location 0location 1location 2location 3location 4location 5location 6
Last night I finally finished one of the two utility benches, I’m about 80% done with the second one. To finish the top I used BLO (boiled linseed oil), spar urethane, & Johnson’s paste wax. A lot of traditionalist woodworkers will scoff about applying a film finish to a workbench, but this bench is going to be exposed to a lot more than glue dribbles.
To see some additional shots from this project check out the following posts:
- The design concept
- Welding the frame together
- Welding together the leveling feet mounts
- Rough cutting the lumber for the top
- Gluing-up a top
It’s been over 3 weeks sine my last post, so I think it’s time I give everyone an update. Since my last post, I have been diglently jointing, planing and gluing up boards for my bench tops. It’s boring work so I will spare you the details, but the good news is I’m done with that phase of the project. I’m now into the flatening phase, but thats for a different post.
Thus without further ado the photos .
About half way done with one top
A close up
One glue-up done, one to go.
Last week I promised I would provide an updated MC histogram, so Friday night a broke out the moisture meter and took some readings. I found it really interesting, that in only 6 days some of the boards had shown significant changes in MC.
Continue Reading…
Now that the steel bases for my work benches are welded together, I can start working on the wood tops. Yesterday my friend Stuart & I made a trip to Menards to pick up the wood I needed. After about an hour of sorting through the lumber rack, we had picked out 14 decent 2″ x 12″ x 14′ Southern yellow pine boards. After we got them back to my place, we cut them in half for stacking and stickering. I thought 275 board feet of lumber would make a bigger pile, than it actually did.
stacked & stickered
Continue Reading…
I finally got time to finish welding my workbench legs today. I really underestimated the amount of time it was going to take. Though it was more work than I expected, I enjoyed it, and my weld skills are much better now than when I started. Next up is making the Sothern yellow pine tops, so stay tuned.
