. She asked me to build this after noticing he (a 1 year old) was trying to sit on the first step of a step stool we have in the house. On Saturday morning she mentioned she would like a seat for him to sit/climb on – by Saturday evening this is what I had completed. Meant to sit on the floor not to be used as a booster seat. I think some people have mistaken it as such when asking about straps to hold the child in.

Franklin Chair

Something I’ve wanted to make for quite a while now. Found the plans in “The Essential Pine Book”. Rumored to have been invented by Benjamin Franklin hence the name. As you can see it transforms easily from a chair in to a step ladder withing second. Pretty cool idea.

Made from pine I picked up at a local home center. The wood was priced as “value” wood so I might have 5 – 8 bucks worth of wood in it. A few goofs here and there and some mental notes for next time (if there is a next time).

                          

Harvest Table

All the wood for the table is 100% reclaimed barnwood – yellow pine I think. The legs were milled out of a 3×12 beam which I’m assuming was fairly old considering I pulled a dozen or so square/cut nails out of it. The table top is made from 1 inch thick planks of barn siding.  The table is 42×80 and will seat eight people. We found the chairs at a local discount chain and we’re still waiting on the final three to come in. I tried matching the stain on the table to that of the chairs which I think came out pretty close.

Follow the link below to see more photos and read more details.