Beanie Boo oven

Persephanie wanted to make an oven. For her Beanie Boos. Ok.

Wooden Workbench - 5 (Completed)

FINISHED. 

A compartment below to hold all the dogs and wedges.

Wooden Workbench - 4

For holding the wood that I’ll be working on, I’ll need to make dog benches. Was going to buy them, but they’re expensive. I don’t see why you’d need to spend $20+ on a stick.

I never understood why bench dogs that you buy all have a friction fit mechanical device. My solution is not drill the holes through. Just enough depth. The dogs can bottom out on them. It won’t affect the performance.

Cutting up 3/4” dowel to length

For the top of the dogs, I’m using some really hardwood leftover from another project. I’m just going to make 5 dogs. I don’t think I’ll need more than that.

And with what I left over, I made a couple of wedges.

Testing out the wedges. Dogs done!

Wooden Workbench - 3

Simple construction for the legs. Here, on the underside, you can see the handholds.

Persephanie jumped on and wanted to test drive the new table. Started to do her math homework right on a piece of 2x4. Guess I could use a break anyways.

I’m really just designing this bench on the fly. No real plans. Here, I decided to add a small compartment underneath the table top. A place to hold all the bench dogs and clamps. Or any tools that the current project requires. Making sure things are square now.

This is my sad workspace. 2 feet by 4 feet! I’m in a constant fear of hitting my car. Or dropping something on it. Makes me really aware of my surroundings. Which is a good thing.

I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on this project. A real tail vice would set me back $70 for the cheapest one. But, I still wanted a vice to hold wood. I was trying to come up with a  really cheap and effective solution. Then came across these bar clamps that were on sale! But, these were better than bar clamps. Instead of pipes, you use 2x4s! Which is perfect for this 2x4 project! When I’m not using the wood bench, I can pull these puppies off and use them as clamps elsewhere! Double the usage!

With a pair installed at the end of the bench, All i need is a cross member to complete the tail vice. A chunk of 2x4 with a little cutout to slip over the vice.

Next up... the accessories! The bench dogs.

Wooden Workbench - 2

A lot of planing. A lot more to go...

Wooden Workbench - 1

Need a small solid workbench to work on during the cold winter months. Working in the garage sucks. No room and no heat. So, I wanted to bring the workspace inside. For smaller projects. And it’ll be small and cozy enough for Persephanie to use too. It’s going to be low for sitting use. I’m thinking 3’ x 15” top. Height.. still undecided.

It’ll be made entirely out of cheap 2x4s. 10 pieces ($30)

On my tablesaw, I ripped the one end of each piece so it’s nice and square. Then split each piece into two 4 feet pieces. The top will be 10 pieces wide. Standing on the ends. This would give it a nice thickness for weight and solidness.

Then I laid out some lines to figure out where I want to put in the bench dog holes. These are for putting stops so I can hold down wood for planing or just working on.

Next step was to figure out which step to do next. Drill the holes? Plane it all flat? Glue the entire board together? 

If I glue them all together, then drilling them on the drill press would be extremely difficult. And drilling them with a hand drill isn’t an option as I want these holes to be perfectly perpendicular.

Planing it now before gluing would be ok now, but hard to put back together perfectly.

So, the solution is to partial glue and drill. I’d glue 2 pieces together first, then drill.

On the underside of 2 pieces, I’d cut out some notches for legs and handholds for easy transport.

(Wax paper under the wood while the glue dries)

With a 3/4” forstner bit, I started the holes. Setting up a stop block makes for easy and repeatable drills.

The placement was quite random. I wanted a good range for different size woods. A 3/4” hardwood dowel is stuck into the dog hole for testing.

Now that the holes are drilled out, time for the complete glue up on the bench top.

Next up: Planing