Building a project with wood. Plan review requested

[Freija]

Finally getting things underway. I unbolted my grinder from this old bench and took it inside. I made this bench in 1988.



Hubby at the time and I were sponsored motorcycle racers and we got two brand new unboxed Suzuki GSX-R 750’s motorcycles to turn into race bikes. The metal frame base of this bench was from one of those boxes.

I moved it into my working space near the back Arcadia door. Notice the solvent tank and that big green machine next to it which is an automatic dishwasher for transmissions. You wouldn’t believe the heat and steam that comes out of that thing when it is running. I had this old super long piece of plywood I laid on top of the bench to have more room to work.



Because my project is mostly going to be cutting 8 ft boards, I decided I needed a cross-cut sled for better support and accuracy. I got started by cutting a 1 x 1 into smaller pieces and massaged them to fit the miter slots on my little table saw which took some sanding and planing. When satisfied with the results, I attached them to the bottom of the sled with glue and some countersunk screws.





By this time, even with a long ass piece of plywood for a working surface, things were getting kind of cluttered and out of hand.

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So I found my box of pegboard hooks and tidied things up a bit. It helped.



I cut two pieces of ¾” plywood and glued them together. I also sunk in some screws to make sure things were tight. Then I ran it through my saw again for a nice straight edge but it still took some sanding and planing to get everything perfect



Clamp-o-rama!



I got the front piece permanently attached to the sled then set the glued pieces in place with a screw at each end. What I will do tomorrow to finish is dial in to make it accurate and perfectly square. There is a 5-cut method and a 3-cut method to do this. You cut a piece of wood on all sides checking to make sure the cuts are square and move the glued together pieces as needed then permanently secure it.



Once my sled is done and perfect, I’ll start cutting the 2 x 6 and 2 x 4 lumber to size. Then I’ll do a lot of sanding!