Hey guys. How's it going today? I’m going to be showing you how I
made this workbench on the CNC machine. We did make a similar workbench in another video. You
can definitely check that out down in the description. It's right back here,
and that was using more traditional tools, but this one will all be made on the CNC.
Really excited to show this to you. There's a lot of work that went into the design process.
We do have the files available for on our website, so definitely check that out.
Without further ado let's get right into it. The first thing that I need to do is get my tools
set up. This is the first time that I’m going to be using a countersink on the CNC machine, so
I’m adjusting the depth of the 55202 countersink and then installing the collet and the collet nut
to get everything all pressed together. We'll get that inserted in and then use
the torque wrench to make sure that we have the right torque on there.
Now that that's all ready to go we got the other tools all set up and they are installed
in the Stepcraft Q-408 4x8 CNC machine. We'll move over our first sheet of plywood
onto the CNC bed and we'll zero off on each one setting the offsets.
This will be the only time that we zero off for the entire project since all of these
sheets of plywood are the same thickness. So with that ready to go we can pick up
the countersink bit and start on the first sheet. There are a ton of holes
to drill out through this entire project so I’m going to be using pec drilling here.
It goes down little by little, removing all of the material and allowing the chips
to fully evacuate. With so many holes to drill it's important to do it this way, that way we
ensure that there are no burning or anything like that as we're going through the entire project.
So we'll get that switched out for the 3/8 inch compression bit. This is the 46172-k
3/8-inch compression bit and it does a really nice job leaving
a clean top and bottom surface of the material. We'll start out by carving out all of the pockets
then we'll move to the inside profile cuts to remove the part of the workbench that will be
the holes in the front and back panels so this is going to leave a few tabs here just to hold
everything in place while it's doing its cutting. I also did lead ins and lead outs that way we are
ramping down into the material while also getting a clean cut where we're actually wanting the cut
to be. So we'll go through on the rest of the project and go at a full depth of cut just like we
were doing before at over 200 inches per minute. This bit is absolutely flying through here
and is definitely doing a really nice job. After that's all done we'll get everything vacuumed off,
cut through the tabs that we had, and then we can get the sheet pulled off of the CNC.
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forget to follow us on Instagram @ToolsToday. And then we can get it cleaned off and then we'll
get the next sheet put up. So the Rockler Material Mate that I’m using here to help with putting
everything on really helps out in getting things on the CNC, especially large sheets like this.
I’ll use the 60 degree Spectra coated v-bit to carve in all of the part numbers on all of
these pieces. This will help with the assembly process and making sure that everything is easy
to fully assemble. We'll drop that off
and pick back up the countersink and go back through this piece, adding all of the required
countersinks. There's like I said before, there's a ton of holes here, so being able to do all of
this on the CNC is definitely a huge time saver. We'll get it switched back out for the compression
bit. We'll drill out all the pockets again and then we'll move on to all of the profile cutting.
So this is going to be the bottom panel and as we're going around here you can see how
well that's evacuating the chips there. It's always really pretty cool to see
how that works. It's flying through this material and making the full depth of cut.
Really saves on time in the end and it definitely speeds up the entire process.
We'll get all of the rest of the parts cut out. You can see how much sawdust is left there,
and get that all vacuumed up, and we'll get the skeleton pulled off.
And you can see the clean top and bottom surface that's left from that compression bit.
This is sheet number three, and then we'll do sheet number four, and then there's also a little
smaller piece that I didn't catch on camera. So that is done. We can get the tabs all flush
trimmed. My vacuum table on the CNC isn't powerful enough to hold down some of the smaller pieces,
so adding the tabs is an easy way to ensure that they don't move while cutting.
We've got the 47116 three flute flush trim bit all set up here on the router table,
using the micro jig grip block to help with holding these pieces to keep my hands nice
and safe away from the router bit. It flush trims those tabs really easily and now those are ready
to go. I need to add a round over to a few of the pieces. We're just using a quarter inch
radius round over bit to ease over those edges and make them a little bit nicer to the touch.
We'll do that on both sides. The first smaller ones, uh these inside dividers,
we'll do on the router table since it's a little bit easier to control everything there, and then
the larger back and front panels we’ll actually do just on the workbench with a trim router.
With larger pieces like this it's easier to bring the tool to the work piece rather than
bringing the work piece to the tool, since it'd be a little bit unruly to handle on the router table.
So now we can begin the assembly process. I’ll start by assembling the side leg stretcher
pieces. This is going to consist of four pieces. I used some brad nails in the corners just to hold
it in place after lining it all up, so that way it doesn't move while screwing everything down.
The bottom piece in this stack doesn't have any screw hole locations so that will be what faces
out so you won't see any of these screws when it's fully assembled. You can see how
it fits into the leg mortise just like that. So we did the same thing for the other three
pieces, and now we can begin assembling the long stretcher support pieces.
So they'll just be stacks of two, and we'll have 12 of those in total
after those are screwed together. We can now begin working on the
mortise assembly by attaching the long stretcher pieces into the long stretcher mortises. It's
a real nice snug fit and everything fits really nice. It's important to pre-drill
all of these pieces before actually screwing in as the plywood will just split on you pretty
easily without doing any sort of pre-drilling. So we'll flip that over and install the other
piece and get it screwed together the same way we did on the other side.
