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Last fall I came across a series on YouTube by Paul Sellers How to build aworkbench, and was inspired to make a proper workbench for my shop. The need for workbench has become more pressing since I have been hand planing reclaimed pallet wood for my wife to carve into Welsh love spoons, planing on a Workmate is an exercise in frustration.

The bench in the video is 8'x3', is to large for my shop but I have since bought his book (Working Wood 1 and 2: The Artisan Course with Paul Sellers)which has plans for a smaller version of the bench, 5'x2' which I will base my bench on.

The weather here has warmed enough for gluing in my unheated shop so last week I got some 2x4's (SPF studs, mostly pine I think) from the Borg (Home Depot) and made a start on the top. Cut eight 2x4's to rough length and planed the faces for gluing.

Sunday, glued top.

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Monday morning, planed bottom face flat.

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Top face before

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and after planing and cutting to final length.

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Tools used.

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Left to right

- no. 4 plane I got last week and and sharpened with and aggressive curve on the blade, used as a scrub plane. This worked very well for rapid removal of stock on the uneven faces after gluing.

- no. 4 Stanley smoothing plane that I inherited from my father in law.

- no. 6 Stanley try plane. I bought this one at a flea market about thirty years ago.

- Disston handsaw. I got this one at the ReStore last month ($3.00), not restored yet but I did sharpen it, my first try at saw sharpening, and it works well.


Lessons learned so far:

- I need better clamps

- My gluing skills need improvement, some of the joints did not close tightly.

- Saws and planes are not that difficult to sharpen.

- Sharp tools are a pleasure to work with.

Will post more as progress is made, now back to the shop.

Ron, nice looking work. I have rescued many planes through the years and the older Stanley's have good quality. Good quality planes are a joy to use, and beat the heck out of belt sanding a bench surface (although belt sanding is most often recommended by today "experts"). A planed surface is ready for finish and the "dust" is chips on the floor not in your lungs. They are also easier on the ears and you get your gym workout to boot. One tip on the old ones: I often check the bottom of the plane for flatness. I do this by using a glass plate with valve grinding compound. Lap the bottom and after a few strokes you will see the high and low spots, if any. Work these out, especially around the mouth. Also check the chip breaker by looking for light between the blade and breaker. If it "leaks" grind the edge until there is no light leaking through. The flatness of the bottom is essential to "happy" plane and a smiling craftsmen.

I look forward to seeing progress shots.

You're off to great start!

One of these days I'll get started on mine. I agree re: planing on a workmate. It's horrible.

As far as plane restoration I totally agree with William, but not limited to Stanley, consider Sargent, Union, Miller's Falls, et. al. and even so called Value Offerings like Lakeside, Stanley Handyman line, Millers Falls V-Line, etc. For the most part those planes were "Value" offerings due to their lack of finish and/or features.

You can also use various grits of sandpaper for lapping the flat side of edged tools (Plane irons, chisels, marking knives, etc.) as well as the soles of planes.

Grit and how much time is spent lapping on each depends on how much work is required to get it flat.

You can also use marble, granite, or even MDF as your substrate. Just give it a flatness check with a known straight edge. If no light, then go for it.

There are many many resources for restoring old tools on line. IMHO, restored vintage hand tools are much better quality and value compared to new, especially saws and planes.

I just saw Paul Sellers pitch his school at the Dallas woodworking show. Really good stuff.

I'm with Terry on those other planes and I didn't mean to exclude them. I would only add that Stanley "Bedrock" is the top of the line in older Stanleys. They made them for the professional woodworker/carpenter. Bedrock refers to the way the frog is mounted to the bed - lessens chatter. There are well made planes today, but you will pay more than an old one will cost you and these old ones deserve a good home.

Work on the bench continues apace but nothing photogenic. The legs are laminated and planed square, the board for the tool tray is planed square, one of the aprons is in the clamps and the other is waiting its turn to be glued up.

rpd wrote:Work on the bench continues apace but nothing photogenic. The legs are laminated and planed square, the board for the tool tray is planed square, one of the aprons is in the clamps and the other is waiting its turn to be glued up.

Thanks! I'm ready whenever you want to ship it down this way .

nuhobby wrote:Thanks! I'm ready whenever you want to ship it down this way .

Sorry, my origami skills are not up to fitting the parts into a flat rate box, so it will have to live in my shop.

Legs are made and four of the eight mortises are chopped.

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My wife took a pyrography (wood burning) class a couple of weeks ago. This past weekend I had to cut some blanks for her from a pine 1x6 I had on hand (orders). To clean up the cut ends I used the 12" sanding disk mounted on my 10ER. This was the first time I had used the sanding disk and I was very pleased with how well it worked, especially after I mounted the front table extension (I kept dropping the mitre gauge:().

All the mortises in the are cut now. This weekend I took a bit of a detour. Paul Sellers shows how to use a scrap piece of wood and a chisel to make a 'Poor Man's Hand Router' for cleaning up the cheeks of tenons and I have been looking at other sites that show how to make router planes with wooden bodies. Then I ran across this tenon router

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made by Harry Strasil on the Sawmill Creek forum.

So I made one for myself

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I bought the blade from Lee Valley and the wood was from a liberated pallet, I think it turned out quite well.