18th Century Workbench Plans-Part 1 PDF
18th Century Workbench Plans-Part 1 PDF
96"
8"
online eXtras
For a free sketchup drawing of this bench
and a tutorial on how to flatten a work-
bench top with handplanes, visit our web elevaTion
site at:
popularwoodworking.com/nov09
60"
27⁄8"
11⁄8" rad.
3⁄4" dia.
1"
3" rad.
3"
10"
91/4" rad.
3⁄4" dia. 21/4" dia.
7" rad.
22"
51⁄4" rad.
27/8"
143/4"
55⁄8" rad. 1/2"
3"
23⁄4"
31⁄2" 181⁄2"
311⁄2"
5"
popularwoodworking.com ■ 35
We used yellow glue through most of more than we had to, so we took extra care Once we got the legs glued up, building
this project and didn’t have any problems. to line up all the laminations as we clamped the base took less than six hours, and we
When gluing LVL made using yellow pine, them. The extra care paid off, and when we stopped several times to take pictures (and
we recommend you keep it clamped at least glued the two final 12"-wide laminations we got coffee, which is as important as glue
five hours. Yellow pine has resin that resists together we jointed their mating edges and in our shop).
glue penetration. decided to take an extra precaution: some Begin by gluing up the legs using pieces
Of course, there are some other impor- Dominos. that are slightly oversized. Let the adhesive
tant details you should know about when cure, then joint and plane all four legs to a
working with this material. We didn’t want The Base: Beef & Nuts consistent final thickness. The length of
to run the LVL through the machines any This is the simplest base I could design that is your legs is, naturally, what will determine
both robust and completely functional. Each how tall your workbench is. The cutting list
leg is made from two lengths of 5"-wide LVL and drawings will produce a benchtop that
that are face-glued. Then you cut half-lap is 34" from the floor – the same height as a
joints in the legs using a dado stack in your typical table saw.
table saw and bolt everything together using The way to determine the correct bench
1 ⁄ 2" hex-head bolts, washers and nuts. height is to measure from the floor to the joint
Looking for bumps and hollows. When dealing with an 8'-long edge, it can be dif- Dominos will do ‘ya. You can use almost any method to
ficult to find the source of the problem with an edge. We balanced a straightedge align the two edges you are gluing up for the top: biscuits,
at several places along the edge, then pinched the ends of the straightedge. If the splines or even dowels. We have a Festool Domino in the
straightedge rotated easily, there was a hump under it. If the corners dragged and shop, and it’s perfect for this sort of accurate work.
there was light under the straightedge, we had a hollow on that edge.