Workbench №3

The floor is still progressing. In my spare time I've knocked up a Jewellery workbench for Julia. The bench is constructed using bits of oak I had lying around so the only things I've actually had to buy is the plywood top at €14 and some varnish at €9, which to be fair I thought was a bit steep! Anyway the legs and rails come from off-cuts of beam. This I fashioned into usable timber with judicious use of my trusty chainsaw followed by the band saw and planer/thicknesser. All the other bits are offcuts of reclaimed wood from various sources. The most interesting of which is the back rail which has a really lovely grain that has blackened with age. It looks a bit like oak but definitely isn't (doesn't have that oaky smell), my best guess would be chestnut!
I have to say the bench may be tad over engineered but one thing is for sure, its not going to fall apart in a hurry!

I've wrapped the plywood top with a strip of wood to cover the end grain. This I steamed to make pliable so I could bend it into shape enough to glue and clamp.

I love that back rail, the grain is fab!

And here it is fully loaded and ready to earn it's keep.

As the title above suggests this is the third (and I may say the best) jewellery bench I've made. The first I made when I was a technician engineer at GEC in Coventry. In those days GEC was like a small town in its own right. It had carpentry shops, electricians, tool rooms, canteens, bank, photographic studio, garage, ballroom! the lot. The carpenters cut all the wood I needed to size and loaded it all onto a trolley for me to take away, all for free. In its day it was a proper little community, but then that was in the days of cost+ contracts for British Telecom before privatisation! All (mostly) gone now of course - sad really.

P.S. The skin under the bench is to save you grubbing round on the floor when you drop something, it also catches any bits of precious metal filings so they can be re-cycled.