Mass Wood working

So Im building a bench. I know thatll come as a shock to many of you, but I too need a place to build my projects on.

The boards milled & rabbeted, ready to be cut to lenth.

Im beginning with the stretchers - or as Im making - panels. In order to construct the leg assemblies with as little a chance of racking and as much mass as possible Im forgoing the normal stretcher assemblies and using a bastardized frame and panel design. The frames, and much of the bench, are made of Timberstrand (dimensional lumber made of OSB).

I began by milling the Timberstrand just as I would any other lumber. A few quick passes on the jointer, a pass or two through the planer, a final trim on the table saw and voila, flat & square boards. In order to make a dado (yes, I know its actually a grove) in the middle of the frame pieces, I instead made a rabbet in two frame pieces and assembled them to make a dado. As Ive was holding out for a Forrest Dado King, I made the rabbet using two passes on my standard Woodworker II blade. As the panel will be composed of an MDF/OSB lamination, I used relative dimensioning to set the depth exactly to each sheet goods thickness (they are actually not the same thickness, even though theyre both nominally 3/4" thick). I then turned the board and cut the width of the rabbet to the same dimension as the depth (it wont matter if one sheet good panel is ever so slightly bigger than the other, theyll be cut via relative dimensioning too).

Gang cuts = perfect fits.

My next step was to take them over to my new Bosch Glide saw (no full review yet, but its kickin ass & takin names). I cut one end on each board, ganged them and cut them all to the exact same length. I then used my Domino to join the frame panels. Woodpecker Clamping Squares helped keep the whole thing square.

Now that all the frames are made my next step is to cut and fit the panels, then glue an OSB frame & panel assembly to an MDF frame & panel assembly to make the final, bastard frame & panel assembly I plan to use. Then Ill have to finalize the legs and start thinking about the top. Much to do.

Ready for the panel.

Heres the whole album.

How did you attach your bench legs together?

p.s. - Sorry for all the linking, I got a bit carried away. I also just picked up a FlipHD, so heres a video of the fames to boot.


Wookbench Stretcher Panels from Dyami Plotke on Vimeo.

Readers Project
 


I was thrilled to receive a letter from a reader in Burma this past week who made a version of my side table – Skinny legs and all… In case you don’t know, Burma is in South East Asia and lies between Bangladesh and Thailand.The table was made from reclaimed Teak with a local wood called Pinkado for the drawer fronts.

Ashley writes:   “In this country there are only a limited range of timbers available for woodwork and, if you buy from a local supplier, would likely come from some bit of old growth forest and be unsustainably (and possibly illegally) logged.  To get around this I work with a British guy who has set up a small scale furniture production business using salvaged timber and local workers.  His is another story but he has an amazing set-up and produces excellent furniture using mostly hand tools and traditional joinery techniques.  They even re-size all their boards – which come from old buildings being torn down – by hand, using planes they make themselves!  Very old school.  So that’s where I get my reclaimed teak and pinkado.”

I think artisans here in the West may sometimes forget just what a luxury it truly is to be able to walk into a local saw mill or big box store and purchase any number of wood species. This letter reminds me to be thankful for all we have!

Ashley writes: “the table took about 100-120 hours to build over a four month period, which includes a modest amount of stock preparation.  It also includes practice joints on scrap wood as I had not tried several of the techniques and had never built a drawer before.”

The table is finished with Teak oil.
I love what he did with the design by simply eliminating the upper apron thus changing the over-all appearance of the piece. This version has almost a mid-modern feel and I think he did an incredible job.




Ashley writes: “I made a few design changes – most notably dropping the front rail, but stuck to the essence of your design.  And, of course, i did it all with hand tools.  I must say, at the beginning i didn’t think my skills would be up to it, but it worked out OK (my wife likes it which is all the praise i need!). Thanks for the inspiration.”

Ashley, I really should be the one saying-thanks for the inspiration! It’s  amazing to see readers finding ways to make these designs  their own. This is probably the best example I’ve seen to date. Thanks for sharing and I encourage other readers to share any projects they may have tackled over the course of the last three years since Made by Hand was published. I love seeing variations on the designs and hearing from readers from all over this truly amazing planet we share.
Cheers!

I was looking in my big template drawer for a 36" radius pattern the other day and couldnt find it. I ended up emptying the whole drawer including the 1/2" of dust on the bottom of it. I did find the 36" radius and this stack of leg patterns for our Egyptian leg. I think I made the first one back around 1988 and have done, (it seems), many, many variations on it since. More Egypt leg pieces here ....

So Im building a bench. I know thatll come as a shock to many of you, but I too need a place to build my projects on.

The boards milled & rabbeted, ready to be cut to lenth.

Im beginning with the stretchers - or as Im making - panels. In order to construct the leg assemblies with as little a chance of racking and as much mass as possible Im forgoing the normal stretcher assemblies and using a bastardized frame and panel design. The frames, and much of the bench, are made of Timberstrand (dimensional lumber made of OSB).

I began by milling the Timberstrand just as I would any other lumber. A few quick passes on the jointer, a pass or two through the planer, a final trim on the table saw and voila, flat & square boards. In order to make a dado (yes, I know its actually a grove) in the middle of the frame pieces, I instead made a rabbet in two frame pieces and assembled them to make a dado. As Ive was holding out for a Forrest Dado King, I made the rabbet using two passes on my standard Woodworker II blade. As the panel will be composed of an MDF/OSB lamination, I used relative dimensioning to set the depth exactly to each sheet goods thickness (they are actually not the same thickness, even though theyre both nominally 3/4" thick). I then turned the board and cut the width of the rabbet to the same dimension as the depth (it wont matter if one sheet good panel is ever so slightly bigger than the other, theyll be cut via relative dimensioning too).

Gang cuts = perfect fits.

My next step was to take them over to my new Bosch Glide saw (no full review yet, but its kickin ass & takin names). I cut one end on each board, ganged them and cut them all to the exact same length. I then used my Domino to join the frame panels. Woodpecker Clamping Squares helped keep the whole thing square.

Now that all the frames are made my next step is to cut and fit the panels, then glue an OSB frame & panel assembly to an MDF frame & panel assembly to make the final, bastard frame & panel assembly I plan to use. Then Ill have to finalize the legs and start thinking about the top. Much to do.

Ready for the panel.

Heres the whole album.

How did you attach your bench legs together?

p.s. - Sorry for all the linking, I got a bit carried away. I also just picked up a FlipHD, so heres a video of the fames to boot.


Wookbench Stretcher Panels from Dyami Plotke on Vimeo.