Reloading Bench Build

I took on another project that I suspect will take me a fair amount of time to complete, but figured I'd document my journey once again for your amusement!

I previously reloaded periodically by clamping a 2x4 to my work bench in the garage, and screwing each one of my presses into the 2x4. But I really hated having to stash stuff everywhere and having it be covered by sawdust every time I wanted to do anything. When Covid hit, I saw an opportunity to get more reloading in by taking a height adjustable table from the office and sticking it in a corner of my basement next to my work desk.
http://www.johnnyego.com/firearms/re...nchclean01.JPG


It has worked so well for me that I reload all the time now, and want to expand a little and have something a little more stable and with enough real estate to leave a few more machines in place. It gets crowded pretty quick, and shakes a bit when I have the roll sizer or deprimer going with the case feeder, which doesn't do me any favors with my temperamental case feeder.
http://www.johnnyego.com/firearms/re...ollsizer03.JPG

So I went to Home Depot and gave them a bunch of money for some very, very wet Doug Fir construction material.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench01.JPG

Doug Fir is a softwood. It dings and mars fairly easily when new, but dries fairly hard. Otherwise, the only thing it has going for it is that it is cheap compared to the alternatives. I spent a while combing through the stacks at Home Depot and picking boards that appeared reasonably straight and did not contain the pith, or core of the tree in them. But I couldn't do anything about them being so wet. The normal moisture reading for wood that has acclimated to my shop is somewhere below 5% on my meter. Most of these new boards clocked close to 10%. The 4x6 clocked in over 16%. It felt damp to the touch. All of them are also bleeding resin like crazy. They stick to the surface of everything they touch.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench27.JPG

The 1x12s were at least dry enough to form a reasonably stable top. I started out by marking out the most usable lengths of each one, to get an 8' length, and then chopping them up.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench02.JPG

They were just barely within the cut capacity of my Kapex.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench03.JPG

Next, I ripped them into thirds. I could have bought 2x4s to do this, but the longer joist boards were drier, straighter, and had somewhat better grain to them. The 2x stock didn't have a single board without significant warp in the stack. I feel sorry for the guys framing houses these days.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench04.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench06.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench07.JPG
Give you an idea of what I am up to.

I've always wanted to form a table like that

Wow, SawStop and Festool tools.
You are my hero!

Your reloading elitism is showing.


You making that full size, or going to save some for a faux butcher block?

You know me, my friend. Just doing my part to keep the common people common!

Yep, full size. 8' long, 2' wide.

Time to clean these boards up a bit. I'm going to use the jointer to make the faces flat, so I can get a good gapless glue bond. I don't really care about the edges yet, because I plan to joint and plane multiple pieces together as a slab.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench09.JPG

Started with an empty bin, but that changed very quick.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench10.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench13.JPG

Once I had a bunch through, I started matching up top grain and orienting the boards as pairs where I could.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench12.JPG

Planed the opposite faces so I had things reasonably parallel.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench14.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench20.JPG

And filled another bin.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench21.JPG

Next, I glued them together into two slabs that would individually still fit through the planer. I had to work fast here, and regretfully did not have the time to take pictures. Nothing particularly magical, though. Used a 4" paint roller to spread glue on each plank, and then clamped them together with every clamp I owned.

I ran each of the glued slabs through the jointer and planer to square them up. Then I used a circular saw and a rail to cut the ends straight.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench22.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench23.JPG

Sealed some of the more egregious knots and defects with CA glue and sawdust.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench24.JPG

Then hand-planed any high spots still present with my #5 hand plane. This left a level surface, but it wasn't smooth. Doug Fir is horrible to hand plane, and left a fuzzy surface with a few places of tear-out, despite my best efforts.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench25.JPG

Finished out with sanding via 80 grit, 120 grit, and 150. I will eventually hit it with 180 and 220 before I seal it, but this is good enough to leave me with a flat, level working surface for now.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench26.JPG

The easy part is done!

Ok, Im following this............ impressed.

Turned my attention to my 4x4 legs. I leafed through one of my workbench design books, and saw a trestle table workbench I thought looked pretty good. Wife made it clear that anything with a permanent home in the basement had to resemble furniture, and I thought the design would fit the bill. I have not done any through-mortises before, so that will be a new experience for me. I also haven't cut standard mortises and tenons on stock this wide, either. Usually when I am using construction-grade lumber, it is for a quick knock-up or utility furniture, and joined with screws and glue. So I am sure learning opportunities will abound on this one.

Started by cutting the posts to length.

