Because we don’t want to waste any of God’s bounty, we’ve made some end grain cutting boards from the left over pieces that are too small to use in a furniture project.
Because these are end grain, they will not dull your knives. Â Move over Boos, there’s a new cutting board boss in town! Â ha ha.
Here are the final pictures from the reloading workbench progress. Â A write up is forthcoming.
Gather around the fire, kids and let ole Woody tell you a story … Â well, fake fire… this is a woodworking shop after all! Â My goodness! Â Who would use hardwood for a fire?
The workbench has been delivered and our customer is a happy camper. Â However, we still owe you build updates. Â Here is the much belated next installment ….
We used beefy loose tenons to attach a huge laminated Mahogany cross brace to the legs. Â They probably didn’t need it, but we tend to over build because our customer’s deserve no less. Â That was attached with epoxy and allowed to try while we worked on the tool tray/shelf that goes on the bottom.
The tool tray was built as a stand alone unit and then attached to the work bench legs and rested on the attached “shoes” which are now acting as cleats giving additional rigidity to the base.   Woodworkers will use relative dimensioning over measuring any day of the week.  Why?  Well, humans hold tape measure and human eyes read them.  Slight errors are going to occur.  No way around that.  If you can put the piece that needs to be measured into the place where it’s going to live, and mark it that way, there is way less error.  This results in tighter joints and just looks better all the way around.
The tray sides are also “L” shaped.  We created those using our favorite loose tenons, lots of epoxy & clamps.  After the sides dried, we put them back on the legs and used relative dimensioning to measure the length of the sides and cut them accordingly.  We then put them back in place to get the width of the tray bottom boards, thus giving us the width of the tool tray itself.  We locked those in place with mortise and tenons on each end.  The now 4-sided box frame (open a the top and bottom) was pulled off the legs and put on the table saw (a perfectly flat surface) for addition of each hand-fiktted plank..  All of the tray plank boards were first dry fitted, marked for length & trimmed.  A tongue was routed on one side the  and mating grooves on the other.  The tongues were cut to allow for non-visible wood movement but also provided tons and tons of long grain to long grain gluing surface.   Each of the boards was attached to the tray by tenon.   We finished the tray with some molding to hide the purposeful slight gaps (that allow for wood movement)…. not to mention it just looks complete.  One of the many benefits to custom woodworking.  Things look pretty beside being useful and strong!
Once the tray was allowed to completely dry, we muscled it back in between the legs. It was a nice tight fit and there was only minimal cursing, we promise 
. Â Once in place, tenons were called into the game once again. Â Ain’t nothin’ going to pull this tray apart! Â The tray was finished off by putting the ends on and completed molding.
We next added some sides and a back piece. Â The back was attached with through tenons. Â These three pieces (2 sides and 1 back) served to further lock everything together. Â Some finish molding was added to most of the transitions. Â We know this isn’t really necessary given this is a workbench and will be in the garage, but it doesn’t take that much longer, doesn’t cost us that much more and let’s face it …. the piece looks way better! Â I guess it’s like saying you don’t have to comb your hair to go to church. Â The Lord loves you regardless, but isn’t it a nice gesture?
The next step was to get the back pigeon holes in place. Â We created them by tenoning the upper and lower pieces to the back. Which made a square bottomed ‘U’. Â We added in the dividers using wood glue. Â The back was left a little longer thus creating tabs of sorts which would give us a great place to attach it to the back legs. It’s a little hard to describe here in writing. Â I keep pointing at the screen and doing air drawings like you an see me. Â I’m rolling my eyes at myself. Â Have a look at the pictures and I think you will see what I mean. Â Yes, I got under the table and took pictures for you while it was drying. Â See how much I love you, dear reader?
We also attached the drawer front while we were at it. Â Just a simple round over was routed along the edge, but we think it complements these classic lines nicely.
We will leave you here for now. Â The next entry will finish everything up. Â I’ve included a boat load of pictures on this one. Â Hope you enjoy them!
