Wednesday, January 22, 2014

I finally made some progress on the New Yankee Workshop workbench

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I started the workbench build back at the beginning of the year by cutting all the 2x4s down to length.  My wife bought me a dado stack for christmas so I was good to go on the workbench.  It turns out that the dado stck will not fit with the standard insert on my tablesaw.  I was kind of expecting that but I was unable to find any other inserts for my saw on the Skil site so I decided to make my own.  I have been putting if off in favor of other projects but I finally got it done and was able to start using my dado stack.  Correction, I was able to start using 1/2" of my new dado stack.  It turns out that the arbor on my saw will only safely hold 1/2".  Its better than using a sungle blade and I was excited to finally get to use it.  I got all the dados and rabbits for the base frame cut and plan on pre-drilling, screwing, and glueing the base together tomorrow.


I measured and marked all the pieces for their rabbits and dados.

I also marked the fronts of the boards so that I could see where to cut it on the tablesaw.

My homemade insert has a little bit of play in it so I creeped up on the proper cutting depth.

Testing the depth of the cut.

The dados and rabbits for the top of the base frame are done.


I made quite a bit of sawdust and wood chips.

I made a sacrificial fence from some scrap 2x4s.

This is the rabbit for the bottom tool tray.

I had one dado to cut in the long center piece.  My homemade insert was moving around on me a little so I duct taped it down where the clip would be on the normal insert.  The design of the saw is kind of funky and there is no easy way to make a clip for that section.  I am writing an article on the insert and will explain more there.

More shots of the cut pieces.


I read the directions incorrectly and made this rabbit 3/4" too long.  I cut a new piece of 2x4 and made remade this piece.  Twice.  I got in too much of a hurry and made the rabbit and dado on the same side.  Im glad that I bought an extra 2x4 for this project.

The dados for the dogs need to be cut at a 4 degree angle so I cut a scrap 2x4 at 4 degrees on the mitre saw to use for marking all the cuts.

I marked the cutoff in the center and used it for the width marks.

I used that same block to set the proper angle on the mitre gauge for my table saw.

The slots for the dogs are not perfect but turned out better than expected.

Here is the final dry fit!


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