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench29.JPG

Then the jointer and planer routine started again.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench30.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench32.JPG

These were horrible to joint and plane. Stuck to the planer table like crazy, and would periodically get wild blow out. Twice, they jammed the outfeed roller of my planer, which is not an easy task. But eventually, they squared up.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench31.JPG

At least for now. These are so wet I still anticipate some twist as they dry.

Used a pile of clamps to figure out a lay-out.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench35.JPG

Then started marking out mortises.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench36.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench38.JPG

I have some big old mortising chisels, designed to do brute work in bashing through thick wood. And so I bashed out the first two mortises by hand.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench39.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench41.JPG

It took forever to do just with mortise chisels, and the mortise walls were ugly, because Doug Fir sucks. I drilled out the next set with a Forstner bit and cleaned them up with a chisel.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench48.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench50.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench51.JPG

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https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench53.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench54.JPG

Where is the pesky LIKE button.
Thank you for the details!

Set up the Dado Stack to cut up some tenons. This was easy and went quick.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench42.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench43.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench44.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench45.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench46.JPG

Cleaned them up with a Router Plane to final thickness.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench47.JPG

Interestingly enough, the hand-cut mortises proved to fit much better and squarer than the drilled and chiselled mortises, even though the mortise walls were incredibly ugly.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench55.JPG

Also made me realize that if I was going to do through-tenons, I'd want a cleaner cut. So I found an inexpensive set of 1.25, 1.5, and 2" Narex Chisels at Lee Valley and gave them my money.
While waiting for the chisels, I worked on cleaning up the mortise fits for the legs.

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench58.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench59.JPG

I mocked up the bench again with clamps:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench57.JPG

And realized I hated the idea of using 2x stretchers. So back to Home Depot and shelled out another $70 for four more 4x posts. Had to go with 12 footers to get posts without the pith, so I essentially paid $20 more than I wanted to. But I will find something to do with the cut-offs.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench60.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench61.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench63.JPG

Somehow, these were even wetter than the first batch, and were absolutely attrocious to run through the planer. One bound up so tight it shook the bed and cracked a tooth on the elevation gear, which will be a joy to replace.

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench65.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench67.JPG

Furniture Grade Reloading Bench!

Thanks again for posting your progress and the set-backs you are overcoming.
As my shop mentor always said
That is why it is called wood working.

You’re not only building a bench for yourself , that will be your children’s and grandchildren’s reloading bench.

There are moments when I feel like it will be my grandchildren's bench because they will be of age by the time I get done...

I got in a rush to try and accomplish some things in a limited amount of time, and managed to do the same thing wrong, four different times. Will take me two hours to fix 15 minutes of screw-up, which is the peril of certain tools; they not only let you do more in a limited period of time, they let you mess things up a lot faster. That will probably be a fun future post on how to correct poor choices!

I was at somewhat of a loss as to how I was going to cut the long through-tenons on these. I cut some test tenons with a tenon saw and a chisel and router plane. My tenon saw wasn't deep enough to cut to the full depth of the tenon, and I had to finish it with a cheap panel saw that produced a terrible cut and was slow. The chisel method worked very fast and clean to the 90% mark, but the router plane struggled to adapt to the depth and span of the longer tenon. I was left to contemplate the bandsaw or the tablesaw. Didn't really want to use the table saw, because I could not support the long length of the stretchers, and they were sticky as hell. Then a solution occurred to me.
First, I hit the saw with a heavy coat of paste wax, let it dry, and buffed the hell out of it until it was slick as an ice rink.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench70.JPG

Then I flipped my miter gauge backwards so I'd have the full support of the saw table. Clamped the board to the gauge:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench74.JPG

Using a fence and a miter gauge at the same time is the reason I only have 1 3/4 thumbs. So I clamped a block to the fence to use it to postion my cuts for consistency, but it ends well before the beam makes contact with the saw blade.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench75.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench76.JPG

My Dado Stack is notorious for blowing out the back of the cut. On smaller pieces, I just use a backer board, but the beams were to long. Instead, I chiseled relief cuts at the notch lines to prevent the inevitable tear-out.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench71.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench72.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench73.JPG

Worked great. You can see how bad the tear-out typically is on the left side of the cut. The right side has no tear-out, and just a thin sliver to pare off with a shoulder plane when it comes time to fit the joints.

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench79.JPG

"Using a fence and a miter gauge at the same time is the reason I only have 1 3/4 thumbs. So I clamped a block to the fence to use it to postion my cuts for consistency, but it ends well before the beam makes contact with the saw blade."

