Today we’re gonna make a workbench When I started contemplating the idea of creating
a YouTube channel, three years ago, the very first video I imagined to post was about me
building a workbench. That project never happened, until now. Of course I took inspiration from many other
workbenches out there on other maker’s shops and I decided to go with a very sturdy split
top not so huge but still very heavy workbench. So I went to my local lumber store and bought
a whole bunch of hard maple boards that I asked them to joint, plane and cut into smaller
pieces. So I started by observing and placing them
together the way I found to look best to create the tops. After having them arranged, I started the
big glue up. And I wasn’t sure about how much glue should
I apply so I ended up putting way too much glue and that resulted in huge squeeze outs. But well, I preferred to have any gaps filled
with glue than filled with air.
I applied just a little bit of clamping pressure
at first and then clamped some blocks with packing tape to the ends to try to level up
the components and finally when turning the rest of the clamps a little bit more, a little
bit more until they were super tightened. I collected the excess glue from the top side
and allowed for about 24 hours before unclamping everything. Some boards had big snipes from the planner
at the lumber store so I had to re planed them before gluing up the second half on the
top. These pieces were a bit of a nightmare to
move around as they were very heavy for me but I manage a few ways to do it. I decided to make a basic longboard just by
screwing 4 wheels on a piece of the thickest plywood I had and of course these wheels are
not ideal as they are terrible to move around and super weak, but that’s what I had on
hand and it did work in the end.
Here I started working on the base structure
and this time applied the right amount of glue. I wanted to get the best look possible from
these boards so I observed them carefully and kept the curly grain pieces for the bottom
stretchers as they will be more visible than the top ones. I am not a huge fan of crazy wood grains and
I would probably never make a piece of furniture for myself using it, but for a work place
I think it’s nice to try it out.
To joint the pieces I gave a shot to this
Beadlock Pro joinery kit from Rockler. This jig can create lose tenon joinery just
by drilling holes. It’s a strong jig, all made out of metal
and can be used with several sized inserts. Here I am using the 1/2” kit since it is
the biggest one. It has these white lines that you can align
with your work piece but the lines are a little too thick so to achieve a better precision
I ended up aligning it always to the outer side of my pencil line. You jut drill the holes fitting the drill
bit on the metal guide and then move the guide to the other position and drill only on the
alternating holes. I wish I had a vise already to make this job
easier. This is the 1/2” Tenon stock that will fit
the wavy shape holes I’ve just created. The kit also comes with a rectangular guide
so after drilling your holes, you can chisel out the remaining material and use your own
regular shaped tenons.
After making a dry assembly, I got a bit nervous
because then I couldn’t remove some of the tenons that were so perfectly fitted, so I
recommend you sanding the tenons a little bit before jumping into the dry test. I made a rabbet just on the bottom stretchers
in case I decide to install a shelf after the workbench is fully assembled and I always
prefer the router table because I can get a very clean finish. To secure the tops to the base I will be making
some elongated holes to allow for wood movement. Finally it was time to glue the base and yes,
some of the tenons didn’t receive glue on one of the sides because I couldn’t remove
them as I explained before but I think it’s going to be just fine. I forgot to make the long stretcher mortices
on one of the sides and at this point I couldn’t fit the jig so I had to remove the backer
piece and use a couple of clamps to secure it in plane.
Again working out my muscles to bring this
heavy animals up in the base. There was no way for me to joint the sides
of the tops so I just run the plunge saw to define a straight line and finished it with
a hand plane. At this point I could finally cut the end
in two passes and flip it over to make more two passes. It’s time to install the quick release bench
vise and first we cleaned the protective grease a little bit. Then I extended the front face so I can actually
insert the vice rods into something. I followed the instructions from this video
so I won’t go into details on this one. Ok, so vise installation done and now I can
put the tops in place. The vise jaw needs to be flushed with the
top and this seemed to take forever. somehow I didn’t seem to be able to take
thick shavings, maybe it’s because this is a smoothing plane? I don’t know but I adjusted the plane mouth
to be as open as possible and the blade was freshly sharpened and still not getting thick
shavings.
Maybe it’s me not having enough force to
push down the hand plane. Anyway, the next step was to flatten the entire
surface and make both tops coplanar and levelled and again I followed a video from The Wood
Whisperer on this matter. I went out and bough this pieces of steel
because I couldn’t find any perfectly straight edge that could work around here. So I built the same jig that Mark did on his
video but I added two stoppers on the bottom so I don’t hit the metal rails with the router bit.
I want to be able to use bench dogs and other
clamping accessories so I drilled a few 3/4” holes with this big boy using a scrap block
as a template that I previously drilled vertically using my drill press. I also want to be able to move the bench around
occasionally so I got this strong casters meant specifically for that purpose. And the workbench is done for now! I still need to make the central piece, sand
and apply some finish to give it some protection and well as some other details that will get
covered on a future video.
As I made it the same height as my T-track
table, I can actually get infinite clamping possibilities which is so awesome. Hopefully this anti-fatigue floor mats can
help my leg and back problems from now on! A big shout out to Rockler for being a great
supporter and providing me a whole bunch of tools and accessories for this build as well
as to all my Patreon supporters! we just hit the first goal so I guess that I got some
extra work to do soon! Thanks everyone for watching, I hope you found
some useful ideas and inspiration to build something awesome and I’ll catch you guys
later.