what's up I'm Jonathan and welcome to maker tales where I'm sharing my maker journey
to help you go further in yours so don't forget to subscribe and hit that little
bell icon to never miss an opportunity to keep making in this video I want to
show you how I made this jewelry bench for Jenny
having never made one of these I know nothing about them so I've got done a
whole bunch of research to create a list of goals I want to achieve in the design
I want it to be cheap so under a hundred pounds or a hundred dollars plenty of
leg space a metal catch comfortable and sturdy to work on and what made it a
little bit more complicated was I wanted some built-in storage with these in mind
I used the same frame structure as the basic workbench video and they gave
myself the challenge of adding some French cleat storage drawers to the side
after a little more research I ended up on this design I would like to say now
that by no means does this design have everything a master jeweler needs but
it's a good start it's not the simplest but by far not the most complicated with
all that said let's get straight into it materials wise it's pretty simple some 2
by 4, 25 millimeter MDF to make a really solid tabletop that is easy to replace
it's 12 millimeter plywood with 20 millimeter pine for the cleat storage
drawers as for the metal couch some black canvas and a few grommets and
hooks when it comes to the size of a jewelers workbench it really is
different for each person but what I'm aiming for here is that the
working height is just under shoulder height to prevent slouching and posture
fatigue and also giving plenty of room for movement and shoulders in the curve
of a workbench all the dimensions of Jennys workbench will be in the maker
tales website link down in the description but to get an idea of the
size of the workbench its 87 centimeters high 115 centimeters wide and 75
centimeters deep now that all the wood is set and ready it's time to put it
together I'm going to be using a pocket hole for the screws as they are not long
enough essentially I'm going to be making a bit
hole so I can screw more of the screw into the
a bit of wood other things you may find useful as a speed square to be able to
keep the build as square as possible additionally when making any workbench
it's best that is done on a flat surface this means you can use the floor as a
guide for the tabletop which will help keep things square
now that basic frame is put together let's get this work bench top sorted I
don't know what this curve is called but there are many ways I've seen jewelers
add them to their workbench from some simple circles to much more complicated
ways I'm going to be using a guide that I've created as I know I need a flat bit
in the middle of the curve to make sure the benchmate can sit Center and
securely you can download and print this guide in the link below too if you need
it wider you can extend the middle part of the curve once you have the guide you
have two options you can stick the guide to the piece of wood and then cut it
straight there or you can add pencil to the line underneath the page to then
transfer it faintly onto the material you're going to cut I do it this way and
then go over it with a pencil to make it a thicker and more visible line or when
I'm cutting it now before cutting the curve out it's best to fix the tabletop
to the frame I'm going to simply screw it down with some slightly countersunk
screws this will enable me to fill in these countersinks with some wood filler
that can easily be chipped out if I need to replace the tabletop in the future
plus it leaves the workbench looking pretty and clean while still being very
securely screwed down to the frame the way that I put tabletops on a frame is I
start on one corner going down one edge and then 90 degrees on the other edge
then I go to the opposite corner and pull it tight to pull the entire
structure true meaning that you will remove any wobble that might be in the
frame once the table self is secured is time to cut along that curved line that
you set before I just went at it with a jig saw on some sandpaper and it came
out pretty nice as I said I'm filling these countersink holes with wood filler I
do this in two passes the first one is to try and fill in as much of the deep
part as possible and then the second pass I go just a little bit over to come
back to the chisel and then teeny-tiny bit of sanding to leave a
perfectly flat clean finish technically speaking at this point you have a
functional jewelry bench which can definitely be more than enough for some
but going that extra mile lets out these drawers and won't go into too much
detail on how exactly to make these as they're just half a box with some pieces
of wood neither side the key point here is the French cleat system things that
improves the flexibility in the future if designs change on top of that the
number one tip I would say with French cleats and using them as drawers is get
the drawer mechanism really smoothly sanded so it's a smooth operation I
decided to only add three drawers as I wanted to leave plenty of space for
larger items under if you're going to be adding drawers to your own workbench
make sure to keep things square and always use pilot holes as you will split
the wood if you don't especially when working with such thin material and even
more so with plywood
as for the finishing touches I had no idea how to make the metal catch after
quite a bit of looking around I saw a very blurry photo with this shape as a
pattern for making one with no guide I got to work cutting out the canvas
by eye. lucky for you if you also like this style of catch I've added this into
the link below as well once cut is a case of simply adding a hem grommeting the
corners screwing some hooks underneath the workbench and voila a fully
functional jewelry workbench I have to say I'm really happy with the outcome it
is super sturdy and can take a real beating if you have any questions please
leave them down in the comments below thanks for watching keep making and
Let the quest continue