Building a Workbench

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
I have finally gotten to the point of building a real work bench. Trying to plane on a MFT table just does not work! The plan is a Roubo style bench and I;m using Ash because it is the cheapest hardwood I can find and some old walnut that is not really suitable for good furniture due to cracks and holes. I decided just to buy vise screws and make the rest of the vises. For the leg vise, I'm using poppo's St. Peter's cross design with some slight mods, and a wagon vise of my own design. Here are some in process pictures
. IMG_0013.JPG Cutting the side of the benchIMG_0030.JPG Making dowels using a technique danmart77 taught me

IMG_0014.JPG Pattern routing the side designIMG_0022.JPG Legs laid out with mortises complete


IMG_0023.JPG Boring the hole for the pin to hold the X bracesIMG_0021.JPG The finished mortise for the X brace
IMG_0031.JPG Side being glued up IMG_0027.JPG Part time helper!

For those of you already commenting "Gee it's only a workbench", you are right. However, since I'm the only one who will see all the mistakes in this, I'm using the project to try a number of new techniques: inlays, stringing, flame finished areas, and so forth. If they flop, it's not a big deal. It is also incredible the amount of knowledge gathered from people on this forum to try new things. I've mentioned poppop's vises, danmart's dowels, but also Matt's inlays and stringing. I'm also using a Hammer saw that I would not have except for a demo at Phil's to see his.
 
Last edited:

pop-pop

Man with many vises
Corporate Member
Interested in you vise designs. Hopefully you’ll be sharing those with us.

Impressed with what you did so far,
 

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
Here are a few more pictures as the project moves along.
IMG_0033.JPG Here is the pattern being applied to the chop before cutting.IMG_0038.JPG And post cutting and template routing with the inlay taped to the surface before cutting in into the chop.
IMG_0041.JPG The base assembled.
IMG_0042.JPG the chop with inlay complete in position waiting for the top to be placed before final trim.

I'll show the vise pictures later. The chop vise is pretty close to exactly what pop-pop has shown except for the dimensions to match the 17 inch screw I'm using.
 

creasman

Jim
Staff member
Corporate Member
Looking good. I like the extra details like the star inlay and gothic arch. Look forward to seeing the finished result.
 

Rwe2156

DrBob
Senior User
It's going to be a masterpiece.

Just like using quality tools, working on a nice bench is a psychological boost toward better craftsmanship? I'd like to think so anyway.

Glad to see you're not doing those [unnecessary] through dovetails through tenons. I wish more Roubo people realized If the base doesn't rack, the top won't move!!
 

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
The keystone arch is there because I was born in Morocco (lived there less than 9 months), and like that particular arch form. The star is there because a "design opportunity" presented itself when I bored the hole for the bench screw in the wrong place. I wanted to try some inlay anyway so voila! The base clearly will not move! The bench is capable of being disassembled as the top is mounted into a mortise but not glued and held down with lag bolts. The long stretchers on the base are also in pretty deep mortises, but also pulled together with long bolts that can be tightened if they ever got loose. I cannot imagine this thing moving. I will have to position it in the final location before putting the full top on. I think it will weigh more than my saw! Thanks for the comments.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
Glad to see you're not doing those [unnecessary] through dovetails through tenons. I wish more Roubo people realized If the base doesn't rack, the top won't move!!
I used round tenons and only one side has elongated round mortises to allow for movement of the top against the immoveable base. The top weighs about 80 pounds so I didn't think it needed anything else. It breaks down for transport in about 15 minutes.
 

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
I am to the point of flattening the top, and have a question on how flat is flat enough. Right now I have some low spots that are about 20 thousands off. How flat can you actually get with a jointer plane? How much variation should be considered acceptable? I know to some extent it depends on what you are going to do. I want to build good furniture, and will use the bench for assembly in some portions as well as cutting joints. I have a nice planer so will not do a lot of hand planing to get flat boards, but certainly will want to remove machine marks. Thanks for any help.
 

mdbuntyn

Matt
Staff member
Corporate Member
How flat can you actually get with a jointer plane?

I've heard it explained as your depth of cut, plus the sole's flatness, over the length of the sole.

...how flat is flat enough.

I stopped when I was getting full length shavings, with my #8, that were just over smoothing thickness.

From Chris Schwarz:

44. How flat does my workbench have to be?
The bench has to be flat enough so your work doesn’t spring in low spots to the point where you cannot flatten boards with your handplanes. If you work with handplanes, you will know when the benchtop is too wonky because your planes won’t do their job. If you don’t work with handplanes, flatness is rarely critical.
 

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
That worked just fine. It took about 20 passes, but I had to learn how to use the jointer as well so that was still good.
Here are some more pictures of progress.
IMG_0047.JPGCutting a section of the top to length.
IMG_0049.JPG Drilling the holes for the hold down bars. I was surprised at how well this worked. I leveled the sliding table on the saw with the ShopSmith table to hold in place to drill.
IMG_0050.JPG This is the router template for the dog holes. Lots of routing, but came out well.
IMG_0057.JPG Using a Dremel to rout the groove for the stringing. I need some better technique for this. The bit chewed into the pattern more than I expected and routing through knot grain was not very controlled!
 

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
Here are the pictures of vise assembly. I have two vises: a wagon vise on the end; and a leg vise with a St. Peter's cross.IMG_0059.JPGThese two pictures show how the wagon vise will slide in the grooves. The plastic is UHMW and it is super slick.
IMG_0060.JPG
IMG_0061.JPGThis is the dry fit test run. The slider block was cut directly off the corresponding portion of the top and was milled to exactly the same width. I sanded (polished) the side rail portions and waxed.
IMG_0077.JPGHere is the final assembly of the wagon vise.
IMG_0078.JPG
 

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
Here are leg vise pictures.
IMG_0089.JPGThis is all pretty much a copy of pop-pop's design.
IMG_0090.JPGI used the UHMW instead of washers and separated the crosses as much as I could to increase stability.
IMG_0091.JPGI joined the components with some 1 inch binding posts. I should have used 1 1/4 inch.
IMG_0088.JPG Finished vise and chop
IMG_0095.JPGFinal shot of the wagon vise.
 

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
All-in-all a very nice job! Beautiful design of the chop face.

What did you do at the bottoms of the cross arms to take the clamping reaction loads?
At this point I have bearings on the cross arms at the bottom. I plan to go back with some thin metal plate, but I did not have any today.
 

Premier Sponsor

Our Sponsors

LATEST FOR SALE LISTINGS

Top