Journals Projects Workshops Reviews

Work bench smack down

513647 Views 18429 Replies 422 Participants Last post by Admin, Jan 23, 2019

NANeanderthal

Discussion Starter · Nov 4, 2011 (Edited by Moderator)

After a comment on my bench about a bench off, I thought its a great idea. There all the threads about planes, braces, powertools of your dreams, etc. How about it on benches.
Pic of your bench or one you are going to buy or build and Why its best. The topic should provide some info for the woodworking getting ready to build or buy as well as give us a place to gloat.
Plus even though I'm not building another bench, I still love looking at others.

UPDATE
I haven't been on in a while but I just seen a pm when i got on today. It appears the tag "smackdown" is being added to the benches shown here, so you can click here and see em all.

Status: Not open for further replies.

1961 - 1980 of 18430 Posts

Boatman53

· #1,961 · Oct 22, 2012

The bench that I just finished is only a tiny bit over 5' long. I chose the leg vise for versatility and the fact that on a short bench a twin screw vise would be in the way when just standing and working at the bench. A Moxon vise could be made for those dovetailing jobs. Of the metal twin screw options out there I think the Lie-Nielsen one is the best made. If you choose the leg vise and are just joining us I've got a chain adjuster for the leg vise to eliminate the pin in the parallel beam, and I am now finally taking orders with payment be check or paypal.
Beech is of course a wonderful bench materiel. It is a long time since I've used any but I recollect it being very much like maple in workability.

WhoMe

· #1,962 · Oct 22, 2012

Boatman, thank you for your insight. When I start making my bench I have a feeling it will be a maximum of 6 ft but probably closer to 5 feet long due to space restrictions in my garage. Gotta share it with a car/ lawn tools and other stuff. I will try for the 6 ft length goal though as I figure a bench that is too long is better than one too short.

I never thought about how much space the twin screw vise takes up. I also read that with the leg vise there seems to be more depth capacity, like about double (or more) the space from the top of the bench to the top of the clamping screw.

I have been following this thread since about page 3 or so and have read from the beginning. I also went over to Scotts blog and studied his conversion to your chain drive. Hopefully, you will still be making those drives when I get to my bench. They sure look like they work really well.

Thanks on the Beech too. That is kind of what I figured regarding workability. Since it is a hard fine grained wood, and about 50-60% of the cost of Maple for me, it will most likely be my wood of choice.

See less See more

mochoa

· #1,963 · Oct 22, 2012

Scott Congrats at going at it with hand planes. It wasn't that bad was it? I thought it as fun, and a nice little workout.

Whome, Beech would make a great workbench, BrandonW's his made of beech check his out . European Beech cheaper than Red Oak hear in Georgia which I don't get.

As far as twin screws I second Jim's opinion. Twin screws come in great for dovetails but on a bench set at a low height for planing sawing on that thing would be tough on the back. I plan on making a bench top bench one day with a twin screw for joinery and carving.

mochoa

· #1,964 · Oct 22, 2012

Brandon's Beach Bench.
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/59460

Mosquito

· #1,965 · Oct 22, 2012

I too intend to have bench top bench for joinery once I get a bench going.

Speaking of bench… posted it on hand planes, but will repeat here…
I used a new "bench" this weekend to get some planing done…

See less See more

mochoa

· #1,966 · Oct 22, 2012

Mos, hahaha, that will work, looks stable and gets the edge your working up to a good hight. So that slab is the future workbench right?
Its going to be sweet. Do you have any plans drawn up yet?

