Making a Watchmaker's Bench

[SparkyLB]

The other side. 

[SparkyLB]

Nothing left but to cover the drawers, finish and install pulls. 

[SparkyLB]

Home stretch. 
 

[SparkyLB]

Hard part is done. I could take this second side and use plywood until I build a proper working surface. 
 

[SparkyLB]

Taking shape. 

[SparkyLB]

Just a piece of plywood on top. I can start filling my drawers, which will make the Mrs. very happy. 

Edited June 27, 2020 by SparkyLB

[SparkyLB]

I would appreciate if some experienced board members could lend some advice regarding a work surface.  All I have in the "plans" is flat, with a border around the sides and back.  I don't know if it should be light or dark, very solid or sacrificial (replaced easily), treated with a varnish, urethane, or just oil-rubbed.  The rest of the bench so far is simply oil-rubbed.

Please; any words from experience about the work surface or any other facet of the bench moving forward would be very helpful to this beginner.   

[SparkyLB]

So I've completed the flat portion of the work surface.  Funds dictated no more hardwood, so pine it is.  It's somewhat soft, but is very pleasant looking. 

I think I've decided upon a Roman Ogee router bit to create the "prison walls" for the sides and rear of the worktop. 

They'll fit into a rabbet and will be flush with the outside dimensions of the top. 

[Tmuir]

Are you going to route a little 'trench' across the front edge of the top to catch anything that trys to roll off the front?

 

Coming along nicely.

[SparkyLB]

Now that you mention it, yes, Tmuir.  I wouldn't have if not for your suggestion.  I have router a bit that does a semicircle, I'll set it to barely penetrate the top wood.  Enough to do the job.  I'm also wondering how I'm going to slope the fronts of the prison walls downwards.  Maybe a french curve?  Template?  Not sure yet. 

I would love any other suggestions.  I'm just starting out, and not familiar with the features of a high quality bench.

Edited July 5, 2020 by SparkyLB

[spectre6000]

I've been watching this from a distance. I have done quite a bit of fine wood working, mostly of a luthiery flavor, but also some fine furniture. If all you're after is a gentle curve on a single piece like that, and you're not interested in repetition across multiple components or production run, you would probably find yourself best served (and best enjoyed) with a curved sole hand plane. Assuming you don't already have a profiled router bit ready to go (and your router is powerful enough to do such a large cut in the first place), the setup time on the router is about how long it would take to just bang out the same operation with the plane. You could just freehand whatever comes to mind in the moment, and it'll look great. As a bonus, if you can't keep it clean and don't want to follow with a scraper (same relationship as the plane to the router as below, but with sandpaper), your worst case scenario is very in vogue right now with the "hand scraped" look (even though that's not what that is).

Additionally, planes are quieter to save your ears (I saw those amplifiers on the side of the photo, so you likely care at least a little about your hearing), and the shavings fall directly down and are easier to clean than the router dust which goes EVERYWHERE for DAYS. Just a suggestion. Do not try to plane plywood... It'll ruin your iron, the plywood, and your sanity. Practice on a piece of scrap wood at least to get your iron set properly, and generally try to avoid low grade pine (the alternating hard/soft of the wood combined with it never being dried even halfassedly makes it especially challenging, and no one really likes pine much in the end). On the tiny probability that you're in the Denver area, you're welcome to come up here and I'll show you the ropes.

https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/convex-sole-block-plane?path=block-planes&node=4072

This is a new, high quality curved sole plane. It's a little small, but it'll get the job done. This is one of the first planes I bought, and I use it to carve archtop plates. Lie-Nielsen essentially reproduces antiques, so a used one can be found and rehabbed for less, but it's a hunt and a project unto itself.

If you wanted to go convex instead of concave with your trim, you might consider a plain old block plane. Good to have even in a power tool shop. A step from that, if you're really good at sharpening chisels, you can make an ad hoc plane (there's a guy on YouTube that shows this... Something Sellers... Peter or Paul?). If you're even better, you can use a chisel freehand in a plane capacity (I did something like this just yesterday). Over a long distance and a large piece, you REALLY need to be good since there's not much keeping things straight.

Edited July 5, 2020 by spectre6000

[SparkyLB]

Thank you for all the great information, Spectre6000.  If you haven't noticed, I'm figuring out things as I go along.  I bought an inexpensive set of router bits from eBay and will use an Ogee for the retaining walls. 

For the form part closest to the front, I'll either freehand something or use a French curve, cut a template with MDF, and use a flush trim bit to duplicate it on both sides. 

[SparkyLB]

The work surface. 
 

[SparkyLB]

BTW, Spectre--that's a very kind offer.  I'm in Florida so that won't be practical anytime soon.  If I find my way up your end of the country perhaps I'll reach out. 

I can use all the experience from others that they're willing to offer.   

[SparkyLB]

Couldn’t leave well enough alone. 

[SparkyLB]

Getting there. 

[SparkyLB]

I made the retaining walls at first with a router bit.  I bungled up the job very well and Spectre6000 reached out a few posts above.  He introduced me to the concept of, dare I say, hand tools.  With a $19 block plane, I salvaged a burnt set of rails and made it into something that looks satisfactory. 

There is something VERY satisfying and organic about that little plane.  One swipe, almost there, another swipe, that looks better, third swipe, hmm. . taking shape, next swipe. . . you get the idea. 

