Wesley’s Workbench

Keeping up with Wesley’s projects can be a full time job :0). So far this week he has dovetailed a box for his chisels, built a workbench and tried to make a mallet. last week he tried to make a lathe. Keeping scraps in front of him is going to be a challenge…

I reminded him how to mark things out and he did the rest. Cutting a groove in the sides didn’t quite work out on this project, maybe next time. Instead he nailed a bottom on after I’d taken this picture.

Last weekend he wanted a lathe so bad he built one. He managed to turn a piece of wood long enough to cut a little v-shaped groove in it. this week he has moved on to bigger things.

It’s always the same opening, “Hey Mom! Can I?????” This time the request was something quite reasonable, could I glue together all of the scrap 2×4’s in the silo to make a workbench? This was after we had a conversation about whether or not he could use the wood from the milling room I was dismantling in the corner of the shop. He didn’t like it when I told him he was second in line ;0).

All I helped him with on this project was applying glue and giving directions on set tip up to glue. He carried and arranged, got annoyed when I told him the clamps needed to be set under the wood before we could start, rearranged his pile for the 3rd time on the saw horses and I helped him glue and clamp his bench top. I think it about killed him to wait overnight to get started on the rest.

One end was pretty straight after glue up, the other he cut off square. There were quite a few 45 degree cuts in the scraps he used, I just slopped them with glue and tried to push them together. I hope it stays solid with so many joints right in the middle. If not, he’s learned quite a bit by figuring everything out himself.

By the time we went in for the night, he had added a shelf, mounted a vice, added wooden jaws to the vice and drilled holes to keep pencils and other things in the top of the bench. I had to push it back into the shop to close the door. I wonder how long it’s going to take that OSB to sag without support on the long sides….I’m sure he’ll figure it out when it does :0)

Don’t forget to hit the follow button, or like my page on Facebook “Girl with a Hand Plane” for more projects and tips!