I love this site - it's amazing how often a post comes along just in time. I've also been wondering about a bench on a budget using framing lumber.
Bas, that's one great-looking bench. Couple questions for you.
-Did you work off your own plan or someone else's?
-What size are the legs? Assuming 4x4 but they look stout in the pics.
-Where'd you get the front vise hardware?
-How are the faces of the vise holding up? Wondering about the softer pine clamping rough-sawn -hardwood. I have a small metal face vise with sacrificial faces of pine and they've taken a beating.
-Anything you'd add or change?
- I used two sets of plans, basically combining a base and a top. Info in my
original post on the workbench. (UPDATE: Original link broken,
plans for the base can now be found here and
the top here)
- The legs are 4x4, made by laminating two pieces of 2x stock.
- The front vise comes from Lee Valley. Search for "large front vise". Just make sure you
read the instructions carefully before you install it
- The SYP is definitely not soft compared to a lot of wood I've used, but it does get it fair set of dings, scratches and dimples you wouldn't get with hard maple. On the other hand, I've found that having a bench and vise with a little "give" prevents damaging your projects. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally made a ridge when doing a glueup with parallel clamps because I applied a little too much pressure. With pine for the faces, that's less likely to happen. I've found it holds things just fine, and of course it's easy and cheap to replace. But there's no reason you couldn't use something else for the vise faces. Beech would look great with pine.
- Make it longer. My previous shop was much smaller so I didn't have much of a choice, but now that I have more space I often wish it was another 3ft. Also, width-wise, I think it's just too narrow at 24", 28" would probably be ideal.
- Use something other than metal braces to join the top to the base. It works fine, but there are more elegant solutions. This is purely for cosmetic/ vanity reasons.
Good luck building it. It's nice to know that if you mess up, you haven't wasted much in valuable materials. Since the best way to learn is by making mistakes, I "decided" a long time ago I'd become the world's best student :embaresse. Knowing you can run to Home Depot to get some replacement materal helps.