Building a workbench II

Let's turn the plan into something to work with (previous post).

Acquiring the lumber

Enough for both the table and the workbench

The good news with this project is that working with framing lumber is inexpensive. In fact, more than half the net cost of the project went into the pipe clamps and steel pipes. It is important to spend time at the lumber yard and turn over a LOT of pieces before settling on the right one. Large pieces tend to be the nicest, but I found enough good 2X4" so that there is no need to mill smaller stock from larger 2X8 and larger. Just budget a good hour to pick the 6-7 item carefully.

Stupid heat wave

This is what happens after 2 weeks in the great big
sauna called North-America

That is it, I get to experience the effect of moisture in wood first hand.

My shiny 20" tabletop made of joined pine boards has expanded under the steaming temperature of the last two weeks.

The discrepancy is still less than 1mm, and the shadow exaggerates the effect, but we're apparently in for a few more weeks of this. I am wondering what will happen when the humidity dies out and winter rolls in.

A table for the tablesaw II

There is nothing like the doggiest day of summer to get for building something. As the apparent temperature raised to 40 Celsius, I went from this:

Enough for both the table and the workbench

To this (sketches here):

Not much to look at, but now I can safely
use the tablesaw for small cuts.

This is not going to be making it to the reader's gallery on finewoodworking.com, but it is strong enough to be used as a step latter if I choose to. I still need to fit a shelf on the lower part, and probably a set of wheels to make it easier to push around when I setup/teardown.

Lesson learned: spruce in the 2X4 stock isn't very good and it makes it unmotivating to do a good job with it. But hey, it sure beats the sad quality of end-joined spruce in the 2X3 stock.  But when push comes to shove, I'd rather spend time and money on other things than this piece of utility furniture. Mmm, oh yes, I don't know how I feel about MDF either (which is what I used for the horizontal surfaces), but it's cheap and does the job.

Building a workbench

Problem and Design

With the addition of  the tablesaw, there is a need to get a workbench that can be used as an outfeed table. It has to meet the following criteria:

1. Be relatively small because of the size of my shop.
2. Match in height the tablesaw's top.
3. Be inexpensive.

The ideal design comes from John White in an article in Fine WoodWorking: the new fangled workbench. The main differences are that the full length will be 4', a width of 24" and will not include a longitudinal set of clamps.  Here is a diagram from which I'll base the bench on:

Smaller version of the New-fangled bench.

The lumber is in the garage, the construction begins tomorrow.

A table for the tablesaw

Alright, I got myself a tablesaw. It is a small jobsite one with the rationale that it can be stowed away when needed (I've got a very small area to dedicate to the shop). The bad news is that, in order to operate it safely, I will need to build a table for it. It isn't so much a bad news, but rather that I'd prefer trying my hand with dovetailing on a nice piece of hardwood...

Problem

I need to take the top of the tablesaw to waist height, or 31". I will build a matching workbench which can be also used as an outfeed table. Here are the constraints:

1. Must be cheap (no fancy hardwood structure here): I prefer to keep my scarce money for a bandsaw, a jointer and a planer for the moment.
2. Must be solid: no vibrations nor wobble that would make operating the saw dangerous.
3. Should have a bit of storage underneath.

Design

The design of this table is very simple: It will be made with framing spruce in the 2"X4" and 2"X2" stocks. The traversal section are made of 2"X4", mounted atop of the legs to ensure very solid joints. The Table top and lower shelf are made of 3/4" plywood.  The L-shaped legs will be both light but sturdy and match the legs on the workbench (to maximize the clamping area near the corners). I plan to make dowels as I go from rounded rods of lumber, although I think that I'll have to use lots of screws to tighten the whole thing.

The diagram doesn't have dimensions on it for two reasons: Inkscape doesn't have a measuring tool, and most measures have to be made on the go (especially with rough lumber such as spruce), which makes keeping track of precise dimensions futile. The only important measure here that isn't going to change is that the top of the tablesaw (13 1/4" height) must fit slightly above at 31": so the legs and tabletop together must add up to 17 3/4". The distance between the bolting holes is also fixed by the dimensions of the table (18" frontage, 20" depth).

Hopefully, I'll get the lumber tomorrow and get cracking on this project: I've got some tenons to make for my pair of desktop shelves to match the desks that I recently completed.

Symmetric Pair of Computer Desks

Detailed view from the left-hand desk

Problem

With this project, I wanted to get started with woodworking while coming up with two computer desks that would fit in our dining-room / computer lab.

• There should be room for 2 computers.
• Maximum of 9'
• Minimal depth of desks.
• Separation of the two workspace as much as possible.
• Must be doable for a beginner with very few tools
• The towers should be underneath, close to each other to share a printer, and protected from kicking.

Design

To meet the problem statement, I came up with the idea of making a pair of IKEA-styl.e symmetric desks. The design is all made of square angles and the joinery is simple. The objective here was to do it precisely so it doesn't look like a DIY project.  I chose Pine as it is cheap, easy to work with (in principle), and available in the correct stock in pre-planned and pre-jointed form from the hardware store. I bought an entry-level Miter Saw and a mid-range plunging router, which were added to a pretty basic set of tools that I already had such as cordless drill and some hand tools.

Of course, my daughter just can't resist
getting in every pictures.

Details: Symmetric Desks

Material: Pine (select and knotty), drawer hardware.

Joinery: Butt joints with dowels. Top surface made of joined boards.

Finish: Water-based Varathane Diamond Finish, satin. Three coats everywhere, except on the tabletop (4 coats), and sanding to 320 grit in between each coats.

Another view