A long time ago, when the Earth was green

[bandit571]

I had to leave a few items behind, when we moved to the current address...big 10" tablesaw, BIG routertable....Nickleson bench...to set up shop in a messy basement....
..quite a change from a Pole Barn..
.

   
2 saw horses, with a legless 4 x 4 tabletop screwed to them...old dresser that was already down there....and no bench.   First off, was informed I needed a sawbench...ok

   
Apparently "Saw Tub" was quite it.   Went Dumpster diving, found an old wooden Waterbed frame 2 x 10s, an old door stile, and a few 2 x 4s, besides the new 2x4s I bought for the saw bench project....Needed something better to work off of...drug out the 6' step ladder...
 

   
A couple Visegrip finger clamps among others...to clamp a plank at about the right height..
 

   
Could make all the cuts needed for the saw bench build...

   
Including assembly work....cutting the legs to size and angles....

   
Not too bad?  About knee high.  Notch at one end to allow a handsaw to do rip cuts....

All well and good...a nice sunny day, spent out on the back patio...letting sawdust blow out into the backyard...
 

   
Use a few tools set out on a bench......so...next bright, sunny, warm, dry Sunday morning...in a September....Set things up, again...
 

   
Made use of the saw bench at first....cutting a few things to rough length...this came from a rip cut.  One of the sides of the old waterbed was cut down for leg stock..4" wide leg stock...which left this 2x for other items...
Legs were then planed...wavy, saw marks just had to go...

   
Plane in use?  Union No. 5 A, seemed to work ok....about the same size as a Stanley No. 5-1/2
Had one of the ends from the waterbed frame...trimmed to about 5' long.    Had an issue at one end, where the old corner bracket USED to be..

   
Laid out notches to match the size of the legs.   Circular saw to rough cut, without over-cutting too much, then that had saw to finish to the cuts.   This will be the bench's top...time it started to act like it...
 
Stay tuned..part 2 is coming right up...as soon as the new box of 3" #8 screws arrive...Lunch?

[bandit571]

Ok...those legs.   I wanted to notch down near the feet of the legs, and add that 2 x 2 to be a "stretcher" to keep them stable...laid out lines on two legs at a time, clamped into pairs...

   
use the actual 2 x 2  to get the size just right...made a bunch of cuts..

   
Then removed the waste...

   
Turned out that the Ward's 78 was just the right size....however, notch wasn't quite deep enough...set up a plane stop, and shaved the stretcher down a bit

   
Countersink the pilot holes.   assemble one pair of legs, attach that to the end of the benchtop...trying to keep the ends of the legs flush with the top of the top..then do the other end.   Had a length of 1 x 6 Barn Siding....added that to the stretches....to keep the legs from just folding back up
 

   
Of course, a clamp helps out, to hold thing still, while the legs are attached.   That notch I'm working on..is for the aprons...

   
Stable enough to do some work on it...IF I don't get to rough with it...
  Aprons?   One, I wanted a tool well across the back.  And something to attach vises of some sort, later.    That old 5/4 door stile was re-worked into the front apron....one of the 2 x 4s was made into the back apron....with 2 shorter 2 x 4s across the ends.  
 

   
So, the aprons get a rebate on the ends.  3" screws to attach the aprons to each other, the legs, and the front edge of the top

   
Trick was to avoid the screws already there...two strips of 3/4" plywood make up the tool well...one for the floor, one for the front wall..about like an "L" shape...square was for when I was checking for flat....meh..  We have ways..
 

   
Between the Ward's master #3, and that Union #5A   soon had it close..

   
was trying to make sure the back apron was level with the rest of the bench....

Stay tuned.  one more Part to go...for this 6 yr old bench...( will be 7 this coming September...)

[bandit571]

So...starting to look like a bench, yet?
 

   
The feet?

   
Had some leftovers...some 1 x 6 and the remains of that door stile....Made foot pads out of the stile cut-offs.  Spreads out the footprint a bit more.  
Took two people to move this into the house, standing up on one end...turn a couple times, and slowly slide it down the steps into the shop.   Then stand it up on it's own four feet....
 

   
It's a start, anyway.....first things...the old leg vise on the Pole Barn Bench....8/4 x 6" chop of Sycamore, and a pipe clamp, was installed...

   
Drill a hole for the pipe...

   
I even added a wooden handle....didn't last too long.   Hmmm bench is a bit older than I thought? Guess not...
Leg vise on this end, because a Crochet was down on the other end...
 

   
Later, at a West Liberty, OH Tractor fest....picked up a Craftsman end vise....which has since had it's jaws re-done..
Vise cost me $10, total hardware costs were about the same.....have since worked on this bench, added a few details, but..
 

   
here tis!   Added dog holes to work with the end vise.  Added the cabinet and shelf....and a plywood back to the legs, mainly to keep things on that shelf from sliding out the back.   There is a til for the chisels along the back edge of the tool well....which does get cleaned out..now and then..
 

   
was it "Perfect" when first done?  No....but, as I worked with it over the years...it evolved into what works for what I do.  
Biggest thing?   It got me back to woodworking...


Thanks for following along...

[grwold]

Nice run-through, Bandit. About half-way through it started looking familiar. :-) Thanks for sharing!

[hbmcc]

Cool! I never cared for the idea of expansive tops. That looks just about right, for chopping, sawing, and fitting.
 

Is it "tippy"? Looks like it would be.

[bandit571]

Tippy?  Not really....has no place to 'tip' to....