Finally have a real workbench

I’ve used various surfaces in my shop for assembly, finishing, etc. Often my tablesaw. More recently an old Ikea desktop laid across a pair of saw horses. I had been collecting ideas for a workbench when the Oct. ‘15 FWW showed up at my house with a workbench on the front cover. Perfect! My dad was coming into town to visit for a week, so I decided that it was time to re-organize my shop and make room for a workbench.

I didn’t feel like I had time to glue up the top, I bought a 30×60 top from our ‘favorite’ woodworker’s shop. I reviewed the top a couple weeks ago. On hindsight, I would have been happier with making it. Anyway. My dad and I cleared out all the movable stuff and re-laidout my shop. We then spent a day running maple through the planer. After that, I was on my own.

I followed the FWW article fairly closely. Wasn’t happy with cutting mortises & tendons with a dado blade. Next time I’ll use a router. I had a couple of the small pegs that didn’t want to go all the way through the saddle joints. But that was my error. The big pegs holding the stretchers to the legs, while not glued, I’m going to say they are permanent.

I put a Wood River Enconomy Quick Release Front Vise (which seems to be working fine) on the bench with African Mahogany faces (some left over pieces that weren’t suitable for anything nice) added a maple board to the front to support the planned board jack and another to the back to make the top the width of the base. The top was pretty hard to handle by myself. But you do what you have to do.

I’ll probably finish the added maple to the bench top. The base will stay unfinished. After a summer of a lot of shop upgrades, this one is my favorite.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with myself. Made plenty of mistakes and learned alot while making the base. My GF has been suggesting that I do a dining room table next summer. Now I feel like it’s something I can do.

-- Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with a Hammer.