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Rehabilitating a school woodworking bench |
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I had mixed feelings
when I won a bid on work benches and other equipment at a high school auction. You’ve got a bargain, but part of the price is knowing that another school district is eliminating their woodworking program and, along with it, one of the few opportunities for young people to work with their hands.
Exhibit "A" in our project is the worn and pitted surface of the bench. It also came with a thick commercial finish and wads of chewing gum. The benches are 2-1/4” thick and 54”x 64” and held together with three through bolts. As I was removing the vises, my friend, and first-rate remodeler, Rick Byrom stopped by with his worm-drive saw and we trimmed off the rounded edges.
If you see the
"pointing finger "when you place your cursor over a picture, you can
click and get a larger image. |
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Surface Removal I don’t like liquid strippers, so I reached for my large RED DEVIL paint scraper sharpened with a curve approaching the camber on a fore plane. Long strokes removed the finish with no sticky mess.
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Surface Leveling Next my six and four foot levels were used as winding sticks. High spots were marked with a pencil then leveled with a vintage #7 Stanley Bailey jointer plane used diagonally across the grain, back and forth. Then the jointer was worked along the grain before scraping everything with a BACHO card scraper.
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Other alterations to the surface included adding a Brazilian
Cherry inlay to divide the bench for our woodworking students, and filling
holes with dowel rods. The holes were cleaned out with a probe or enlarged to
match the dowel. It was then cut off long with a dovetail saw, tapped with a
mallet, and after the glue set, flush cut with a Kugihiki saw. |
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Tools
Here's a list of tools from our store, mentioned or pictured in the first
half of the story.
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The New
Configuration
The Benches were originally arranged with
vises across from each other, mounted flush to the bench top. I decided to set
each side up with a large front vise and a smaller end vise used in
conjunction with bench dogs for more holding options. The bench presented a
complication with three through bolts that had to be avoided for vise
installation and dog hole location.
Before mounting the vises, half inch
spacers were necessary to accommodate the 4 1/2” wide aprons with a large
mortise for the vise back jaw. The bench edges and aprons were slotted for
splines. and dog holes were drilled along with holes for four cross-dowel
bolts on the end grain. The slots were arranged so that the aprons sat 1/16”
proud of the bench top to be planed flush later. |
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The aprons were joined at the corners with half-blind
dovetails. I located the pins so that no joinery was on the back jaw face. The
back jaw mortise was started at the drill press with a Forstner bit. Remaining
waste was removed free-hand with a router and straight cutter, then cleaned with
chisel and mallet.
Glue was not used on the end aprons to allow for expansion or
contraction of the bench. Holes for bench dogs were also added to the
aprons. |
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When there were enough hands
at the shop, we prepared the clamps and coated the back jaw face with paste wax.
Two beads of construction adhesive were applied to each mortise to fill any gaps
between it and the slightly canted back jaw face.
After gluing the long
edges and the dovetail joints, we made two pairs, joined at opposing corners,
then positioned one in place and inserted the cross-dowel bolts. One mortise was
elongated on the second pair to provide enough space to slide the dovetails
together. While the remaining cross-dowels were being installed, we clamped
across the glued long grain sides.
No pictures of the final assembly because everyone was
holding something! |
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Final Steps
The next day I trimmed the dovetails with a Millers Falls
low-angle block plane, and flushed off the edge of the apron with the Stanley
#7. There was a dovetail with a small gap. A sliver of maple that matched the
grain was glued in and later trimmed.
The bench dog holes were bored with a
brace and auger bit. I chamfered the top of the holes with a trim router to
prevent damage to the bench when using a holdfast.
The old
vises were stripped of several coats of paint, primed and painted. I slipped
rubber O-rings on each end of the handles to reduce “clanking”. The front jaws
with a dog hole were added to give the vise a larger gripping area. A quick
sanding, brushing and run over with a tack cloth prepared us for finishing with
a couple of coats of Zinsser Seal-Coat. (ready mixed super blonde de-waxed
shellac) |
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Thanks for reading about our benches
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These benches will
provide excellent service for years to come. But I’m not through with them yet.
I plan to add a sliding dead-man and storage space to each front to increase
their utility. If you have
thoughts or questions just send them to:
contactus@dilegnosupply.com .
We'll add them to the bottom of this story here on the web site.
Each bench, including four Wilton vises, cost $65 at
auction. Our cost for 5/4 maple and various hardware was less than
$200. You can find a new one for $2,500 with vises at school supply stores on
the web. The effort was well worth it!
Best Wishes,
Dante |
Tools
Here's a link to tools in our store mentioned or pictured in the second half of
the story.
Books & Magazine Reference
These are great references for planning your own bench
projects:
Workbenches: from Design & Theory to
Construction & Use - Christopher Schwarz
The Workbench - Lon Schleining
Making Workbenches - Sam Allen
Installing a Cast-Iron Vise - Tom Begnal -
Fine Woodworking 10/02 No.158
Tune Up Your Workbench - Richard
Humphreville - Fine Woodworking 2/09 No.203
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