Show us your Bench!

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jhreed

New User
james
bottom shelf is empty and clean. How is that possible. Mine has drill, palm router, impact driver, combination square, driver bits, router bits, pencils, etc. also about 20 pounds of saw dust.
 

Ed Fasano

Ed
Senior User
Built in 1996 from an amalgamation of 3 plans. Nearly all maple. The top is a sandwich of two pieces of ¾” cabinet-grade plywood with an applied surface of ¾” think maple strips affixed with construction adhesive. Two rows of dog holes align with the Veritas twin-screw end vise, while another row serves the Record 52 ½D front vise. Not fancy, but solid and has served me well and is a far cry from the bench it replaced. That earlier bench, however crude in comparison, was necessary to build this one, so it holds its head reasonably high now as a secondary assembly/sanding/clamping surface.

ERF_2509 (2015_10_17 13_16_03 UTC) (2015_11_06 20_59_01 UTC) (2015_11_28 01_14_54 UTC).jpg
 
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W Burton

New User
Bill
Bill, how did you attach the rear jaw to your bench on the twin screw?

I found some very large barrel nuts -- 3/4" in diameter. They mount in holes drilled up from the bottom of the bench. I managed to drill in from the end and intersect the hole. I used 4 of those nuts with about 6" bolts that have their heads countersunk. They have held well. Both vise jaws are 2" x 9" red oak, and the chop is lined with leather.

There are some pictures, details, etc. of my bench build in an article on here -- http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/content.php?r=244-The-Big-Ash-Workbench-Build
 

JohnnyR

John
Corporate Member
Kent, I use Lag bolts with elongated holes on both ends. The classiest way would be a sliding dovetail.
 

Chris C

Chris
Senior User
My ugly baby....made from 2 sheets of plywood and one of MDF for the top if I recall correctly. . Heavy and rock solid...it doesn't move when planing.

20151227_171625.jpg
 

pviser

New User
paul
This is a great thread. I love Dan's curly maple. Also, Jeff is funny with his self-deprecating comments about crashing the beauty pageant and his bench not being an altar. There's something to learn in almost every pic.
 

golfdad

Co-director of Outreach
Dirk
Corporate Member
John let me get back to you on this one....I need to find mine first
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
This is my workbench and is more for my track saw than my hand tools. But it is my only workbench and only outfeed support for the table saw so it serves multiple roles. I planed some drawers to fit last weekend on it. I clamped a 3/4 plywood scrap (using Grizzly track saw clamps in the holes in the top) where it overhung the top and slid the drawer on that. I clamped it to a leg at the bottom. I will probably add a pipe clamp vise to it. I also want some Festool clamps that go in the holes and clamp things to the top surface. One of the best features is the extra layer of 3/4 plywood 9 inches below the top to hold tools - so they don't have to sit on the workbench surface. It's 3 feet by 7 feet and rolls on totally locking casters (6).
 

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DTBoss

New User
Dan
Here's my big ash workbench when it was new and shiny. It's probably my favorite tool.

Care to share pics of it beat up and used? I've stalked your bench design for many months now :). Would love to hear what you (and others) have learned from their design after months/years of use.

Dan
 
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Mike3ID

New User
Michael
FB_IMG_1462046660309.jpg


The house we bought has about 18 ft ceiling garage that came decked out with Rubbermaid closet shelves straight to the ceiling.

So built a rolling level stand ladder with room for my lunchbox, compressor, pinners, drills and whatnot.

I'm debating adding a foldaway ironing board router table to throw on it as well.
 

W Burton

New User
Bill
Care to share pics of it beat up and used? I've stalked your bench design for many months now :). Would love to hear what you (and others) have learned from their design after months/years of use.

Dan

Here is my bench today. (after unloading most of what was on it so you could at least see it.)

bench 2016B.jpg bench 2016C.jpg

The top is a little beat up, but still very flat. I have taken a plane to it a couple times and slopped on some linseed oil, and it is about due for that again.

The leg vise probably gets more use than the end vise. The Lake Erie Toolworks wooden screw combined with the Benchcrafted "criss-cross" works perfectly. That was not my first idea, but they combine to make an excellent vise.