Many of us have learned that lesson the hard way.

Look forward to the rest of the project.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JohnnyEgo

....
Instead, I chiseled relief cuts at the notch lines to prevent the inevitable tear-out.

....

---

That tip is worth the price of admission!
Thank you

On the shorter tenons, the router plane worked pretty well to trim the tenon to exact width. It couldn't quite span the gap of the 6" tenons on the stretcher, though. I mounted it to a board and could get the bit just low enough if I disengaged the depth control.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench80.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench81.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench82.JPG

It worked ok for fit:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench83.JPG

But I lost easy depth control with this approach, and the tenons were really prone to tear-out. They weren't very clean to begin with, because my Dado blade leaves tracks. Fortunately, I had the exact right tool for the job - A 60 1/2 Rabbet block plane.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench90.JPG

This is the first block plane I personally purchased, and for a long time, I considered the 60 1/2 the dumbest purchase I'd made in a long time. I thought I could use it as a general block plane, with the added benefit of being able to cut right up to the line. I bought it as an upgrade to the $14 Stanley 220 Craftsman block plane my father gave me for Christmas in the 90s. And every bit of the 60 1/2 was miserable. It has a very close, non adjustable mouth that takes very shallow cuts, making it slow and tedious. The blade had to be razor sharp and perfectly aligned to be effective. I tried using it as a general block plane several times, but gave up in frustration and put it back on the shelf where the Stanley had been. In the intervening years, I learned to effectively sharpen, and bought a much nicer Veritas DX series block plane that was and is amazing and a joy to use. The 60 1/2 stayed idle for years. Then one day I had to shave some broad tenon cheeks, as I do here, and I realized all the things that made the 60 1/2 suck as a general plane made it ideal for the purpose it was actually designed for!

When shaving tenons, you work perpendicular to the grain. Instead of shavings, you end up with a bundle of tiny straws. That close non-adjustable mouth means you get excellent support for even gnarly grain, and you can make very precise adjustments right to the edge of the tenon.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench85.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench86.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench87.JPG

Once I am clear to the shoulder, I level the broader area with my DX60 block plane.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench88.JPG

The 60 1/2 Rabbet is not a plane I would buy again. But it had it's use case here, and performed it quite admirably.

Time to bash some through mortises. I pre-drilled these to remove the bulk of the waste.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench91.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench92.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench93.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench94.JPG

I borrowed a method from Paul Sellers that I quite like. Cut an extra tenon in a piece of scrap to use as a chisel guide.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench95.JPG

Squared up the corners enough to get the big new Narex in there.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench96.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P...h/rbench98.JPG

Flipped it and did the other side. This gave me some reasonably clean mortises with straight walls, cut exactly to the width of my tenons.

Did a quick dry-assembly to check tenon fit. Man I've cut a lot of mortises and tenons on this.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench101.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench102.JPG


Starting to look good. Almost good enough to leave in place and wish I were done. But the show must go on. Time to give the feet a little bit of shape.
Picked a random forstner bit that looked good in terms of size. Cut some holes in the base of the leg.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench104.JPG

Over to the bandsaw. I planned to cut a bit of an ogive shape to it, but I didn't cut it very deep and I am not married to it. Might sand that part out.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench105.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench106.JPG

I've drawn about 27 curves on the leg piece. Took it over to the bandsaw to see which one might look half decent.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench107.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench108.JPG

Little clean up on the spindle sander.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench109.JPG

Use it as a template for the rest of them.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench110.JPG

Reasonably similar on all four sides.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench111.JPG

Very impressive!
When do you take orders?

Sorry double tap.

Work got pretty busy, so I ended up putting this one to the side for a few weeks. Decided to knock out something I thought would take 15 minutes, that ended up taking two hours as a result of me not paying good attention.

