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Workbench frame.
The first is to check that our circular saw guide is still at 90 degrees. If needed we remove one screw and then we adjust the guide again.
We measure the length of the legs.
And with the circular saw and the jig we cut the legs to the wished length.
If our disc is not big enough we cut and then we turn the leg and we finish the cut.
If both cuts are not flush we can use a planer to smooth it.
We make sure all four legs are right the same length.
We adjust the depth of cut to be bigger than half the thick of our plank. And we adjust the guide to cut the pieces to the the wide we want.
We cut our planks to make the side pieces. Because the disc won´t cut all the thick of the plank, we can cut it on the table. We cut on one side, we turn the the plank and then we cut the other half.
We mark half the thick of the side pieces and we adjust the depth of cut of our circular saw to that mark.
We make some cuts in the head of a couple of the side pieces to see if the depth of cut is right.
I looks like it cuts too much. I need to make some adjustment.
After some adjustments finally it cuts to the right depth.
We mark the position of the mortises we need to cut in the legs to put the sides.
That line is inside the mortise we want to cut.
That line is outside the mortise.
That other line is outside the mortise, too.
We have to make two identical mortises in two faces of the legs, one at 90º with the other. All four legs are the same.
We put the edge of our saw guide right by the line, not on it, and we cut.
Now we need to leave the teeth width of our saw disk between the line and the edge of the guide. Or we can cut it from the other side, with the guide right on the line. And we cut.
We make sure that the mortise is the same wide of the frame sides.
When we use the jig we don´t cut to the wished depth, so we need to go over it without the jig.
And we make some parallel cuts between them.
We use a chisel and a hammer to remove the slices of wood.
We clean the bottom by hand, with a chisel and a file.
We use the same method to cut the other mortise, witch is at 90º with the first one.
Notice that I leave the width of the disk teeth between the line and the edge of the guide.
Now we put the jig right on the line (remember that this line is not inside the mortise) and we clean the mortise.
We cut the short crossbeams to the wished width.
If we put some beams on the table we can cut easily on them.
We measure the long sides of the frame and we cut them.
We write a C (corto: short) on one end of each crossbeam and a L (long) on the other end. In the L side we cut a mortise as long as the width of the legs. In the C side the mortise is as long as the width of the leg minus the depth of the mortises.
We use the legs to mark the width of the mortises on the ends of the crossbeams. Notice that the lines are out of the mortise.
We put the guide on the line and we cut the mortises. The same we did with the legs.
It is a good idea to check that the sides and the legs fit. We may need to make some adjustment.
On the floor we put together the long sides and the legs. We put the C end of one crossbeam on one leg and we put the C end of the other crossbeam on the other leg. We do the same with the other side of the table. If we don´t do right the same the short sides won´t fit.
The top face of the crossbeam must be as straight as possible.
We put the crossbeams flush with the top of the legs and we use a square to make sure that the legs and the crossbeams are at a 90º angle.
We drill guide holes and we put a couple of screws.
We can widen the mortises with our circular saw if needed.
If the mortise in the head of the crossbeams are too long we can cut them or we can use a file to adjust it.
Now we clamp the other crossbeams, but not too tight.
If they don´t fit inside the mortises, we can use a planer to narrow the crossbeam.
We use the square to adjust the crossbeams and we tighten the clamps.
We drill two guide holes and we put a couple of screws.
We put some pieces of beam inside each corner. We leave the same distance to each side and we mark the miter line.
The line must be at 45º.
Before putting the corner reinforcement we will glue the legs and the crossbeams together.
I will apply polyurethane glue with a small brush. It expands and fills the gaps. Some polyurethane pours out of the joint, but it is easy to cut when it is dry.
When we put the sides back in the legs we must make sure that the screws go right in their guide holes in the legs.
The pieces we will put inside the corners are small. If we have a miter saw it is easy to cut them. If we don´t have a miter saw we can use a couple of screws, a piece of board and a couple of clamps to hold the piece and cut it with a circular saw.
We tilt our saw disk to a 45 degrees angle. It is better to make sure that we have the right angle.
We mark the lines where we want to cut.
We must make sure we will not cut on the clamps.
We wear the safety equipment before we plug in the electric machine.
We cut freehand. This will be a workbench for my shop, so I don´t mind if it is not absolutely perfect.
If the disc doesn´t cut all the thick, we can finish it with a hand saw.
We remove the screws and turn the work piece. Or we can cut from the other side.
If needed we can use a file to make them fit in place.
We clamp the pieces, we drill a couple of guide holes to each side and we screw them.
We remove the clamp and we screw the piece to the leg, too.
We put in place all the pieces to reinforce the frame corners, and there it is our structure. Thanks for watching!