I just completed a new workbench for my shop and I'm looking for suggestions on finishing it off and placement of dowel pin holes.

First let me tell you a little about the bench and what I intend to use it for.

The bench was constructed from some very hard and dense #2 Southern Pine. I cut down 2x6x10' lumber into 1½ x 2½ strips. I glued up 3 strips at a time and hand planed both sides. I then glued the section into 2 larger section and finally glued the 2 section together. I finish planed both sides of the table ending up with a 2 ¼ thick top. The pedestal legs were constructed from 3 pieces of 2x6 lumber, then cut down and planed to 4" square. The pedestal feet were constructed from 2x6 lumber and cut a planed to 4" thick by 5" high. The bench weights a ton which is one of the items I was looking for in the finished product. The table top finished out at 32" x 90".

I plan to use the table for planning and fit up furniture project that I intended to build. So I'm looking for suggestions on where to place the dowel pins holes in the top and how to finish the top so that the table can be replaned if needed. I was thinking of finishing the top with Linseed or Teak oil and several coats of wax.

Leeanne

I don't have any advise for you, but I just want to say the table is beautiful! Good job.

Thanks T2T. I actually went ahead and finished the table. I thought that I would have received a post or two from some of the older members here, but nothin....

I ended up placing the dowel pins holes at 6" OC around the edge of the table. Since I'm right handed and I'll be using my planes on the table, I placed 2 rows of dowel pins holes half way down the table from the left end, spaced 1' in from from the edge holes on each side and 6" OC.

I finished the table with 2 coats of Teak Oil. I decided not to wax the top, thinking that the wax could transfer to anything I had on the table and cause problems with finishing those parts.

Here's a couple of pictures of the finished table. The dowel holes are hard to see.

Hello, I'm new to the forum and going back a bit to get my feet wet here. Your bench is fantastic. I did not understand your lingo about dowel holes, and I still don't. Are you talking about the holes used to put in bench holdfasts? Holes to put stops in? It appears this late in time you have already figured out what to do. Grand job, and I look forward to my time here seeing projects like this

Hi Michelle and welcome to the forum.

The dowel holes are the holes drilled in the top of the workbench. I drilled a pattern of 1" holes so that I could place 1" hardwood dowels in various locations to lock my work in place. I think some people might refer to them a bench dogs. I guess you could call them bench holdfast also.

This project took quite a while to build. The entire bench is about 90% hand built. The only machine I used was my table saw to rough cut the lumber before gluing.

Thank you for your complement. I quit proud of this project.

Leeanne

It appears you & I are the only people on the forum..with 3,000 reg members one would think this forum would be a tad busier. Ah well, ... I understand your dowel holes vs. my lingo of dog holes. Here in US it's dog holes. It's hard sometimes to answer questions when people are from all over the world and have different terminology or folks are new to woodworking and make up stuff trying to get their question across. I hope to see lots of projects made on that great bench

I usually check the forum two or three times a week to see if there is any activity. Postings have been slower than what I've seen in the past. Usually there are several senior members that will post to the list, answering questions or offering advice, but I've haven't seen them posting lately. The current state of the economy might have something to do with the slow postings. It's a lot harder to come by the money to do a project.

I was laid off from work last February. Fortunately, I had a project list that I had started on a while back. I usually purchase my materials way in advance of working on a project, that way I have my materials sitting and waiting. Now that I'm out of work for a while I've had a chance to get some of my projects done a lot sooner than I intended. I have about 5 more project laid up and waiting.

One major project that I've been working on is my new shop. I recently had to rearrange everything so that I could put my dust collection system in. Now I'm in the process of putting everything back in place so that I can continue on the three project that have material cut for.

I will be posting pictures of these projects as I finish them. I'm hoping to see some of yours posted here too.

Leeanne