Hopefully you’ve been following us on Instagram or Twitter (@FromTheHCWShop) or Facebook and have seen more frequent updates.  We’ve been devoting all our time in the shop & getting our taxes completed, thus the delay in getting out an much belated progress report.  There are a handful that need to be finished and uploaded.  Tonight we’ll focus on the drawer.
When we last left you, our workbench got it’s legs and aprons (here).  Since then quite a bit of work has been completed and we’re nearly finished with construction.  This update will focus on the drawer assembly (support, runners, kickers etc). There was one gigantic drawer created.  We thought this would allow for maximum storage and flexibility because our customer can easily subdivide it with readily available organizational devises.  It can change with his needs over the years.  Realizing this drawer will be used, abused and stressed (as well it should!), extra focus has been put on strength and durability.  The drawer sides, runners & kickers were made from maple, the bottom from poplar and the supports (that the kickers and runners were attached to) mahogany.   We used a tongue and groove joint for the boards that make up the bottom of the drawer.  Lots and lots of long grain there to make up a very strong joint (see this post for additional explanation of a long grain to long grain joint).  The kickers and runners were both mortised and tenoned together as well as the drawer sides.  Many (many!) loose tenons were used to attach the drawer runner & kicker supports to the maple table top and then the runners & kickers to those supports.   We also added Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene tape (fancy schmancy chemist type speak for really slippery but durable tape to make the drawer slide easier) to both.  The supports run the entire depth of the workbench and were attached via loose tenon to both the front and the back aprons.  This provides extra support for the table top so it will never bow.  It also locks the entire base assembly together even more.
What are these runner & kickers?
They are ‘L’ shaped pieces. Â Drawer runners are what the drawer ‘runs’ on and supports the drawer on the bottom. Â The kickers provides support on the top of the drawer to keep it from tilting down too quickly and also helps to keep the drawer from racking. Â You know that frustrating thing that happens when you are trying to push a drawer in and it drifts a little to one side or the other, gets stuck and then you usually end up muttering things you don’t mean to?
You will see a pretty mahogany drawer front in an upcoming post.
Look at those gams! Â <insert wolf whistle here> Â In this post we’ll show how we’ve attached the front two legs, added some blocking around the vise and attached the apron with a cut out for the drawer.
As you’ll remember from the previous post (here), the legs have an “L” attached to provide some extra support for the rather heavy butcher block table top.  For the back legs, we’ve cut 2 notches into the top.  This will allow a single structural pillar to go from the caster all the way up to support the shelves.  We used the router with a pattern bit and the plywood pieces shown in the photos as the pattern (or fence) for the router bit bearing to ride against.  While there is a small disadvantage to using a router given it leaves rounded corners, the cut is beautiful and there isn’t any blow out  (if executed properly).  A pull saw makes quick work of squaring off the inside corner and gives us a nice crisp square.  You can see the legs dry fit in place in the photos below. They are not attached yet because we’ve got some work to do with the drawer runners and back apron first.  You will see all of that work in a future update.
The front legs have been attached using 4 loose tenons each and slow cure epoxy.  Epoxy has a bit more shear strength which is why we’re using it for this application.  This bench is going to be pushed and pulled and used.  Not put in a corner and babied.  ”Nobody puts Baby in the corner!”  (sorry I regressed to the 80s there).  We build furniture to be used!
The front apron has to be split to accommodate the vise. Â Because we want it to be still be structural, we’ve added some additional blocking to the side of the vise’s blocking. Â The apron blocking was also attached with loose tenons and epoxy. Â The small bit of apron between the vise and front left leg (remember the table is still upside down in the photos) has been attached via tenons to each other and to the table top. Â The larger portion of the apron has a hole for the drawer cut from the middle thus leaving the remainder of the board one piece and integral. Â It has been attached to the right leg using standard blind mortise and tenon joinery and the apron blocking using through tenons. Â We’ve added some cosmetic molding pieces to hide the through tenons. Â Two more molding pieces were placed on the apron for symmetry.