So now we can begin assembling the rest of the long stretchers. We'll have the outside piece,
that's going to be the show piece that has no screw locations in it. Then we'll
sandwich that with two of the ten end pieces on the edges with the offset screws to make
sure that they don't run into each other. After that's done you can set the other piece
on top using brad nails to hold it in place, and then get it screwed down into place. We'll
then flip it over and do the other side the exact same way, ensuring that everything is
perfectly lined up before screwing anything down. So now you can see how that tenon will work on the
other mortises on the leg pieces. So now we can begin assembling the actual legs, again
pre-drilling and screwing with all of the pieces ensuring that everything is fully seated.
After that's all screwed together the leg stretcher piece, with the face that
we want on the outside will face up, and we'll get that installed into the mortise,
and get everything screwed down into place. You can use a extension bit to get pre-drilled
on all the holes that are a little bit harder to get to, and then we'll assemble the other side the
exact same way to create the leg assembly piece. Now that all that's screwed together we have this
one ready to go we'll do the same thing for the other side. And then we'll move back over our long
stretcher pieces to begin the full assembly. We'll take the leg assemblies and put them
into the long stretcher pieces and then do the same on the other side to make sure that we
have everything fully lined up and fully seated. We'll then get everything pre-drilled and screwed
into place again on the stretcher pieces to create the top and bottom, then we'll get
the rest of the leg assembled, pre-drilling and screwing to ensure that everything fits fully.
And on this back piece - there is no tin in there - that is for the very back of the workbench.
With that done we can get the bottom piece installed, and that tight fit is a really nice
sight to see. It means that everything is really accurate with the cutting of all these pieces.
So that's ready to go but unfortunately I made a pretty major mistake here. I made some sort
of mistake in the design process and didn't have the piece sized out correctly. This is
exactly where I realized that I made that mistake because that gap looks really short and it is.
So I planned to have a much larger area here to put a cabinet in there later but like I said,
I made a mistake way back in the design process, so we needed to recut some longer legs. So we'll
do that really quick. Move through the process using the v-bit, then we'll use the countersink
bit to drill all of those countersinks, and then we'll pick up the compression bit to do all of the
remaining cutting, and then that will cut out the legs that are the correct size this time.
And it's about a five to six inch difference between what I had
and what these are going to be. So we'll get that skeleton all pulled up and you can see that
difference there and we have all of them cut. So we'll begin the disassembly process to
take apart the parts that we just did so that we can put on the new leg pieces.
So we got that all pulled off. I reinstalled the other ones in the exact same way, and then we can
reinstall it with the correct size legs. So those go in there really nice. Still a nice tight fit;
and then we'll get everything screwed back down. Now that we have the correct size pieces there.
So this is all back basically to where we were, and we can assemble those sides
and the top and bottoms of the legs. Everything was still a really nice snap fit and
I’m really happy with how this turned out. The leg inside is hollow but it essentially acts like a
4x4 leg post. So we can install the casters while we're here. I’m just using this to make a little
bit of a template since I had 16 holes to drill and didn't want to deal with a caster wobbling
around. There's certainly other ways to do it, this is just the way that I prefer to do it.
We'll pre-drill and then get the caster all screwed down. I did the exact same thing for
the other three casters. I just used screws here with some washers to make up the space.
You could certainly use something like lag bolts that'll hold a little bit stronger,
but I’ve been doing this for a few years and I’ve never had any casters pull out.
After all of those are installed we can get it flipped over and then put down on the shop floor.
And this bench is now ready to begin the assembly on the top. So we'll use
the bottom of the top panel and install the dividers that will go in the middle of this.
This is a really nice tight fit here as you can see, using just a mallet to hammer everything in
place, and then there are screw holes on the top that we will use the countersink
bit. This is the 55227 no-mar countersink. I used the countersinks that we drilled around the
mortise locations where the legs will mount up, and then I just used the drill
locations to recreate a countersink on the bottom to secure all of those in place.
We'll get the top moved off and then clamp down in place while we put on the back panel.
This needs to go on before anything else as these bottom holes will not be accessible
once we install it into the workbench base. So there are 16 mortises here and all of them
had to line up exactly perfectly. There was no room for error here and I’m glad to say
that everything worked about as flawlessly as it could have. Everything fit great,
and it's really cool to see those coming through. So here we use those countersinks that we drilled
on the CNC machine, and screwed everything in place, and I used an extension bit here
on the back where it's really difficult to reach with the 1/8 inch bit to pre-drill
and then to screw all of those in as well. Now we can screw in from the back side since
that's all held in place and then we'll get these side panels all put together. So I didn't do any
of the screw holes on the top area as I needed to make sure that I had enough wiggle room there
if I needed to adjust anything for the top. We'll install the front panel; get that all
screwed down, and then install the top panel. And this is where I left all of those screw holes open
that we can fill in later once the top is fully installed.