For my use, the bench is rock solid and very functional. I have occasionally pulled the center insert up to use as a plane stop, and have taken it out a couple times to get clamps into the center of the bench. Mostly the center insert stays down in the gap and creates a nice flat surface. The size and weight of the bench overall is great for what I do. I can take aggressive cuts with a scrub plane in any direction and there is zero movement or wobble. The only down-side to the weight is that someone will have to move it when I am dead and gone, but that will be their problem not mine!

Since building it, I have added a couple rows of round dog holes, primarily so I can use hold-downs. The rectangular dogs work great for holding work. That is one of my favorite features of this bench.

bench 2016A.jpg

I work primarily at the end with the vises, and have added a semi-permanent shooting board at the opposite corner. It attaches into a couple of the dog holes, and is in a convenient location for quick access. Plus, it can be lifted out easily when I need the full length of the bench.


Dan, if you want to drop by and check it out, just let me know.
 

bobsmodels

Bob
Senior User
Hi

This is the first bench I made for woodworking in 1973. I had only seen a picture or two of benches and only had limited funds. It has three layers of particle board glued up, with a tempered 1/8 Masonite top. All the lumber for the frame was leftovers from building the house. At that time they used redwood for all the outside trim boards so it would not rot. I used that as the boarder around the bench top. It has a Craftsman wood vise. It has seen many projects and the top has held up well.

The second is a section of a maple bowling alley 3" thick x 19" x 77" and it is tight. May try building a bench around it someday.

Bob

Work-Bench-1--EM.jpgMaple-Top-EM.jpg
 

TENdriver

New User
TENdriver
In the background is the "off shore" bench I've worked on for the last 20 years.

On the saw benches is 70% of the laminated SYP that will top my Old Salem bench. It's 70% of the top because I've got to choose which tail vise I'll use.




image.jpg
 

Alan in Little Washington

Alan Schaffter
Corporate Member
Late to the parade. My adjustable height bench. I used a version of the legs I designed for my adjustable height assembly table. It is made with a mix of hard maple and American Beech. Top is 2.75" thick, aprons are 1.75" thick X 6" wide.

Fully down position:

IMG_2931.jpg


Fully up position:

IMG_2934.jpg


The simple but strong mechanism. Despite its appearance the legs and bench are very stable. The weight of the bench and geometry of the ratchet and pawl mechanism firmly force the mating 'V' surfaces of the legs together.

IMG_2955.jpg


Sliding tail vise and quick-release front vise. Veritas round dogs and pups, Gramercy holdfasts.

IMG_2943.jpg


IMG_2870.jpg


IMG_2948.jpg


Cross-grain end aprons mount to the side aprons with dry-fit (unglued) dovetails at each end and to the bench with dry-fit sliding mortise and tenon on the back. Barrel nuts in holes drilled from the bottom of the end apron and all-thread inserted in holes drilled the endgrain of the bench top, and nuts and washers in elongated pockets on the underside of the bench top to pull everything tight, yet allow for season movement:

IMG_2952.jpg


Extra wide stance, twin screw end vise. Sprockets and chain in recess in the thick jaw. Thin, nearly flush, friction-fit chain cover, and a slight thumbnail profile on ends of jaw:

IMG_2939.jpg


I turned the vise handles but didn't like the supplied end caps shown below, so used round hardwood balls from a craft store (see previous pic).

IMG_28621.jpg
 

Richo B

New User
Richo
Drawer in place_11.7.15_02.jpg
I haven't added this since I did a thread about it last year when I built it. But now that I realize it that was almost a year ago so some may not have seen it. This is my primary workbench based on Chad Stanton's portable work bench. It is two saw benches that stack on top of each other. In addition two vises made from pipe clamps give the face vise and end/leg vise. I use them for everything, very solid. The plans also allow for making a moxon box but I already have a portable table vise and that works great for me. I really don't use it much. Often I clamp things directly to the side of the bench and work them that way. The drawer at the bottom is an addition that I did and are not in Chad's original plans.


Drawer complete_11.18.15_01.jpg Drawer complete_11.18.15_06.jpg
The drawer features items specifically for use at the workbench such as the bench dogs, marking equipment, the cotter pin to secure the rod in the face vise and the wood knob for holding guide board into the leg/end vise.
 
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