Work Bench Upgrade

[rmhinden]

I built a workbench out of maple some years ago.  Basically 30" x 60", 1 5/8" thick top, on a frame.  I had the wood milled to size and put it together in my apartment without any power tools.  You really need a bench to make a bench     Overall it worked out very well over the years.  Some pictures below.

I am in the process of upgrading it.  Just ordered a 24" Twin Turbo Vice from Andrew Klein.  Been following this for a while and seem pretty cool.  With some modifications to the bench top, this will fit on the end of the bench.  I plan to add some bench dogs to the vice and top.

Before I add the vice, I want to level the top.  It's little off in places, but not consistently.  I have thought of several approaches on how to do this and wanted your feedback.  I was thinking of:

1) Level it by hand using hand planes.  This probably requires the most skill and physical work, but will result in the least about of wood removed.

2) Build a router sled jig and use a router.  I have a pair of long straight rails (TrackTubes) that can be used for this, need to make the sled, get a flattening bit, etc. 

3) Use my TS75 and rip it apart at the glue joints, bring it to the jointer/planner to join edges and flatten each section, then use dominos and glue it back together.  The will probably result in the biggest loss of wood thickness.

I would appreciate your feed back on these possibilities, or something I didn't think of.

Bob

[attachimg=1][attachimg=2]

 

[RJNeal]

Option 1 or 2, would be how I handled it. And since I’m not THAT good with hand planes..... 
I have flatten things with planes and belt sanded before but I would probably go with the router sled not knowing which way the grain direction is.

 

[mwolczko]

1. Electric plane?  (Triton makes a wide electric plane)
2. Take it to a shop with a wide drum sander.

 

[ear3]

Even if you rip and re-glue, its possibility that there could be a fresh round of cupping.  So if you don't feel like getting a big no. 8 plane, my vote would be router sled.  Wood Whisperer did a good video of the process a while back:

=3s

 

[serge0n]

I had a similar task, but the table surface was a bit smaller - 28x45. Veritas #5 jack plane made it easy to level the entire table. It was my first time doing it using a plane, so even with zero plane skills it was a breeze. Yes, it's physically taxing, but in a good way. It was a process that I enjoyed a lot. Much more satisfying than using a router sled.

 

[waho6o9]

Always fun to use the planes

View attachment 1

 

[RussellS]

#7 plane and maybe a #4 or #5 plane.  Use the smaller planes to take out the big hills.  Then the long plane to flatten and smooth everything.  It really isn't that hard.  Planes kind of guide themselves and do the work.  You just push them and use a little brain power.  Like I should not push only in this one spot, I need to move the plane around to the entire top.  The thinking involved is not too complicated.  If you can tie your shoes in the morning and use the toilet without hitting the floor and walls, you got enough brain power to manage a plane.

 

[rmhinden]

Thanks everyone for the feedback and suggestions, I will plane it by hand.  I have a #6 (and some smaller ones) that I think will do the job. 

I will spend some time getting blades as sharp as I can before starting.

Bob

 

[capww8]

#7 plane and maybe a #4 or #5 plane.  Use the smaller planes to take out the big hills.  Then the long plane to flatten and smooth everything.  It really isn't that hard.  Planes kind of guide themselves and do the work.  You just push them and use a little brain power.  Like I should not push only in this one spot, I need to move the plane around to the entire top.  The thinking involved is not too complicated.  If you can tie your shoes in the morning and use the toilet without hitting the floor and walls, you got enough brain power to manage a plane.

Not sure of my qualifications.

Do you mean without the toilet paper hitting the wall, or without the poo hitting the wall? Keeping the paper off the wall when dispensing can be tricky, depending on the roll orientation.

As for shoes, I CAN tie, but tend to wear slips or flip flops these days...

I can walk and chew gum at the same time, does that help?

 

[demographic]

I've planed a workbench top and a 1000x500mm oak table top by hand.
Cambered blade going diagonally one way then the other. Use winding sticks to keep it in wind then finished off with a smoothing plane and cabinet scraper for the dodgy grain sections.
Honestly, it just didn't take that long, was quite pleasant work and I didn't have to listen to the high pitched whine of a router while I did it or put a mask on to protect me from the dust.

I've got routers but to me this is plane work, its what they do.