Workbench Build #2: Starting the glueup + the Sweetheart No. 62
Two points in this post:
1. Dealing with tricky glue-ups2. Obtaining a decent quality plane……finally!
I need to say – this is probably not the conventional approach to making a bench, by building the top first – but I don’t build off of plans – rather I build from the materials at hand – so the final product is not always known up front.
What I’m trying to say is – I will later build a base that fits the top. Definitely not the textbook approach – but I’m doing it anyways…. 
Part 1. The glue-up
First, I had an extra chunk of raw bowling lane and clamped in the front on the router table to create a sort of special clamping table – I shimmed it to create a nice flat surface to clamp to:
Because the Maple is bowling lane comes in various lengths it can cause problems keeping everything tight.
So I dry clamped the pieces together and marked arbitrary locations across the bottom faces of the mating pieces:
Set the fence on the drill press and marked the the centerline of the bit on the table and drilled half depth dowel holes:
Using 1/4” dowels the pieces fit together nicely for a glue-up that doesn’t slid around:
Over the last several days after work 
I’ve glued up a few lams using this approach, wood handscrew clamps to keep everything tight to the base and an assortment of other clamps to get the joints tights:
If you read part 1 – the Jatoba is not as straight and nice as the Maple so has added some challenges. Even though superdave won’t agree, I am planning on running the lams through the power planer before the final glue-up.
This brings us to….
Part 2 – The Sweetheart No. 62:
I have a variety of planes, mostly old unrestored models. I want to learn how to tune them up and use them properly, but have had limited sucess so far – but also I am a little guarded about altering the old planes until I am more confident in the methods…….
I received a tidy in-store credit check for Woodcraft a few days ago – and decided that I needed a “decent” plane to start with. Sort of a benchmark to set the performance of the older planes to follow I guess……
The new Sweetheart 62 is likely not the best plane that money can buy – but it is certainly the best performing plane I have ever handled…..WOW….what a difference. The first pass created long smooth shavings – and nearly without effort. I am starting to get it……
I test drove on one of the lams and can tell immediately that this is an essential tool…….
And Fernando……Everytime I want to just sit on the couch and watch TV, I can’t, becasue you are expecting me to keep posting on this backwards bench………..thanks for the motivation!!
Thanks for looking,
Jeff
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