Solid table and good advice on how to build it
I built the 2x4 table, and came out very nice, I do have a few pointers:
I had never done half laps, the way Scott does and teaches how to do them makes a lot of sense and following the same steps will produce great half laps.
The amount of glue needed will not cost ~$5.00, you'll need at least half a gallon worth of glue, still, nothing even a novice woodworker should be surprised about.
I only own 6 clamps that could be used for the purpose of this project, so I skipped the cauls thinking I can simply plane the laminated sections straight, I was wrong, after ripping 2x8s into 2x4s, some of those studs release tension and bow on the thinner side (the side that needs to be caul clamped straight), I figured I could simply plane them back straight, I even tried the trick of using a planer as a jointer by temporarily hot gluing a flat board/surface to the laminated section, still, due to how thin (3/4") the straight board was, it didn't make a difference as it tended to mold to the bow anyways with the pressure the planer places on the board (my bad I should've used a buttload of shims to prevent this), so it was a struggle to make this work.
So consider this before attempting this laminated top, Scott does have other newer workbench videos/plans where minimal use of clamps are needed for the workbench where he uses an MDF board for the tabletop.
In the video Scott also laminates half the table top on his 16" planer, a heads up of the amount of weight would've been nice to account for help, I have a 13" planer, so I had to do three 10" sections instead of two like Scott did, and even those smaller sections were 43 lbs each, and somewhat cumbersome to maneuver, especially when all three were joined together.
At any rate, overall the full experience was good, much better than what I would've achieved w/out plans, the resulting workbench is great if only I struggled a bit with the bowed studs, I'm now the proud owner of a sturdy and stable workbench, I especially love the half lap unions that make it look clean and professional made.
Except for the casters, I followed Scott's advice on the hardware with the vise and heavy duty leveling feet (get these, you'll regret it if you don't), and placed my new workbench behind my tablesaw, it's really good to have a solid workbench I can go to town with my woodworking.