I decided the legs would be more rigid and look a little better with cross braces, but I didn't want to compromise the legs by bashing another set of mortises in them, so I decided to use my Festool Domino and carve a couple of quick mortises for floating tenons.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench112.JPG

The mortises went in really quick. 10 minutes tops. Then I went to assemble everything, and not one of them lined up with the other. I was moving so fast I didn't verify that the height adjustment was locked all the way down on the Domino, and it drifted with every mortise. The ones with the most drift had up to 4mm of difference between them, and no two mortises varied by the same amounts.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench113.JPG

I recut the brace pieces, then measured where each hole needed to be with a caliper, and marked it on the piece.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench115.JPG

Then I dialed in the fine adjustment to the Domino fence with a feeler gauge, to within about 5 hundredths of an inch. I had to do this eight times, all because I tried to do something quick instead of making sure I did it right.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench114.JPG

But I got close enough eventually.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench116.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench117.JPG

Another opportunity to dry-fit everything and see where I am at:

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench118.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench119.JPG

The part that comes next is the most tedious part for me, which is all the adjusting and fitting before I can glue it up and move on to sand and stain. It's probably only a couple of hours of work, but I just don't like doing it, so I tend to put it off. But hoping I can find the motivation to put some work into it over the 4th of July.

Been a little while between scout camps, family vacations, and work. Finally found some time to get back to this thing.

Doug Fir is a splintery mess to work with. I wanted to ease all the corners on the outside of the bench, mostly to keep them from getting dinged up. Thought about a simple roundover, but remembered I had a beading bit from my last project that I liked, so figured I'd give it a go.

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench130.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench131.JPG

Liked the way it looked well enough that I decided to do the rails as well:

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench145.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench146.JPG

Figured I'd do a little epoxy testing on the back side of the benchtop. I normally use System 3 T-88. It's pretty durable and hard without being brittle when fully cured, but it takes a couple days for it to cure. Decided to try Quick Cure 15, which is more on the adhesive side then the fill side. But I liked the idea of a faster cure for multiple deep layers.

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench138.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench139.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench140.JPG

This stuff is not the worst thing I've ever smelled, but it is the most uniquely bad smelling product I have encountered. It is weird and bad in a way that challenges my mastery of the English language to describe it. The closest I can come is metaphor; it reeks like I imagine the intestinal track of a small marsupial that was hit by a truck and thrown to the side of the road to bake in the sun for approximately three days.
On the plus side, the smell did not linger after about an hour. We will see if it was worth the assault on my senses.

While the epoxy was curing, I did a dry fit of the legs and adjusted the mortises to be a little looser. Tension will be provided by the assembly wedges, and I need the rails to slide in and out without scraping off the finish when I am done.

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench147.JPG

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https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench149.JPG

The thought of moving that thing makes my back hurt. [Coffee]

Nice work. It should hold up.

Wow, furniture grade reloading bench.
I can just see it now ...
Don't put that ammo can on the bench, it will scratch the finish!

Great looking project

I could see that bench with just a dimensional change in the top to make a wonderful kitchen / dining room / buffet style table.

A workbench top should only look pristine the day you put it in place. After that, it should pick up the scars and character of use. The top finish will just be Watco, so if it gets too dented, scratched, or stained for my liking, I will just hit it with a plane and wipe on another coat.

All the furniture I have built gets abused by a kid with a hoverboard and a wife who believes every flat surface is an acceptable place to put a drink, so I have developed a high tolerance for scratches and wear!

So I pretty much spent every spare weekend in September and October riding bikes with my son for Bicycle merit badge. On the 50 milers, I was pretty sure some of them were about to earn Lifesaving merit badge as well, but I somehow managed to go from logging no bike miles to logging 300 miles in the span of two months, and then spent the next two months allowing my buttocks to recover. After the long pause, I started chipping away at the smaller details that could be done in an hour here and 20 minutes there.

I debated a lot about the exposed ends of the workbench. They weren't exactly even or pretty, but they didn't bug me much, either. I decided to dress them up with some sort of apron or skirt. I had grand visions of doing the aprons as half-blind dovetails, but in the interest of time and ease, I decided to go with dowels. Being a glue laminate top, I doubt it is going to expand or shrink very much, but I still needed the ability to split the bench for transport and allow for some degree of expansion, so dowels it was. The hard decisions out of the way, there was nothing left to it, but to do it.

First, gluing the face rails to the long ends of the slab. To leverage the relatively limited number of clamps I had that would span the full width of the slab, I used cauls, which are pieces of wood with a mild curve built into one side. As you clamp the ends of the cauls, pulling the curved ends flat causes the raised part in the center to apply more pressure to the wood between the clamps:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench150.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench151.JPG

I applied a lot of glue, and got plenty of squeeze-out, and did a half-arsed job wiping it off before it set. Consequently, I had to do a fair amount of work with a sanding block and flush-plane to clean it off, and then finish with a 150grit disk on my circular sander. Could have saved myself a half hour of work with five minutes of patience and clean-up after I got it in the clamps, but such is life.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench152.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench153.JPG

