Woodworking Tool Rental?

[Soulshine2]

2x5s. My plan is to glue them face-to-face in effect giving me a 5" thick bench top. Do that 16 times and the final product should be about 4¾" thick and 24" deep. I'm going by the Jay Bates plans.

Just curious why you'd need a work bench top so thick . 1 1/2" inches is plenty.
If you're really looking to build a top that thick , build a torsion box assembly table.
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2007/05/15/build-a-torsion-box-assembly-table

 

[passedpawn]

If you're lucky to find a bowling alley being demo'd, you can make a fine workbench with 5 feet of one of the lanes. Much of a lane is maple (beginning and end of the lane). That's what you want. I've got a sweet bench made from this maple, with large poplar legs and a phat record vice on the front. I added Veritas popup dogs in the middle to hold work agains the vice.

I've trashed it pretty good over the years - it used to look like fine furniture.

 

[Soulshine2]

I had to go find Jay Bates' videos to know who and what you're talking about. I actually built a work table similar to that one , I built my own "in table" vice with bench dogs as well. My table wasnt as thick as that , mostly a torsion frame as I suggested with a replaceable top made of 1/4 inch MDF and a tool pocket on the long side. The vice frame ,runners ,and bench dogs was made totally of red oak . I engineered my own screw vice mechanism just using a pipe T fitting ,a few large nuts with an oversized washer welded to it and drilled holes in that to mount the trolley part of the vice. It worked great. My biggest regret is when I got divorced I had to leave it there and my ex burned it up. Nice, huh?
The key is , when you're building that , make sure the floor you build it on is level . and install some heavy duty [drill an appropriate sized hole in the bottom of the legs and 3/8-1/2" carriage bolts (they have the square part by the head to put a wrench on)and t-nuts work great. ] leg levelers so when you move it to its actual working place, you can re-level it .

 

[MaxStout]

If you're going to face-glue 5" wide boards, then you will need to plane the face sides of the boards, prior to gluing. Don't bother jointing the edges until after you make the glue-up, as you will then need to plane the tabletop. No matter how diligent you are in gluing up the pieces, it will come out a little uneven.

I built a woodworker's bench using 2-1/2" wide 4/4 maple, face-glued like you are doing. Gluing 25+ boards all at once would've been unwieldy, so I did them in groups of 6-8, then glued those pieces together to make the full benchtop. I was able to get it fairly even, so only needed to plane off about 1/16" from the top. I didn't bother to plane the bottom side, as that's not visible anyway.

 

[Soulshine2]

If you're going to face-glue 5" wide boards, then you will need to plan the face sides of the boards, prior to gluing. Don't bother jointing the edges until after you make the glue-up, as you will then need to plane the tabletop. Now matter how diligent you are in gluing up the pieces, it will come out a little uneven.

I built a woodworker's bench using 2-1/2" wide 4/4 maple, face-glued like you are doing. Gluing 25+ boards all at once would've been unwieldy, so I did them in groups of 6-8, then glued those pieces together to make the full benchtop. I was able to get it fairly even, so only needed to plane off about 1/16" from the top. I didn't bother to plane the bottom side, as that's not visible anyway.

View attachment 616089

nice cabinet, nice work

 

[dfess1]

Just food for thought, in my shop stuff gets spilled/nicked/dinged, etc. I made my top out of laminated MDF with a health coating of urethane. I built the substructure so I could easily replace the top of I needed. Benefit is it was dead nuts flat to begin with. Drilled dog holes and installed a vice. The urethane made for easy cleanups, and dripped glue peels right off. It is more of an "assembly" table, not a "woodworkers" bench. But my back benches are made the same way.

 

[lump42]

I can find handheld planers all day but that's not exactly what I think I need.

Hand joiner planes and jack planes would do the trick. They'd take longer, but if your buying quality planes they'll still be more expensive than talking with a local cabinet or furniture shop.

 

[CKuhns]

Look for a "Tool Library" in your area, with a small annual fee it works just like a book library. They not only lend tools (No rental) usually for up to 7 days at a time but allow you to use their workspace and most often have someone around with enough knowledge to help either with ideas or suggestions. My sons and I use this one in MN and for me a good option for those one off project vs. renting or purchasing. Things like a planer or tile saw are what i have used them for.

https://www.mntoollibrary.org/

 

[BroomVikin]

I love the idea but it seems like the only one in my area is for schools and organizations to borrow from.

 

[MaxStout]

Any nearby woodworking clubs you could check into, maybe join? Perhaps someone has a shop they'd let you bring in the workpiece to plane.