Making a Workbench: Cutting the Legs

HI!

I started with a 2 x 12 CVG Douglas Fir board. CVG simply means no knots or imperfections. I calculated the maximum width of four boards that I could get from a 11-1/4" wide board assuming a 1/8" saw kerf.

I tried to cross cut the board at 32-5/8" with my radial arm saw, but the board splintered on one side, so I used my Japanese draw cut saw to make the crosscut. The cuts turned out nice.

I then ripped the 11-1/4" board to 4 each 6.9 cm widths (that requires 3 rip cuts). I find it a lot easier to do the math if I use metric measurements. When I rip cut the last board, the trim was less than the width of the saw blade ..... whew!, cut that one close.










The unfinished legs look really good. I need to mark the top of each piece with the position it will be in after laminating. Marking is important because the joinery gets cut before assembly and there's no room for error. The marking schema will be "T" for top, "1" for leg number 1, "I" or "O" for inside or outside. So T-1-I would be the inside piece of the leg on the left front corner of the workbench. In addition, I'll add an arrow pointing to the mating faces of the leg. Legs are numbered from front left, clockwise to leg 4 at the front right corner.

Next step is to calculate the length of the upper and lower stretchers, including the length of the tenons on each end and then mark and cut the mortise and tenon joints that attach the stretchers to the legs and join the undercarriage to the underside of the top.

CHEERS!

Phil