Mosquito

· #1,967 · Oct 22, 2012

Yes indeed. Last night I [stayed up entirely too late and] drew up a design in SketchUp. I plan on adding a wider (vertical) board to the front so I have a taller front face. Then I think I'm going to use that piece of hard maple 2×4 (1.5×3.5) that I have in my closet still ($20, 8.5' long, couldn't say no) as the end caps and back piece for the tool well. Based on the design, I should have enough to do it, as long as I don't botch a cut too bad

mochoa

· #1,968 · Oct 22, 2012

There is a bench that your description reminds me of. Let me see if I can find it.

mochoa

· #1,969 · Oct 22, 2012

Check page 5. Thats a great PDF by the way. A lot of good stuff in there.
Splayed legs, Tool Well, Wide front apron.
http://woodtools.nov.ru/books/make_woodwork_tools/make_woodwork_tools.pdf

Mosquito

· #1,970 · Oct 22, 2012 (Edited by Moderator)

Yeah, that's pretty close… Except a thicker top piece, and I was going to put the wider board in front of the top instead of under it to give me a little more bench top width. I'd be at around 5.5" tall in the front, and then about 2.75" thick top, and 10.5" width. It'll be about 51" long all said and done (48" long top plus 2×1.5" boards on both ends)

The part I'm not 100% on yet is where to place the legs. I was thinking about putting the left legs 4.5" from the left, and the right legs 13.5" from the right, to have room for a wagon vise of sorts if I want, but I'm not sure if that's the route I'll go or not.

lysdexic

· #1,971 · Oct 22, 2012 (Edited by Moderator)

Chris, I am right there with you. Last night I took the wife and the family out to dinner for her birthday. About 10 PM i thought that I would play around with a raking light and a straight edge just to see if a could mark the high spots on the bench top.

Of course, I had to tune up the winding sticks to check for twist.

Well, I completely got caught up the process. I finally looked at the clock and it was 1 AM. I had completely flattened the top, re chamfered the edges, re countersunk the dog holes, chamfered the squared dog holes and tool holder with a chisel and rasp.

Mauricio, you are right. I was soaked with sweat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. (Now that doesn't sound right)

mochoa

· #1,972 · Oct 22, 2012

Schwarz has a blog somewhere on those proportions and where to place the legs. He had to do a lot of modifications to his Roubo design when he went to Germany because everyone had small shops.

Found it, here you go:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/workbenches/schwarz-workbenches/workbenches-balancing-the-base-and-top

AnthonyReed

· #1,973 · Oct 22, 2012

Excellent pdf, thank you Mauricio.

lysdexic

· #1,974 · Oct 22, 2012 (Edited by Moderator)

Mauricio,

I am glad I flattened the top with handplanes as well. As some one who started woodworking using hand tools, as opposed to someone who is accomplished using machines and making the transition, I feel much more confident getting where I want to go with a #7 compared to a router jig.

In a way it is all I really know.

Talk about lucky…..

See less See more

lysdexic

· #1,975 · Oct 22, 2012

Chris, that is a beautiful slab of wood you got there. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for your bench.

mochoa

· #1,976 · Oct 22, 2012

Thats pretty cool Scott. I feel the same, although I started with machines, hand tools helped me compensate for my crappy power tools. But once you learn how to do things by hand, you start to see experts do a lot of crazy complicated things to make power tools do the same thing hand tools can do. Make a jig to make a cut on the TS or router instead of just marking it out and sawing to the line.

I think that router jig for flattening a bench top is an example of that. If you spend a lot of time and attention making your top glue ups as good as possible, flattening it with a plane is actually enjoyable.

And one of my favorite byproduct of that approach is, there is no jig to store! I hate having all those odd shaped things lying around, so hard to store…

lysdexic

· #1,977 · Oct 22, 2012

+1 on the jig storage. Great point.

mochoa

· #1,978 · Oct 23, 2012

Ha, I just saw the picture you posted. You cant get much more precise than that!

RGtools

· #1,979 · Oct 23, 2012

Mauricio, you have described one of my favorite reasons for my love of handtools. Flattening a benchtop by hand does not take that long, especially on repeat flattenings. No jigs to make/store; just shavings on the floor and work to be done.

WhoMe

· #1,980 · Oct 23, 2012

Wait… wait… how do we know that Scotty didn't fudge that measurement. We don't see the bottom of that caliper…..
JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As awesome as that bench is, you probably have that thing flattened to .00000000000000000001" across the whole length.
I also like the nice even chamfer on that edge too.

Mauricio, that is a really cool link to that old book. It was fun to browse through. Probably some really good info on making several of the tools in that book.

1961 - 1980 of 18430 Posts

Status: Not open for further replies.