Next up … the gigantic drawer .. that doubles as a flotation device!  You will get that reference if you if you follow on us on  Twitter, Instagram (@FromTheHCWShop) or like us on Facebook.  We provide more frequent updates via social media because it’s fast and we can spend more time in the shop!
For this update we’ll be showing you how we’ve blocked the table top to correctly space and accommodate the bench vise, laminated Mahogany for the legs and created shoes to properly attach the casters.
Our customer wanted a vise that wouldn’t get in the way of the table top.  Quality vises are heavy.  That’s a good thing for longevity and leverage, but it also takes a bit of accommodating. If you are hanging a nearly 40lbs vise off a table top, it had better be secure!  We’ve used slow set epoxy to attach a lamination of Oak and Mahogany to to align the top of the vise with the table top.  Four holes were drilled through this blocking for the bolts that will hold the vise.  We then further put 6 huge Beech loose tenons in at angles through the blocking into the Maple tabletop.  This results in the bolts being captured thus relying on the wood  and not the threads of lag bolts for long term reliability.  Two things are accomplished by these extra steps.   Many vises have the same bolt pattern, so securing the bolts this way will allow it to be removed or even changed out down the road should the need arise but it won’t work it’s way loose.  Had we just screwed the vise into the bottom of the table,  with the wood’s natural expansion and contraction and the stress that will be put on the vise with repetitive ammunition reloading, those screws would have eventually worked themselves loose.  No one wants a wiggly vise!
For the 4 legs, we’ve laminated 2 4/4 rough lumber Mahogany boards. Â After being properly jointed and planed (dimensioned) the final legs ended up being ~3 1/2″ x 2 7/8″. Â The front two legs will go under the table and the back two are going “through” the table top up to the upper shelves and pigeon holes. Â We didn’t want to attach the shelves and pigeons to the table top as a separate unit. Â This method will be much stronger and allow for more weight. Â Probably a little hard to visualize without a picture, but you will see in the next post what I mean. Â Â We added a 2 part “L” cleat to each leg where the Maple table top will be attached. Â The back portion of the ‘L’ was attached with 4 loose tenons and the leg of the “L” was attached to the back with 2 loose tenons. Â Some epoxy was added for good measure since we’ve got some end grain to work with.
Next we made shoes for the legs.  Yes, shoes… well maybe work boots because I can’t see our bench in Louis Vuittons.  The casters have to be bolted to the legs.  Because we wanted to allow for the casters to be removed or exchanged  and the bench to hold up to a life time of being moved around on those casters,  we had to come up with a better solution than just directly screwing into the end grain.  SHOES!  We laminated 3 pieces of Mahogany and cut them a bit wider than the legs. We routed a “socket” for the legs to go into and then recessed 4 threaded inserts for the bolts to screw into.   You could use this bench as elephant transport and I doubt it would even squeak (though please do not actually try that!).
The next update will show the legs being attached and more fun. Â Stay tuned.
A beautiful multi-functional workbench is our next project.  As most of us do, our customer needs their workbench to wear different hats.  It will be used for some DIY home improvement projects, ammunition reloading & other general workbench type stuff.  Our Customer provided a website as a starting off point (much as one would use pictures from Pinterest as an inspiration board) and asked for more durable construction techniques  with some additional customization.  Our workbench will not use metal brackets to hang the drawer slides, stain to make coniferous wood look more expensive nor lag bolts for assembly.  Don’t get me wrong… Douglas Fir is great for somethings, but we won’t make any of our furniture out of Christmas Trees!   Our customer will be able to will this workbench to their Grands without a second thought.
We’re making a Maple butcher block top and using a combination of Honduran and African Mahogany for everything else. Â We’ve been asked to put the bench on casters and provide extra pigeon holes for storage.
We purchased all of the rough lumber and let it acclimate to the shop. Â As usual for this time of year, the weather is a roller coaster. Â Swinging between highs in the 30s to highs in the 60s in the same week. We are careful to watch the weather and adjust accordingly.
