Ever since 3 years ago when I got a bigger shop, I've wanted a bigger work table.  My old one was just a bit too small to hold the linen cabinets, dressers, bookcases, and bunk beds that I've made over the last 5 years.  I have a nice Tage Frid design Euro-workbench that I made when I was first getting serious in woodworking.   It's fine, but too small for much assembly work.

 

My objectives were:

1. 4x8 top, or close to it to hold the tall and wide projects that seem to be coming my way.

2. Storage underneath for frequently used tools and hardware.  Since I decided to fully retire this spring, I have lots of specialty hardware that I used to take onsite that can now reside in the shop, but I need a place for it.  I managed to win a bid for the wine display when a local Sam's Club closed and I got about 25 wine box displays made from 1/2" baltic birch.  They will make fine drawers.   In addition for my $8, I got about $20 worth of Roberson screws, a bunch of 2x4 shorts, about 10 pieces of 3/8" plywood, and some metal racks (that I gave to a friend who runs a feed mill).

3. A place for my Emmert patternmaker's vise that I've never had a place for.  It's a heavy guy about 75 lb. Rotates around, swivels out, and holds tapered pieces.

4. Able to disassemble with minimal work in case I need to move it in the future.

5. Some place where I can do glue up, assembly, routing, sanding and whatever on parts.

 

Here's some of the wine boxes, a few of which I've cut hand-holds in.   The rest will get it later.   I have a jig, use a plunge router with a bushing and mortising bit.

 

The start was to head to Menards and buy some #1 Southern Yellow Pine (SYP) 2x8 joist material.    This tends to be straighter and less knotty.  I look for stuff that's near the center of the tree.   Then I rip in in half and get some nice quarter- and rift-sawn wood.  This is much better than the picked over 2x4 that are junky.  SYP dries fairly fast.   I used part of the lot to make some door frames for my shed, then other projects jumped the line, so it's been sitting for a couple of months.  Once ripped, I ran all 4 sides through the planer to get smooth and clean surfaces.  No one will know that it's 1 7/16 thick and not 1 1/2"

 

Two layers of 3/4" BCX plywood for the top
 

 

A story stick to double check my math, joinery, and layout for all the cuts, and a few more trial cuts from cut-off material.

 

 

I thought about how to make the whole thing sturdy, yet disassemble with ease.   While driving across the state, my mind came up with this approach to support all the drawers.  Here's the prototype joint for the drawer runners into the vertical supports

 

That works and gave my dado head a real workout.

 

Stock for drawer runners and vertical supports.

 

Until next time, working on rabbeting the drawer glides.

 

 

 

 

Good thing you're so tall with a table that big. But this will be fun to follow. Torsion box top?

Cool idea on the joinery!

 

5 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Good thing you're so tall with a table that big. But this will be fun to follow. Torsion box top?

Got the rabbets for drawer glides cut this afternoon and all (20) them and 5 top supports fit in the posts this afternoon.  Next step is to do the left to right spacing for the drawers (two different widths) and make the end posts

 

 I thought about doing a torsion box but decided that 1 1/2" of plywood would do for me.   I'm still trying to decide what I have that is 4x8 and close to dead flat.   Yeah, I can almost reach all the way across a 48" span.   37" shirt sleeves plus leaning over.

It's going to be a hair over 37" tall, same height as my Tage Frid bench and level with my palms held horizontally or "thumb height."  

When I made the Frid bench, I did the same calculation and added something like 2 1/2" to the legs.   Of course, the last step was to put the bench top on the leg frame and whoa! it was way too high.   Error in the plans from FWW.   Fortunately I could get the right height by sawing off the legs at the base of the frame and re-cutting all those tenons.

 

Afternoon's progress: 

Edited September 4, 20196 yr by kmealy

Some nice looking joinery!  Going to be interesting to follow the build.  When I win the lottery one day I plan on a 10,000 ft shop. 

 

So I can finally have a 4x8 assembly table.  

T minus 10.

Got the end supports built and top and bottom rails laid out and attached today.   Lots of mental geometry with two different width boxes and two different lengths of each.  A few small thing to do like add shelf/drawer glides to the end panels.  That's why the right hand drawers look askew.   Then on to the top and get the vise attached.   The top row of boxes (drawers) will need to be cut down an inch and the rest of the hand-holds cut out.  But it went together, got squared up, and all the drawers fit without slop or binding (!)  Trying to align 20 dado to dado joints in two dimensions each took some time, even with the help of gravity.    Building something this big on my undersized table reminded me of why I wanted a larger table.

Love It!

This is not supposed to be mobile right?  Because I can tell you from experience once you fill it up that thing will require a truck to move.

 

Makes for one heckofa lot of drawers. Looking good.

1 hour ago, Woodbutcherbynight said:

This is not supposed to be mobile right?  Because I can tell you from experience once you fill it up that thing will require a truck to move.

 

It will not be on casters. 

 

Objective #4. Able to disassemble with minimal work in case I need to move it in the future.

The top's not on yet, but so far, it will take 8 carriage bolts to disassemble.   The end and side frames separate and everything else is cross lap joints that slip apart.

2 minutes ago, kmealy said:

Objective #4. Able to disassemble with minimal work in case I need to move it in the future.

I saw that, and even still you will have some time taking it apart. 

 

Lord knows I NEVER want have to relocate this thing.

 

I love this contraption.  Are you going to use a toe stop or overhang the table enough to not worry about a toe stop?  

Is that where it will stay...on top of the latticework mat? Just curious.

Edited September 6, 20196 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr

Wow Keith, that is a great looking project so far.  And congrats on the retirement thing.

10 hours ago, Woodbutcherbynight said:

I saw that, and even still you will have some time taking it apart. 

 

Lord knows I NEVER want have to relocate this thing.

 

WoodButcher, Then why does it have wheels?

Nice sturdy design and portability to boot.  Liking it real well.

12 hours ago, Michael Thuman said:

WoodButcher, Then why does it have wheels?

That is how I maneuver it slightly sideways when cutting longer wood.  The French doors open up and give me enough room to slid 8 feet both ways.  Once filled with the tools, plus the weight of 2 saws it proved to be quite heavy.  Taking it out of the shop, more than 5 people. 

On 9/6/2019 at 6:39 AM, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Is that where it will stay...on top of the latticework mat? Just curious.

No, a friend just gave me the lattice mat last month.  I got the piece roughly in position today and I think if i can slide the mat over about 4" it will still fit.   Otherwise, I'll have to go back to my old mats (closed cell foam)

It is replacing the old temporary work table just behind it in the pictures.

 

Speaking of which, is this called a "cross lap joint?"    It's just something I thought up.

 

If you want to call it a cross lap joint, then that's what it is. This is woodworking, after all.

Should have mentioned....a cross lap is what I call that joint as well.