My cheap wood

This project, which I've wanted to do for a while, became possible when I say an add on craig's list for SYP. Living in NH SYP isn't available and the other readily available bench woods would just cost too much.

The women was getting these pallets, from a glass shop, and breaking them down, burning some of them and selling the rest to poor saps like me.

The wood was being sold for $1.40 for a 2x6 x 78". So I bought 30 of them. $42 dollars for the wood you can't beat that. Well I bring them into "the shop" and let them dry out. I am now way over my head, but fortunes shines on the foolish at time. I get a brand new Dewalt 734 planer for $300 and a lightly used Reliant jointer fo $80 so I am good to go.

I separate the boards into a couple of piles, based upon how "good" they are. Pull out staples brush them off and let them sit. Eventual I start the processes.
As documented in the previous several posts (as well as future posts I am sure).

As the wood isn't as good as it should I was forced to make a second pilgrimage to this site and buy another 20 boards, $28 more money. Ok, $70 dollars is going to get me a decent work bench, there are going to be plenty of knots in the top, hopefully they won't interfer with the work. The owners didn't like me picking through for the "best" boards

Also after jointer these, I need to get new knives as I missed a nail. The other thing I learned is that my table crepted up a little or the knives dulled enough that I had to readjust the outfeed table.

Lessons learned that this project would go a lot quicker with flatter, less bowed and less defective wood. I'll be posting soon with my mortising and building the top. As of 1/5/09 the mortises are done (though final fitting is needed) and the first two sections of the top have been glued up. There will be 5-6 sections and probably 8 or 9 total glue ups.

Making the stretchers

11/16 (30mins) With the legs assembled (mortises still needed) it was time to work on the stretchers. My quick math showed 45" and 21" were going to be needed, so I quickly cut 4 48" and 4 24" inch pieces on the chop saw to begin this process.

These stretchers are going to be thicker then in the plans; however the book says to overkill the construction of the bench, so these will be a bit over kill.

11/17 (1+hr) I surfaced one face and edge on each board. Pleasantly surprised that this wood is nicer then the leg wood. I had previously separated the good pieces for the top; and 2 of those are now being used a stretchers. Ripped these to ~4 1/2" Ripping the wood I re-learned a good tip. Always put the surfaced side down on the table saw to rip. Glued them up and called it a night.

11/18 (1hr) Same as the previous night, working with 24-30" pieces is much easier though.

11/19 (1+hrs). Squared up the stretchers on the planer & jointer. Finished dimensions are 2 9/16 x 4/14. I would have taken the 1/16th of the thickness if I had noticed in time. It won't matter in the least I am sure. A couple of these glue ups could have been a little better. A gap here and there. Though most seem sound. I've decided the tenons will be 2 1/2" long by 1" thick.

11/21 (2hrs) Friday night and the wife was out so I went down to cut the tenons. Since I don't have a tenoning jig, a dado blade, or the skills to cut the tenons by hand, I decided to use the nibble out approach. This worked pretty darn good, but made a lot of dust, didn't strike me as super safe (nor super dangerous either). So after doing the two short stretchers I called it a night.

11/22 (1+ hr) I cleaned up the tenons a little; my kids thought breaking off the pieces was a lot of fun, and went to work on the long stretchers. This is were my setup was less then ideal. The long piece wasn't fully supported on my table saw, so I had to be extra mindful when I nibbled away. I also noticed something wasn't perfectly square not sure what.

11/23 (1+hr) Found out that my miter gauge was off 1-2 degrees. Not sure how that happened, but I quickly fixed it. However this will lead to a little more work during the clean up. With the four stretchers complete and a little out of square I spent some time with a chisel and low angle block plane (my first and favorite plane) to get everything aligned, at least until I get read to chop and fit the mortises.

Making the legs

The legs took a good amount of time to build over 10 days. However when you can only work an hour+ at night it takes awhile. Chris S. says this bench took ~38hrs; I am guessing 60ish.

I purchase 30 2x6 boards of used SYP lumber. This looks to be either old palletts or building material of some sort. There where lots of staples to remove, but all the nails where gone. In fact the boards probably where 8fters originally now they come in around 77". The nice part was they were about $1.50 per board.

Day 1 11/2/08 (1+hr) -- Face and edge jointer 6 boards, all about 36". The wood seems to have a lot more defects then I remembered. Also they are closer to 1 1/2" to start then 1 3/4" , looks like 30 boards won't be enough. Spent a long hour in the shop.

For a change of plans I will use 4 boards to make each leg; again more wood then I originally guessed.

Day 1 session 2. (45min) The kids are in bed, I face an edge 4 more boards.

Day 2 11/3/08 (1+hr) Got the last 6 boards done for the legs, even ripped the first one to width (4") on the table saw. My guess is the legs will be approx. 4x4 when I am done. Pretty happy with the way the first ripped piece looks.

Day 3 11/4/08 (1hr) I am pretty motivated at this point, getting a lot of time in the shop. Ripped the other 15 pieces to 4", this is the most I have ever used my table saw. Pretty happy with the results.

Day 4 11/7/08 (1hr) Planed the 16 leg pieces to final thickness <1 1/4". Made lots of wood chips, filled the shop vac twice. Pleasantly surprised by how good the wood looks. It looked awful in the beginning. My new estimate is 16 more boards, hopefully can get there next weekend.

Day 5 11/8/08 (2hrs) 2 hours is a lot of time in the shop for me. Getting downstairs around 8pm doesn't leave a lot of time plus I am tired. However I get some afternoon time today. I cut the leg lengths 8 pieces at 31" and 8 pieces at 33". The long pieces will become the 2" tenons to attach the top. Did the first 2 glue ups, I had a lot of squeeze out and they didn't feel like I had them aligned as well as I should. This way my first glue up, with the exception of the class I took. (see photo)

Day 6. 11/9/08 (30min) Finished gluing the other 2 legs. These were better then the first ones. Less squeeze out better alignment.

Day 7 11/11/08 (1hr) Chiseled away some of the "extra" glue, ran the legs through the jointer and planers to make them square. They seem to be pretty square however there is slight deviations in the lengths. Will get to fixing them when I start the mortising.

8 trips to the shop 8 1/2 hours of quality time and I have 4 legs mostly complete. Things are looking good. This may not be the showyest bench around but I am guessing it is going to be a lot better then what I currently have.

The beginning

Since work, wood working and raising a family aren't enough things to do with my time, I've decided I'd start blogging about my latest wood working project, a Holtzapffel Bench from WoodWorking Issue 8. After reading the WorkBench book and trying to cut dovetails on what is my current desk, I've decided that I could and should build this bench. The next several entries will capture my building of this bench; several entries is probably mis-leading I am guessing this is a 2 month project.

Before I start this, let me note that beside several handcut dovetail boxes, a router table (aka the router table with 1000 mistakes) and the planer stand (this one came out better) I haven't actually built anything in my work shop.

The only "nice" thing I have built is a shaker style end table during a class I took at Homestead Wood Working School.

Will start the workbench blogging soon