The Bench Part I

I first started “woodworking” back in the Spring of 2017, I got a Kreg jib and a 10” Craftsman miter saw for Father’s Day that year. It didn’t take me very long to start lusting over the  workbenches with things I didn’t even understand stuck into these holes drilled all over the top of them. Not long after I hobbled together my first excuse for a bench that treated me well at the ability level I had at that time.  

Several months later I ran across a deal online for a Ramia beech bench for under $300 and it has been my bench for anything that I have made since. While I might keep it forever for sentimental value (and it would be a great bench to learn on for my two young boys). It has several shortcomings that finally gave me enough excuses to decide to begin on my current project. 

Around the same time I finally made the decision to make this bench Lost Art Press announced The Anarchist Workbench and it felt like it was some sort of a sign. That book solved so many of the nagging questions I had that had made me put this project off for so long in the past. The biggest was the material cost, in my past research I was leaning toward hard maple so it didn’t take long for the budget to get pushed way into the future like it did. But with Southern Yellow Pine I could make that work with my current budget and not have to skimp on the clamps since the BF$ of hard maple in my area didn’t look like it was going to come down anytime soon.  

After a few disappointing trips to the big box home improvement warehouses locally I finally found about 100 BF of some REALLY old SYP at a local lumber dealer that mostly works with contractors and other customers ordering WAY more than what I was in the market for. This load got me started and then one more from another source gave me a stack that should get me over the finish line for all of the components except for the leg vice chop. Once I got all of these in my shop I was amazed with how dry they were, for everything I tested I was averaging 6-7% so it didn’t have to  acclimate to my shop for long. 

It was time to start milling the boards down and it didn’t take long to realize that if I wanted to rip these on my table saw I was going to either have to take it apart and move it in the yard, or knock a big hole in the wall to have the clearance. So I decided to rig up a longer out feed table to my 10” bandsaw and with the door open I found that I could get the rips done without having to do major construction.  

While I usually lean toward using hand tools whenever possible I do like to use some power for milling, so once I got everything ripped down to 5 1/4” I dusted off my little bench top jointer to aid in getting most of the boards close to their final thickness of 1.25”. I don’t own a planer so I knew my jack and jointer plane would be getting a workout soon enough. 

The second load of SYP I found was 80%+ clear so I used most of that stock for the bench top, I could deal with a few more imperfections in the base. Another benefit I found working with SYP (Besides the smell that takes me back to middle school shop class) is that the clear boards plane like butter.  

With all of my stock for the bench top true it was time to test fit everything in the clamps and after not seeing any gaps the clamps couldn’t pull in I popped the top off the gallon of Titebond I just picked up and laminated these 12 boards into three HEAVY components that would eventually be my bench top. 

In the Anarchist Workbench Mr. Schwarz uses (18) 1.25” thick boards in his bench top. The second load of SYP I found was 2,3/16’ thick so instead of wasting a lot of good material I was able to only use 12 boards to create my 20” wide top. 

Trying to work on the bench for a couple hours a day (I do have a real job) it took me a couple weeks to get the top finished once I had acquired the stock. Part II will be working on the base.

My first bench

Unconstructed Benchtop with each board numbered

The time spent squaring up the three laminations was time well spent.

Couldn’t ask for better “luck” in the glue up

Bowl Stand

Recently I have made a few stands for  pet food bowls and gotten several questions on the process. If I gloss over anything here, please shoot me an email with any questions. 

The first one I made was from a single walnut board but I will focus on V2 more here since that design is easier to repeat since in the first I happened to have the perfect length 1.75” square stocking laying around I used for the stretcher. With V2 you don’t have to get  lucky digging through your scrap pile.  

As for the stock for V2 I ordered the 1x6x24’ cherry kit from forest2home.com, their kits are perfect for smaller projects like this. The BF$ is a little higher, but if you plan out your work you hardly have any waste material using them since they are your extra hand selecting clear stock. 

Step 1- Layout all of your stock and determine which faces you want to use. While the stock comes fairly clean from F2H, you still need to prep these pieces using a smoothing plane and larger plane like a jointer for the edges you plan on gluing up. Focus mostly on the edges here because you want to wait until after the glue up for final surface smoothing on the faces. I picked the best two boards from the pack of six and did two glueups to change these 6x24’ boards into 12x24’ panels.  

Step 2- Cleanup both panels and label one as the top and the other for the sides. For these bowls I used I needed a 7 7/8’ hole so the bowls sat flush, so the proportions looked well I decided to rip the panels down to 10’ wide and set the cutoffs for this to the side because you will use those to make the diagonal supports later. 

Step 3- On the panel you labeled for the sides crosscut these to your final length, for this version I went with 8’. Take your time on this step to ensure both sides come out exactly the same length, because if not you are going to have a headache down the road if you discover the unit has a wobble. 

While you are crosscutting go ahead and get the top to it’s final length. For mine that was 21 1/2’. Before you cut sit the bowls on the stock to make sure you have enough room so the lips of the bowls won’t overlap each other or your joinery. It would be a good idea to mark the center of each hole at this point because it is easier doing that now than after you cut the pins. 

Step 4- Time to cut your joinery for the corners, I used dovetails but box joints could also work.  Since this type of joint is usually used on pieces with four sides, I like to use beefier pins and tails to add some stability. No matter which joinery you use, these corners need to be as close to 90 degrees as you can get. If you need more help on cutting dovetails let me know and I can give you some good videos that I used when I was learning. 

Step 5- Once the joinery for the corners are cut dry fit the three sides together and go find one of the scraps from when you ripped the panels. I used a knife, a bevel gauge, and a clamp to mark each surface that would be cut. I like to use the actual stock to lay this out rather than try to measure. Once you have everything marked and labeled I used my marking gauge to scribe the centerline of the diagonal parts. This joint is similar to a half lap, but it is cut at an angle. I didn’t grab any pictures of this step, but I will next time I build one of these.

Once you have the diagonal parts cut, use your knife and marking gauge to scribe where they  will be cut on the top and sides while you still have the dry fit assembled.

Step 6- Cut the holes in the top using a router. Before you cut anything in the top cut a test hole in a scrap piece of plywood to ensure the bowls fit as you would like. The bowls I used had a 7/8” lip so once you have that dialed in exactly where you want it cut out your circles using a backer board to reduce any tear out. 

Round over the top and bottom of the holes and wrap a piece of sandpaper to a larger dowel or something similar to work any rough surfaces left from the router. 

Step 7- Final assembly! Glue and clamp your top and sides and allow everything to sit overnight. Once dry and cleaned up add the diagonal pieces which could need a few last minute tweaks with a file depending on how accurate your corners are. Glue these and clamp for at least an hour. 

To finish this project use a small block plane to clean up any edges and I add four 3/8” rubber feet that are countersunk in the bottom to make sure it doesn’t slide around the floor and can help you to ensure that your final product is completely level. I finished this cherry stool with Walrus Oil’s furniture polish and two coats of their furniture wax to mostly waterproof the final piece.