So I made sure that everything was fully seated, just using a dead blow mallet,
and then everything fit perfectly. This is all an operation of making
sure that everything fit perfect. There is not a whole lot of room for error on the workbench
and I’m glad to say the design process - other than the leg mishap - didn't fail me at all.
Really happy with how this design has turned out. It was definitely
a challenge to do and seeing it all come together, it's definitely very satisfying.
So once everything is all fully installed, all the screw holes are filled, I’ll get the top all
blown off with some compressed air, and then use some Formica, and get that all blown off to ensure
that there is no dust between the two layers. I've got some contact cement here. We'll just
get it stirred up and then apply it onto the Formica surface.
Just using a roller to spread that around, and then once that is all ready to go we'll move
that off to the side so that it can fully dry. Then we'll do contact cement on the top of the
workbench surface as well, ensuring that everything is fully covered. We'll let
it fully dry to the touch and then use some PVC spacers here just to keep the
Formica raised off of the workbench surface. Then we'll remove those PVC spacers as we're
rolling along with the laminate roller. This is putting a ton of pressure down on this Formica
and that is how the contact cement fully bonds with the workbench surface and the Formica.
It's an extremely strong bond but putting down a ton of pressure with the laminate
roller definitely helps things out. And make sure that I go along all of the edges twice to
ensure everything is fully pressed down. With that, the Formica top is officially glued onto
the workbench, so we can get that rolled back over to the other area of the shop.
And then we'll use a flush trim bit here. This is the 47116 three flute flush trim bit to flush up
the Formica top. There are Formica bits, or bits that are meant for this, the no file bits, but we
showed that in another video, so we wanted to show a different way of doing that. So I’ll use a file.
I’m using it in the backwards direction here to give it less of a bite. This will allow
me to take more strokes to ease down to the depth that I want without taking off too much material.
Then we can get the rest of the workbench all flush trimmed down
and then do the file the exact same way. You can certainly file in the correct direction
but it definitely removes a bit more material, more material than I was comfortable with. So
then we'll sand over to ease over all the edges on the workbench with just some 220 grit sandpaper,
and I’ll use some General Finishes Armor Seal in satin to finish off the workbench.
Just brush on a single coat here and it's a really nice finish that really shows off the grain of
this wood. I love the contrast it's created with the box joints on the CNC. So it definitely looks
really nice and it’ll give a nice protection for the workbench. I just used a single coat here.
You could certainly use more but it is just shop furniture and this will give it some protection.
So after that is done we can move on to the top. One of the things that I love most about using
Formica as a workbench top is that nothing really sticks to it. So I can use some of this Odie
Safer Solvent. It's kind of like a replacement for acetone, just without the harsh chemicals,
and it will wash this top really well, and nothing really sticks to it. So it'll keep
it nice and clean for a very long time. Really enjoy the way that this workbench
looks. It definitely looks kind of like a piece of furniture, not just a workbench and that's
always kind of nice to have something that's a little bit inspiring like that.
So I really like the size of a two by eight workbench like this but sometimes there are
times where you want to work on a larger project so having a full four by eight is kind of nice.
So with this I want to be able to attach these easily. So I got some of these toggle latches and
the holes will use some quarter 20 bolts. They're kind of a hip check, so I wanted to be able to
have these removed, so use threaded inserts for that. These holes need to be very very accurate
so I used the template method again here and made sure that I got the holes in the exact
right location as I really only had one shot at this. Using a brad point drill bit that's the same
diameter as the holes I marked out the center location on those then I could remove the tape
and put that on the vertical surface of the workbench where it would be very difficult to hold
the clamp in place while getting four completely accurate holes so now I was able to transfer
over those hole locations using the brad point drill bit and we have our four hole locations
completely accurate and ready to go. So we can get those all drilled out after removing the
template. I’ll mix up some five-minute epoxy here to epoxy in the threaded inserts. It's always a
good idea to do that as it is possible for those to strip out over time especially with these where
they're going to be remove and installed more often. So we got all four of those done, and then
we let that set for about five minutes and then we can get the toggle latch installed with those
quarter 20 bolts after that's done I can install the other parts of the toggle latch again and then
this one only had two hole locations so it was easy to just hold that in place and then we can
drill out those two holes and install these same threaded inserts with epoxy like we did before. So
once those are installed we can now latch the workbench together and it's extremely strong
and holds really well to keep them firmly attached. So we can get that all adjusted to make sure that
it's pulling correctly and you can see how it pulls together on both sides so now we have a full
4x8 work surface for any of those larger projects. This tends to be a little bit more flexible
as sometimes there are longer projects that you're working on so I can actually take this bench apart
and be able to put those two benches next to each other and use the workbenches in that
manner. It's also sometimes a little bit more difficult to use a larger workbench
when you're working on other projects. You can see that these pull off really easily and can
store right in those little cubbies and then we can set them up to work on longer projects just
by clamping them together. Now we have a 16 foot work surface and the workbench is now ready to go.
So I’m really happy with the way these turned out. Definitely check out the plans on these, and let us
know if you have any questions or comments down in the comments below. Hope to catch you guys on
the next one. Have a great day everybody.
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