My Traditional Shaker Work Bench, Pics
Jim Shaver Oakville, Ont
>Hi,
(Cross posted at the message forum as well, I felt it applied to both sides)
I began this bench project two years this weekend and I finally have completed the case, drawers and the two vises. I kept the project going along while I also completed other projects, this bench is my first one and also my first real woodworking vises.
I was inspired by many benches as I searched around created by many skilled people and I researched a few before I began this project. One of my key design needs was storage and the drawers design in a Shaker bench afforded me this. I decided to go with a traditional Shaker bench and set out to make one. I then looked for examples of Shaker benches and ideas on how I could create my own. In the end I used many sources for measurements and details but the Scott Landis Workbench book was my prime source for building construction as well as looking under a lot of other work benches made by fine woodworkers.
The bench is essentially all wood, maple with some cherry ply for the side panels. The core of the bench is made up of 4 laminated maple bench tops that my company was discarding (can you believe that!).
I was able to salvage the tops and rip three of them into usable structural members for my bench, I even turned my drawer pulls from this same maple stock.
The bench has a traditional leg vise and a tail vise, both utilizing wood screws that I bought from Howard Card at Crystal Creek Mill (See the Dunbar Bench article in FWW 153 for Howard�s phone number).
I built the tail vise and the leg vise from the plans in the Landis book, the bench is scaled down to a size I can fit in my shop, 28� by 80� for the top, the case is 56� wide while over all the Bench is 35 �� tall. There are only 12 pieces of metal in this bench, 6 brass screws that attach the cover plate to the tail vise and 6 lag bolts that hold the end caps to the top, everything else is done with joinery. The top weighs between 200 and 250lbs with the base easily being 500+ lbs, ask my neighbour, he has helped me move it a few times, Thanks Jeff!
The drawers are all maple with selected curly maple drawer fronts. The drawer pulls are all hand turned, making the first one was simple, making the other 15 to match was a challenge, there are a few in there that are brothers and sisters of the first knob, but then there are also a few distant cousins! The drawer pulls were then all matched and attached to the drawers using a tennon and wedge method.
The drawers are all through dove tailed at the back and half blind at the face, I thought long and hard about cutting them by hand or making them with my Leigh, the Leigh won and I have no regrets. The drawer bottoms are 3/8� Baltic birch.
The bench dog holes are dimensioned from the Landis book as well, 1 x 1 ��, I have some quarter sawn white that the dogs will be made from.
I incorporated a track and slot into the front of the bench to later accept a deadman.
The tail vise is all hand made, these dove tails were hand cut and I am pleased with the look. The tail vise faces are also lined with leather.
The leg vise is as traditional as they come, the design followed is the one defined in the Landis book as well. The wood screws that Howard Card makes are incredible and I highly recommend them.
The bench is finished with a combination of oils and varnishes. The case work and drawers are all finished with a multi application of a hand wiped home made varnish. The vises and the top are finished with Tung oil and all of the bench elements are then finished with a paste wax.
Now that I have completed my bench I am looking forward to the many hours that I will work with it and sit at it, building project and enjoying the simple fun of using something I have made. It�s a piece of shop furniture and twice today while I was photographing it in the drive way I had people stop and tell me how much they liked it.
I have been given great help by a few kind people, Rob Diemert at Sheridan Collage in understanding some bench do�s and don�ts, I want to thank several people for their inspiration through the benches they created, John Aniano, Chico Sackman, John Leppo, Brian Grey, Rob Cosman and Konrad Sauer, Thank you all.
Take care,
Jim
