Olie

Even though I’ll have to remove these when I apply finish I couldn’t resist putting the pulls on to see how it looks. They look good but not super crazy about them and can always change them out. These are the pulls I have on my miter station and ruobo and when I bought them I got a bunch of extras just in case they got discontinued and I wanted some matching ones for other shop furniture. I just happened to have 8 extra on hand.

Yes, in the world of super expensive $500 tail vises, this just over $100 one almost felt like going cheap, but it’s all I need and should work fine!

Was out of town for a few days but got home last night and tonight I finished up my first solo install of inset drawers. Sure was a tedious process and lots of tweaking along the way. One thing I learned is that I shouldn’t precut all drawers to size before install and at a minimum I should leave the last drawer on top a little wide to cut to size at the end. The gap on top of the first drawer may be just a tiny bit bigger than the rest after I got to the top, but I got lucky and it’s still pretty good and I’m sure no one would ever know but me. Next I think I’ll tackle the vises and they are both on order. As a tail vise I’m going with a Veritas inset vise which is reasonably priced at $109 and on the front will be a benchcrafted leg vise with the classic handle. Benchcrafted stated that all classic handles have now changed to a black oxide finish so will be a little shinier than the picture. I think this will be a good challenge for me, especially the routing of the mortise, etc.

I got all the drawers cut to size last night. I probably should have installed one row and then cut the next level in case I have any movement while installing, but I’ll just have to be careful attaching to drawer box. I still need to sand the drawer fronts and drill for the pulls. After I get these drawers done then it’s on to vises. I’ll be ordering a veritas inset vise for the tail vise and a benchcrafted classic leg vise for the front. You can see the stock I bought for the my chop in one of the pics.

I was just sitting on this bench waiting for a food pickup when I clicked on your post. Your bench is much nicer! Will be cool to see your build.

Tonight I had a bit of time so I roughed to length the drawer fronts I’ve had milled up for a while and fined tuned the bottom two drawers to size. The Harvey miter gauge with the micro adjust was super helpful to go back and forth to make a cut, check fit, micro adjust and cut and repeat. I used playing cards to determine how big of a gap and what I liked was 7 cards. I checked with my digital calipers and it measured to be a hair over 1/16”. I took 14 cards and pushed the drawer front all the way to one side and kept making micro cuts until 14 cards fit. That way the gap is 7 cards on each side. What do you think about the size of the gap accounting for wood movement, etc? Too small and make the gap bigger or leave it be? In Montana we are in more of the wetter months so as we move into dryer months it will shrink and not expand so it seems good. This is my first cabinet I’ve built on my own with inset drawers so I’m slow and probably being pretty meticulous, but this bench has come this far and I want it to turn out the best that it can.

Pretty much the coolest urn I’ve seen. Love the figured maple the way you did it. Maybe some day I’ll be able to do something like this!

Very cool project. I don’t know anything about installing glass. Is it glued in the rabbet with a glass adhesive?

Over two evenings I got both banks of drawers installed. It was a tedious process down on the floor installing and a little more difficult than having the cabinet up on a workbench without the back panel in place like how me and Kev installed the drawers on my ruobo. It was in the upper 90’s the two days I installed these and I was dripping sweat! The results seem good which is the important part. I have a question for the group. I joined the drawers with just screws that are exposed and visible. I figured it’s a work bench but since this bench is not a normal bench and made out of African mahogany and maple, do you think I should plug the screw holes with an accent wood so screws are not showing or just leave as is? At this point I’d have to take out one screw at a time and recess with a 3/8” bit.

Finally found some shop time and got all 8 drawers built. I thought about doing some nicer drawers but decided to just make it simple and built them out of 1/2” baltic birch with an 1/4” panel for the bottom and joinery is just screws. Only the bottom drawer slides are installed. I planned for 1/4” gap between each drawer but if it’s cutting it too close I may have to trim the drawers a tiny bit. I’m pushing to get this bench done by the end of the month.

Nice! Sorry if I didn’t notice it previously, but what kind of joinery for the drawers? Screws and plugs? Or?

Interested to see how you like it. I bought a dowelmax a few months back and then had second thoughts and returned it before opening the box to save for a domino. I saw that Woodpeckers came out with a new dowel jig too that looks pretty interesting.

I know, I know, very slow progress on my outfeed table. I’ve been working super long hours at work including late nights and weekends so I had to take a hiatus from the bench. I managed to sneak in some time last night to cut some drawer box parts and snuck out into the garage today while my 3 year old twins were occupied watching a cartoon to assemble one box. Tonight I installed a pair of slides and trimmed a drawer front to fit in the opening. I still need to trim it up a bit to increase the gap a little to allow for seasonal movement, etc. I’d say the gap on each side is about 1/16” in the pic but was thinking maybe a 1/8” gap? For inset drawers, how big of a gap around the drawer front do you like? So far it’s looking good and this is my first time doing inset drawers on my own and I remember the process of doing it with Kev on my ruobo bench so I’m confident it will turn out good if I take my time. I had a big 18” wide board of African Mahogany left over from the drawer fronts on my ruobo so I had just enough to get all the face frame and drawer fronts from the same board which I think will look pretty cool.

@pkinneb Thanks. I’ve seen those magport things and they look cool. I could see many uses for them. So you bought the benchtop planer as a backup up when needed or when you forgot a board or need to redo one, or you don’t use the planer on j/p combo anymore and just use the Oliver? I did get a price quote on a Hammer 16” jointer and the 16” J/P combo. There was only a $720 difference. I figured it may be best to just buy the combo and see if it works well. If for some reason separates are really desired later on then a separate planer could be purchased and the planer on the combo could just be used as a backup if needed. If I ever bought the combo I’d maybe sell the dewalt 735 so afterwards the ending cash outlay would be similar between the combo and just jointer like Kev has.

How do you like the Hammer j/p combo? I’ve thought about saving for the hammer 16” J/P combo but not sure how I’d like the combo or change over. The videos I’ve seen show it’s less than a minute change over though. It would save a lot of space and could be good for having the dust collection points at the same spot and the total cost would be less than 2 separates if I went with a jointer greater than 8”. I’ve used Kev’s 16” Hammer jointer but not the combo.