Before I moved on to the ends of the apron, figured now would be a good time to mill out some space for the t-track and bench mounts.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench154.JPG

Milled the track with my Festool router on a rail clamped to either end of the bench. Squared off the channel with a chisel. Fit like a glove.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench155.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench156.JPG

Then it came time to mount the long track, and my inherent laziness bit me in the ass again. I had a long rail which I could have busted out and clamped to either end of the bench. But I felt like that was too much work, and the rails have some high-friction material on the bottom to keep them from sliding around. Figured I'd be fine without clamps if I was just careful. I was wrong.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench157.JPG

So I took a break to get the correct rail I should have used the first time, clamp it in place, and route the front facing edge of the channel straight. Then I cut a blank off a spare piece of 2x4 and glued it in place. Flushed it out, and routed the correct channel, this time with both ends of the long rail clamped.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench158.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench160.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench161.JPG

The plug cleaned up reasonably nicely:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench163.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench162.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench164.JPG

All the tracks in place:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench165.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench166.JPG

Also decided to flush-mount the Inline Fabrication plate, which was a little more complicated. First, the receiver plate requires a fairly deep relief for the tail end of the press plate. Once that was routed, I had to route to the depth of the receiver-plate to inset it. The bottom of the plate has feet at the corners. I could have just routed everything to the foot depth, but I wanted as much contact with the bench as possible, so I tediously chopped where I needed to chop, and then glued in plugs where I messed up, until I got it reasonably flush-mounted:

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench168.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench173.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench169.JPG

Dragged my Co-Ax upstairs to test the plate. I have a Co-Ax, an SDB, and a 750 that I plan on mounting to the bench in an assortment of Inline Fabrication mounts.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench171.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench172.JPG

On to the apron ends. I wanted these to fit tight to the ends of the bench, but I won't be applying glue to them so I can separate the slab when I move it. So I decided to use the same principal of the cauls described above to keep the middle of the end pieces tight against the end grain.

Started by dividing the board into five sections. Then ran it through the jointer set to 1/32nd passes. First pass took the first two sections on the ends of each board, last pass took the outer sections a second time.

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench178.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench179.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench180.JPG

Cleaned up the transitions with a hand plane:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench181.JPG

Here you can see it up against the end grain. The left side is flush, showing how gentle the curve is to the right side.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench183.JPG

With both ends clamped flush, pressure is put on the middle to hold it tight to the ends of the slab.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench184.JPG

Cut some walnut dowel pegs and rounded the edges off with sand-paper. Also hit them with some wax to keep them from seizing.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench175.JPG

Then marked my ends and clamped a drill guide to ensure my peg holes were straight and true:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench185.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench186.JPG

This is about as good as I could reasonably expect for a tight fit, and I am happy with it:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench187.JPG

On to the back side of the bench to relieve some space for the through-bolts and nuts that will secure the track all the way through the bench. Most consistent way was with a plunge router on a rail.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench190.JPG

A little light clean-up on the ugly side of the bench.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench191.JPG

Also, needed to mill some relief into the t-tracks so I could insert bolts into the end. Did this on the router table with a 1/4 inch spiral bit, and then colored the raw aluminum with a SuperBlack pen.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench199.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench200.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench201.JPG

Time to switch focus to the bench legs. I am pegging all of the mortises using 1/2 hard maple dowel rods. I use the technique called draw-boring. It is where you drill your hole through your mortise slightly off-set from your tenon, so that when you drive in the dowel it pulls the two pieces closer together. The resultant joint is going to be as tight as it gets for the long-haul, whatever abuse I dish out on the bench.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench202.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench203.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench204.JPG

I have a flush-cutting hand saw that works well and fast for a few dowels, but I had 16 to flush-cut, so I reached for my Milwaukee oscillating tool to do the bulk work. Followed up by my flush-plane, and then a little super glue and sawdust to fill any gaps.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench205.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench206.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench208.JPG

Now to fix the assorted screw-ups that came along the way. First off, plugged the random Domino mortise I cut in the wrong place:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench210.JPG
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench211.JPG

Then cleaned out assorted glue squeeze-out in the routed groves with a chisel.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench209.JPG

Had a big old knot that blew out my decorative routing in an area not easily hidden or ignored:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench212.JPG

First thing to do was chisel out the damaged section of beading, as well as stabilize the knot with super glue.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench214.JPG

Then I cut off a chunk of beading on one of my test mortise pieces that looked like a reasonable grain match.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench215.JPG

A little fitting, a little sanding, and some glue later:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench216.JPG

Good enough at eyeball distance:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022Pr.../rbench217.JPG

If nothing else, this project has been a master-class in fixing my mistakes.

