Woodworking Workbench - Benchtop Lumber Prep

As soon as I started this process, I realize that it’s tough to build a workbench without a workbench! Where do I put my work pieces to measure, cut, saw, plane and assemble? I was lucky to have access to a pair of sawhorses. You’ll likely see them in most of the pictures until the workbench is close to completion.

I won’t claim to be a purist and only use hand tools. I enjoy both ways of working and so this workbench building journey start with measuring the 2x4s and cutting them down to size on the mitre saw. Next I ran them through the table saw to square off the factory rounded edges.

I’m trying to build a habit of sharpening my tools before using them, unless I’m 100% certain that they are good to go. Having set a 30deg micro bevel on both plane irons, I went to work removing factory marks and smoothing the wide sides of the board. This will help with even glue spread and surface adhesion. The garage typically stays under 10deg C at this time of the year, but after a few goes at the lumber, I was down to a T-shirt - Great full body workout!

The challenging albeit frustrating part of this process was trying to remove any major twists in the boards. I used my table saw top as a reference surface to take down the high spots. This was a annoying process for a newbie. Sometimes it felt like I had gone too far and other times I wouldn’t make any progress at all.

Was it a little brave or foolish of me to pick a big heavy project to hone my skills on? I keep telling myself that this is a shop project and no one will see the imperfections.

Sized and squared off 2x4s ready for planning.

Large bevel-up jack plane ready for service.

Arranging the pieces to find the best combination of bow, twist and warps so that they all cancel each other out and give me a beautiful benchtop.

Never did I expect to do this much planning and generate a full yard waste (compost) bag worth of shaving.