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.



Next up, split a couple of 2x4s for the shelf supports.


Clamped them in place and attached with the first screws I've used in this bench.


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.


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.


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.


Then a deep-boring bit in my Milwaukee drill, and a whole lot of waste removal.