The rough Maple was dimensioned  (jointed & planed) and cut into strips. The strips were dimensioned again to insure a very tight joint.  Mortises were added to each piece for alignment and extra strength.  When all of the strips were glued together, they were  joined with Beech loose tenons.  We staged the table top glue up into 3 groups of 5 or 6 strips that each measured approx 1 7/8″ wide by 1 3/4″ tall.  Once those three sections were completely dried, mortises were again drilled to accommodate additional loose tenons.  The three sections were glued together and allowed to completely dry.   The ends were trimmed and the top sanded flat resulting in a ~1 5/8″ x ~31 1/2″ butcher block style table top.
Next steps are the build up under the table top for the vise and the lamination of the Mahogany legs.
We were contacted by a young man who wanted to restore a coffee table that his mother loved.  The original glass was broken which made it useless and it was relegated to the garage.  Let’s just say the elements were not kind. With help of our summer minion we gladly took on the task and broke it all down.
The table top was replaced with a chunky solid mahogany top that had beautiful grain, a bit of quilting & bird’s eyes (!!!) in it.  Dimensioned from 6/4 rough stock and joined with humongous 14mm loose tenons, the table top edge was rounded over leaving a bit of a tooth for interest.   The customer liked the Mahogany Dining Room Table we made & requested the same purple heart inlay.  We routed a channel and added a thick purple heart strip.  No wimpy veneered inlays here!
The wooden shelf frame at the bottom was also made from solid mahogany. Â We mitered the corners and being a faithful reader of this site, you remember that post on grain orientation & glue ups, right? Â Mitered corners are an end grain to end grain joint and therefore inherently very weak. Â They, like all of us from time to time, need some help. Â Smaller loose tenons were added to strengthen the joint. Â Â The frame’s edge was finished by routing an ogee pattern.
The base & shelf lattice are metal.  Minion sanded those pieces down, primed, repainted with rust inhibiting paint and top added a coat to help resist everyday wear and tear down the road.  We let it dry or rather baked it on the surface of the sun out in this ridiculous heat.
As an added bonus, we created a small occasional table with matching purple heart inlay from the off cuts. Â We attached the tapered legs & table skirts with loose tenons and the table top with figure eights (which allow for wood movement).
All of the wood was sprayed with our normal water based high gloss urethane finish and the gloss knocked down to a semi-gloss finish.
You may remember our post on the round catch tray made from maple. Â We had a request for set of two catch trays. Â We used the same methodology for construction, but worked with our customer to come up with a oval shape . Â It is made it from African Mahogany. Â The customer wanted a more cushioned bottom, so we’ve added some felt on top of a foam core base. Â This allows the insert to be removed for cleaning or if the owner would like to change out the color over the years.
Our “go-to” method of  joinery (assembly) is mortise and loose tenons because it is as strong as the proverbial country mule.  The strength on this joinery is unparalleled.  If it ain’t broke, why would we fix it?    You’ll see in the pictures below, this is the method we used for base of these Garden Benches as well.
Unlike Frank Lloyd Wright, who purposefully made chairs so they wouldn’t be comfortable as to discourage long visits from guests, we want these benches to be comfortable enough to sit on for hours. Â As you can see we have a curve in the seat supports. Â The human body doesn’t have any perfectly straight lines, why should a bench or a chair? Â Â Â Each of the slats has been rounded over so there are no sharp edges to dig into people’s legs.
For some visual interest, we used a combination of wider Mahogany boards and thinner Red Oak  laminated strips for seat slats.   We used  White Oak stepped dowels to attach the slats to the bench’s base frame.  This also allowed some additional visual interest and though you can’t see it in the finished product, we drilled the holes for the dowels at an angle. When you cut off the top of the dowel and sand it even with the slat, you can’t see the angle.  This technique helps keep the slats from having even the slightest change of pulling out over the years.
All these methods worked, because we ended up with 6 grown men sitting on one of these completed bench and it didn’t even creak!
The benches are finished with marine grade spar varnish with a satin sheen. Â This should hold up to heat, sun and rain to welcome visitors for a good many years to come.
