Woodworking Projects and Plans: yankee

The plans called for making the benchtop out of 3/4" plywood. Ive had this sheet of 1/2" plywood in my garage forever. I planned out all my cuts and I was able to make the bench top and bottom shelf with 2 layers of the 1/2" plywood. I made the tray bottom out of 1 piece.

I set up the 4x8 sheet on my 2 sawhorses with 2x4s running the length for support. I also set up a straight edge to run my cordless saw along. This end will be cut off here and then cut into two matching pieces to make the bottom shelf.

I also set up two scrap pieces of 2x4 to support the wood when I cross cut it.

I checked the far corner and it is pretty square so I clamped a 1x3 down to use to cut the piece for the tray bottom. I gave it a couple of extra inches and will cut it down to size on the table saw. This will make sure that the side cut with the 1x3 ends up being square.

My table saw came with a 28 tooth blade. I bought a 40 tooth blade a couple of weeks back and I am finally getting a chance to try it out.

Here is the tray bottom and shelf top cut to size.

The 2 pieces for the benchtop have been cut to size.

I cut the hardboard to width using the same settings that I used on the plywood.

I didnt want to have to deal with the leftovers of a full sheet of hardboard so I bought 2 smaller pieces that fit in my car. I bought 2 because they were not long enough to cover the length of the benchtop.

All cut to size.

I cut the hardboard so that the seem would be located where I need to cut the top out for the moving dog block.

Heres the first dry fit.

Senin, 28 Maret 2016

New Yankee Workshop Workbench update cutting the inserts out of the top

I cut the slot out of the benchtop for the dogs and tailstock. What a giant pain in the rear? Norm does it in the video in like 30 seconds and it took me nearly an hour.

I attached the 2 pieces of plywood together with 1" drywall screws and some of them ended up poking through so I had to cut off all the tips with my dremel before running the piece through the tablesaw.

I marked the two ends of the slot and then cut them on the tablesaw.

I got them close and then finished them with a jigsaw.

I also used the jigsaw to cut the ends.

All cut and ready for the next step.

I marked the corners and then clamped a framing square down to use as a cut guide for my small cordless saw.

I cut it close and then used the jigsaw to finish it.

I made sure that all my cuts were square to the material.

Here it is all cut out.

Sabtu, 26 Maret 2016

New Yankee workbench update

I got the benchtop all cut down to size and screwed together. I also cut the dados and grooves for the rear tray. All I have left now is to cut the pieces out of the top for the dogs and tailstock. My bench vise screw should be in any time now. When it comes in I will build and install the tailstock.

Im not very good at estimating distances so I marked the placement of all the

2x4s on the tabletop so that I would know where to place the screws.

I then clamped it into place so I could countersink and drive in some 1" screws to hold all three pieces together.

I clamped the rear piece in so that I could mark for the dados.

I made sure to mark what needed to be hogged out.

Getting the top ready to be taken off and moved to the table saw.

I used my framing square to mark all the places to drive in screws.

Dry fitting all the side pieces

Not perfect but close enough

Its starting to look like a workbench!

It was very tempting to just stop here but I really want those dogs and a tail stock.

Sabtu, 05 Maret 2016

The New Yankee Workshop workbench build has started!

Ive been watching a lot of episodes of The New Yankee Workshop on YouTube lately and one of my favorites is their woodworking workbench. I found a hardcover copy of the 1st season of NYW book on eBay for a good price. Norm said that the project can be made with 6 - 2x4s so I bought 7. I made one mistake in my cuts and had to redo one 17" board that somehow came out 16.75" and still managed to use only 6 - 2x4s. I am also shooting video on this project so I didnt take as many pictures as I normally would have.

Its Norm!

This is the goal for my workbench to look like.

My wife got me this dado set for christmas. I cant find anywhere to buy new plates for my table saw so I

am in the process of making one out of hardboard.

The new plate for the dado set is almost done.

The plan called for 6 - 2x4s so I bought 7.

Time to make some cuts.

These are all the pieces cut for the frame of the workbench.

Even with my one screwup this is all I had left for scraps.

These are all the pieces laid out. Rabbits and dados are next!

Kamis, 18 Februari 2016

New Yankee Workshop Workbench update benchtop tray parts

I made the benchtop out of 2 pieces of 1/2" plywood laminated together, cut the tray bottom to size and got the groves cut for the tray to fit into.

Here it is ready for some glue.

I put on a generous amount of glue, put the second piece on, put in some 1" screws in the middle and then clamped the hell out of it. I am hoping that this will make the top conform to the 2x4s underneath.