Chairmaker's bench finished! (Finally...) *PICS*
Scott in Douglassville, PA
>Hey, everyone -
With more of a whimper than a bang, my second bench project is done.
After taking a chairmaking class a year ago, and eager to start making more, I needed a stand for my lathe. Being short on real estate in the garage, I decided on a combination lathe station/workbench, outfitted to hold anything I may need to clamp when working Windsor parts. I borrowed some design from my first bench, some from Dunbar's bench outlined in Fine Woodworking a while back, and some from helpful input from Greg Betit and Scott Burr. I decided to include a leg vise and a Lee Valley twin screw vise, thinking the combination of the two, plus a good sized grid of dog holes, would get me through all aspects of saddling.
When in lathe stand use, the lathe is pinned to the bench top by some modified J-hooks and wing nuts; when in bench mode, the lathe gets stored on a shelf below.
The project is being finished kind of anticlimactically because the bench, essentially, was finished last May. All that was really left incomplete was the installation of the twin screw vise, the shelf, and the dog holes.
The bench top is a 2-1/4" thick maple slab from Bally Block. The leg vise is mortised into the top and secured with some 6" lag screws. The base is solid ash; legs are about 3-7/8" square, and the rails are 5/4. I omitted the top rails, similar to Dunbar's bench, thinking that the mortised-in top would provide the stiffness that the rails would have. Leaving them off also provides easier access to the lathe storage. In order to keep the bench somewhat portable, in case we ever relocate, the end assemblies are joined with bed bolt-drawn mortise and tenons. The height of the top was set by the lathe; per some posts on the Turning forum, I wanted the lathe centers at approximately elbow height. Conveniently, this placed the top at a perfect height for other hand tool work.
I've been using it as a lathe bench for several months, and the J-hook system has been rock solid. The leg vise generates a tremendous amount of force. And, aside from some minor blunders attributable to installer absent-mindedness, the twin screw vise went on without a hitch. Now, onto chairs...
...Ok, not quite yet - I really need to clean the stinkin' garage first. ;^)
Thanks for looking.
Scott