Thank you, Spectre6000!  Because of you, I now know how I'm going to make the sides and back with only one width of 2 x 4 to keep the plywood with oak veneer arrow-straight.  Imagine that, a lap joint.  No sawdust and oldschool excitement. 

[spectre6000]

De nada! Glad I was able to help. Looks great too! Woodworking with proper hand tools is one of those "zen washes over" activities once you get your feet under you. Glad to have made the introduction!

I went back and re-read what I posted up there, and I'm a little embarrassed... Work + baby + pandemic + everything else = frazzled! The phone conversation/texts followed that to a significant degree. I must sound like a broken record!

[Tmuir]

Nicely done.

I like what you did on the front to stop things rolling off.

I don't do much wood working at the moment, but I do agree that there is something special about using hand tools.

My shed workbench I hand planed it flat using a bench plane that I found at a swap meet that had a blunt blade and surface rusted sole that I restored. Using corundum powder with kerosene on a glass plate I trued the sole of the plane and using Japanese water stones honed the back of the blade to a mirror finish before I even started to sharpen the front.

Quality tools are always a pleasure to use.

[SparkyLB]

Thank you, Tmuir.  Nor do I do much woodworkingI!   

I've been binge-watching Paul Sellers YouTube videos and I now know how to wrap up this job. 

And, yes--good tools, or good anything for that matter, is never bad.  One day I WILL have a set of Bergeon screwdrivers on the rotating platform.  All in good time. 

A bad analogy perhaps, but if you have disposable income to burn on a new bench, the bench will never give you the satisfaction it would had you really had to save for it.  This bench is giving me a great deal of satisfaction because I made it.  It's not the best or setting the world on fire; but I savor it more having built it. 

Finally--I love the YouTube videos where people take tools from the late 1800s and restore them to "made yesterday" status.  Good job on the plane! 

[Tmuir]

I'm partial to Horotech screwdrivers.

After constant sharpening of my cheap Chinese screwdrivers I decided to replace the tips with blue steel and sharpen them myself, but when I went to undo the grub screw that held the tips in I had 2 of the screws snap their heads off, so I bit the bullet and bought myself a set of 6 Horotech screwdrivers MSA01.201-D and have never looked back.

 

Without trying to take over your thread here are a couple of photos of my workshop bench. The legs on the bench are only pine but the top is made with Jarrah which is a local hardwood. I just realised I made this 12 years ago, good where has the time gone.

 

In the second photo you can see a black metal base that was for my milling machine that I hadn't set up when this photo was taken, but sitting ontop of it with the giant red electric motor on it is the base for my watchmakers lathe. I had obviously removed the base of the lathe to clean it up This is the motor that powered my lathe probably from atleast the 1950s when it was used by my great grandfather, a couple of years ago I replaced it with a motor 1/5 its size from a singer sewing machine and it was the best thing I ever did.

Your bench will do you well for many years to come.

[spectre6000]

I wish we had local woods like Jarrah! Up here, everything is pine save the aspens. Aspen is a boring looking, small, and somehow simultaneously soft AND brittle wood... Occasionally there are trees that were planted, and one of those in my yard is a silver maple riddled with burls. The utility company cut half of it down yesterday, and I'll be getting it set up to dry today!

[SparkyLB]

That's not a plane.  THAT'S a plane!

What is the finish on the Jarrah top?  That's an attractive bench. 

spectre6000, my wife and I were in Bend, OR a couple of years ago and I saw juniper for my first time.  Looks straight out of the Wizard of Oz.  Gnarled and twisted.  Beautiful trees.  I wonder if juniper wood has any carpentry applications. 

Is burl comprised of the root portion of the tree? 

[MeticulousOne]

I have been contemplating doing this for the last five years.  Happy to see someone jump in and just get it done...  Nice job!!

[spectre6000]

4 hours ago, SparkyLB said:

spectre6000, my wife and I were in Bend, OR a couple of years ago and I saw juniper for my first time.  Looks straight out of the Wizard of Oz.  Gnarled and twisted.  Beautiful trees.  I wonder if juniper wood has any carpentry applications. 

Is burl comprised of the root portion of the tree? 

Juniper is not used in carpentry (which I believe is technically framing houses and the like). In general woodworking, I think the small size and gnarliness of it limits its uses to very small things (i.e. pens) and decorative elements. It's a softwood (which refers to biological characteristics rather than it's physical hardness), and that's another limitation. I have a fairly large juniper in my yard between the house and the creek. I can't think of having ever seen or used juniper.

A burl is an extremely figured feature on a tree that comes from disease or stress of some sort. 

Photo not mine, from Reddit via google image search for silver maple wood burl:

It's too finicky and unstable to use structurally, but can make for some stunning accents. I'm sort of at a loss, because it's huge and riddled with burls, but it's a bit too gaudy for my style. I'll probably sell it to fund either watches or car parts...

If you like the gnarliness of junipers, you should find your way up to this neck of the woods. At tree line, there's a type of tree called krummholz. It's not a species or anything, though I imagine they're all coniferous and I'm sure a few are junipers. It a tree that is heavily deformed due to the extremely strong and cold winds at high altitudes. 

Same source:

Edited July 11, 2020 by spectre6000