CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure

[T.J.]

Congratulations, CrookedTail, on the beginning of your bench. No doubt it will prove to be a very, very rewarding and satisfying experience. No matter what they say, anyone who doesn't build their own is cheating themselves.

[FordPrefect]

Crooked Tail said:

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FWIW, dogs are for holding wood, not shaving it

[Crooked Tail]

Hah! This particular bench dog excels at holding. As in, she won't give back the piece you just finished planing and foolishly set aside for a moment!

I got all the base parts except for the stretchers cut out and more or less squared up this morning. I'm about to start the through mortise and tenons. I should have picked up a beefy mortise chisel last time I was at woodcraft.

[FordPrefect]

It's been days now... where are the new pics?

Come on, just cause I haven't made it out to the shop doesn't mean I can't see someone else progress on a bench
or does it..

[Crooked Tail]

Errg. Between work and family commitments this week, I've hardly had any time to work on the bench. I've haven't got much further than planing and squaring the legs and top/bottom rails.

I just finished cutting the first pair of mortises in one of the bottom rails, and I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of using Home Depot doug fir. It isn't dried, and I could really feel the moisture in the wood when I cut the mortises. I'm afraid it's going to all split apart as it dries out.

Should I just leave it alone and hope for the best, or should I slap a bunch of watco on it or something?

I guess I shoulda just used poplar instead.

[FordPrefect]

Good question, I would guess if you wedge your through tenons that even if it splits and moves a bit it will still be a strong, solid base. But that is just my WAG.

[John Clifford]

I built my bench out of douglas fir 4x4's I bought from HD. I let the wood sit for couple of weeks. Then I milled it to get it to rough size and to get rid of the rounded corners that construction lumber always seems to have. I then let it sit some more. Then I milled it to final dimension and started to build the bench. Once it's dry it seems to be pretty stable. If it feels wet to the touch, which it sounds like, I'd wait till it dries out. If not I'd say you're just asking for problems.

Just my .02, good luck.

John.

[Crooked Tail]

How long did you let it sit after taking the rounded corners off? (I just finished doing that a day or two ago.) Just trying to get a ballpark idea of how long it will have to acclimate. Should I put wax on the ends or anything like that? I will, of course, store it so that air can circulate all around.

The wood from inside the mortises feels slightly damp. It is very dry here, so I expect the wood will shrink some. I have mental images of the wood splitting in half when the mortises shrink more or faster than the tenons.

I could work on the top, and that will probably take me at least a few weeks to complete.

[John Clifford]

I don't recall for sure how long I let it sit, probably a week or two. But I don't recall it feeling wet either. Might take longer in your case, then again might not since I imagine it's pretty dry in your part of the world.

I would work on the top first if you can and let the wood for the base dry as long as possible. I made a loft for my dorm in college with similar construction type lumber (4x4s) and after it dried out a couple of the posts turned into cork screws and I had quite a few cracks and splits. It didn't fall apart though but I learned a lesson all those years ago.

John.

[msweig]

I used kiln dried (IIRC) fir 4x4s from home depot for my bench legs. Didn't use a moisture meter, but I did take a chunk and monitored the weight for a while. Took about a month. Of course, that was in houston, not Nevada.

I do have some checking at the tops and bottoms of the bench legs, but they have by no means split the legs. Hasn't seemed to effect the bench any.

mark