Workbench Build — 2019, Part 2

Starting The Top

I surfaced the beams enough to get a good look at the grain and quality of the wood.

Once I surfaced the beams to a rough state I went through them and selected the best ones for the top. I was hoping there would be four good ones and there were. Lucky!

Here are the four I chose for the top. There was one more that was good and I’ll use that one for the leg with the leg vise.

I needed to resaw some of the beams to remove some damage and some knots. I made a kerfing plate for my Veritas Combo plane from an old rip saw. This cuts a kerf where I want to rip the board. It helps guide the saw blade and is much easier to see and follow.

My bandsaw did a great job.

Some of the slices I got are thin and quarter-sawn like this. That will make a guitar ukulele some day.

Cleaning up the cuts show the quality of this wood.

Here is the rough size of the top. It will end up narrower after I joint them.

Here are the beams for the top laid out how they will be jointed together. The corner facing the camera will get the leg vise and will be my main working area.

Seeing the beams like this is very exciting and I’m motivated to keep going. This is going to be a fun build.

-Eric