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Currently my 6 year old has a plywood bench. I have been wanting something more stable. His scoots when he saws/planes.
At the Restore place I found a chunk of oak laminated together. It's 10/4 red oak, enough to cut in half and make a 20" wide my 48" long top, 2 1/4" thick... for $10 I thought it was a good idea to buy...
Anyway. I need help with the base. Give me a quick/cheap but strong joinery option for the base. I am good just lag bolting the top on to the stretchers right? I will put a face vise on it and call it good.
I will go through the trouble of mortise/tenon if there is not a better way to get this done....?
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Go back a couple of pages and see
this one . It has the guts of a good bench without the fuss. Sounds like you have an excellent top for it. You would have to scale it down for a boy that young, but just make it lower and change out the legs when he gets bigger. Making an all-around child-size bench would be a waste. They grow very fast if you haven't noticed.
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I built a quick base for my lathe. It is 2x4's and 4x4's assembled using 1/4-20 bolts. I think the whole thing took 2 hours to build but I did use power tools to do it. The thing is rock solid and would make a perfect bench for a kid. It will also be easy to add a cabinet in the future if you decide too. I'll take some detailed photos of it this evening and post them so you can see how basic it is. It is also very inexpensive to build. I think you could build the whole thing for less than $25 in material not including the top.
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Another thought, once you get the bench built, is to put a piece of non-skid under each leg. Something like this-
Cheap and easy to find at home centers, big boxes, hardware store and probably your local grocery. Help your buddy minimize frustrations and a chance for an injury.
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Awesome, thank you men. Wow the one a few pages back looks more solid that the bench I built for myself...
I like the idea of bolting it together instead of laminating, because like you say, he will need it taller soon.
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It's a VERY easy design based on Chris Schwarz's "build a sturdy bench in 2 days" video.... I highly recommend it!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gyt4a_1G9zkLawrence
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Here the bench I built my son a few years ago.
SYP from the local BORG.
Mortise and tenon stretchers into legs fastened with lags. Top is secured through elongated holes in the upper stretchers with lags. So the whole thing can be taken apart very easily if need be.
Added a couple cheapie Jorgensen vises from Amazon and it makes a great bench. I use it from time to time to work on taller projects since the bench is short.
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"This is our chance, this our lives, this is our planet we're standing on. Use your choice, use your voice, you can save our tomorrows now." - eV
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Deck screws and 2X4s work really well. Not fine joinery, I know, but you can make simple lap joints by laminating the 2X4s (you can even "laminate" them with screws instead of glue) and then fixing everything in place with the screws. L-brackets will hold the top on just fine.
Do your best to make the bench as heavy as possible, which can be tough with a small bench. As soon as your son starts using a hand plane, it will be really important that the bench not move when he uses it, otherwise he will probably get really frustrated. A bottom shelf with something heavy on it (tool boxes, lumber, sandbags, whatever) will help keep it in place.
Also, build it high enough for him to grow into. Kids grow tall before you can turn around.
Steve S.
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I built a couple for my boys. For the vises, I made face vises with 1/2" cold rolled and 1/2" coil rod. Coil rod is used in place of snap-ties in concrete forms. When I told the form hardware place they gave me a couple of pieces and nuts. The other thing to make is a small tool tote box.
I filled it with a small egg beater drills, useable German ones were still being sold, 8oz hammers, short homeowner hand saws, the ones with hardened teeth, and try squares out of the on sale bin.
In a couple of years my granddaughter will get her father's.
A man of foolish pursuits
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Downwindtracker2 said:
In a couple of years my granddaughter will get her father's.
Wow. That is incredible.
