Aff Wood: I finally made some progress on the New Yankee Workshop workbench

Monday, February 10, 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.