Been a while since I did an update, but the work continues as I find the time.

One thing I put off for a while was cutting the locking wedges for my rails. Mostly because I have never done this style of jointery before, and you really only get one chance at each rail to mess it up. But I figured if things went bad enough, I could always cut the tenons flush and permanently dowell them into place.

First, I needed to cut some wedges. There was some internet debate as to the optimal angle for a wedge to lock in and pull tension without slipping out easily. I saw folks who swore anything more than 5 degrees wouldn't hold, and others that said you could go as wide as 15 degrees and be fine. I settled on about 7 degrees.

Cut a 7 degree angle in the end of a piece of scrap on my compound miter, and then clamped it as a guide for the narrow wedges, which I cut on my table saw sled:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench218.JPG

With the wedges cut, I ball-parked where I'd want them to be when driven in place. Then marked off the wedge width with my marking gauge and traced out all the cut lines.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench221.JPG
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench222.JPG

I chose my wedge width based on whichever of the three mortise chisels I own was closest to 1/3 the width of my tenon. Then I clamped it up with plenty of support on either side of the tenon to keep me from blowing it out. Finally, cut another little piece of scrap with a 7 degree angle to serve as a guide. Started on the bottom end, working towards the middle of the tenon.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench223.JPG
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench224.JPG
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench225.JPG

You'll notice that my back wall is a little further back than my line. The way this joint works is to pull tension from the top and bottom of the wedge. If I was right at the line, there would be no way to pull more tension into the joint.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench226.JPG


Test wedge, which is half the thickness of the actual wedge, fit exactly where I wanted it. Then I could trim the real wedges to the exact width of the mortise with my #4 plane.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench227.JPG
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench228.JPG
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench229.JPG

The wedged tenons worked surprisingly well. They pull a lot of tension, and have shown no signs of movement in several weeks. The bench base is locked in and rigid as hell, but can still be quickly disassembled with a couple taps of a hammer.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench220.JPG
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench219.JPG

Next up, split a couple of 2x4s for the shelf supports.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench230.JPG

Clamped them in place and attached with the first screws I've used in this bench.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench231.JPG

The last time I was at Lowes, they had a badly warped piece of 16' tongue & groove flooring in the clearance bin for $15. Wasn't going to do much better than that, so I snapped it up and it down into the least warped chunks I could manage.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench232.JPG

The flooring looked nice, but it definitely was not interested in laying flat. I wet it slightly and clamped it flat with a couple of caws and left it to sit in the garage all week in the clamps. Came out better, though there is still significant warp.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench233.JPG

Now was a good time to start thinking about how I planned to attach the top to the base. Needed to be quick and knock-down capable, and I didn't really want to use bench bolts or hardware. I decided to use bullets, which are just pegs with rounded bottoms. The hard part is drilling a large diameter hole in the middle of a large slab, without the drill press or any support. The best idea I could come up with was to make a starter strip that would at least keep me reasonably perpendicular for the first inch or two of the hole.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench235.JPG

Then a deep-boring bit in my Milwaukee drill, and a whole lot of waste removal.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench236.JPG
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench237.JPG
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench238.JPG

I am missing a couple pictures in the series, but I basically rounded up every piece of scrap Baltic Birch ply I could find and put together three drawer bases for the top shelf.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench239.JPG

Had to trim and adjust the upper shelf supports to make sure the drawer bases were level.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench240.JPG

Once everything was sitting flush or level as appropriate, I started attaching the trim pieces. The three drawers together are about 1/8 inch short of the total width, to allow them to be fit in easily. I take up the slack with some felt, which I am hoping will keep the unit wedged into place without marring the finish.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench244.JPG
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench245.JPG

Getting places.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench246.JPG

So what happened next is called scope creep. The more I started thinking about the bench, the grander and less necessary my plans got. I could have slapped together some quick, simple drawer boxes out of ply and called it a day. But no, I decided I wanted them to look a certain way, which lead to quite the diversion.

First, skinned and planed a whole bunch of walnut and padauk scraps:

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench251.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench252.JPG


Then had a glue party:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench253.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench254.JPG

When the glue dried, I flattened it all out and cleaned up the trim:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench256.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench257.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench260.JPG

Made some test measurements, and cut some dados:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench263.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench264.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2022P.../rbench266.JPG