Saw Bench

Re: Saw Bench - how tall are you?

Ted Shuck, Centennial, CO


>It depends on how tall you are. It should be a comfortable height so you can put one knee on it to hold down the board while the other foot is on the floor. If you have long legs, then 20" or more. If you are shorter, then 18" or less. I'm not sure how tall mine is, since it was built to fit me, not a specified height.

Regards,

Ted

Re: Saw Bench - how tall are you?

Christopher Schwarz


>You can start at 20" and then trim it down until you're comfortable. If you go too low and you'll get a rude shock when the saw's toe hits the floor.

Chris

Re: Saw Bench - how tall are you?

paul womack


>You can start at 20" and then trim it down until you're comfortable.

If you're intending to follow the (sensible) strategy, don't have any near-the-floor stretchers in the design.

BugBear ...whose workbench is too high, and stretchers too low :-(

Re: Saw Bench - how tall are you?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX


>Should be easy enough to move the stretchers if you've got it upside down to trim the legs.

Pam

Re: Saw Bench - how tall are you?

david.marcus.brown


>Kinda hard to move the stretchers when they're held in place w/ wedged thru tenons. ;-)

Re: Saw Bench

david.marcus.brown


>I'm 5'11" and I made my saw bench 20" tall, following Christopher's plans. I'm very happy with it. I made my top a bit longer than his specified. I haven't added the saw notch or the tray in the bottom yet.

Re: Saw Bench - how tall are you?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX


>I'll admit I've never tried to disemble wedged tenons, but I thought that was a technique many used to make the piece knock down. Or maybe knock out would be a better term? :)

Pam

Saw notch?

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond, CA


>Sorry, I'm clueless here and most other times as well. Care to elaborate for the ignorant?

Re: Saw notch? *LINK*

Christopher Schwarz


>David is referring to the ripping notch, which is for supporting work as you notch out corners etc.

It is shown in the link below.

Chris


Using a Sawbench

Re: Saw notch?

Jim Shaver Oakville, Ont.


>Hi Chris,

Thanks for the great link!!

Take care,

Jim

Thanks Chris...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond, CA


>I had a feeling it was something a split end so to speak.

Scott

Re: Saw Bench - how tall are you?

paul womack


>Can't shorten the legs past the mortices - whose position is dictated by the stretcher, which was my point.

BugBear

Re: Saw Bench - how tall are you?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX


>Sure you can, just fill them up with some wood and epoxy.

Pam

Question about the holdfast hole

Michael Recchione


>I've used one of these benches (not so prettily put together, I'll admit - just butt joints and drywall screws for the stretchers) for years, and it's very useful. The one feature I question the utility of is the holdfast on the bench. What's it for?

Basically, I hold work with my knee when I use this bench - this includes ripping long stock, crosscutting long stuff, etc. The operative phrase is "long stock". For more delicate and precise work, I use my bench. The sawbench is mostly for rough dimensioning, at least for me. So I'm wondering what you do with the holdfast.

- Mike

Re: Question about the holdfast hole

Christopher Schwarz


>Mike,

I should do a post about the holdfast hole. It's *not* for sawing -- I also use my knees and mass to secure the work when sawing.

The holdfast hole is for mortising. The holdfast pad lands right over the front legs. It allows you to really clamp down a piece to wail and lever on it.

Ah, one more thing. When you point the holdfast toward the rear for the sawbench and cinch it down, it's a perfect handle for toting around the sawbench. I discovered this with the prototype I built.

Chris

Re: Question about the holdfast hole

david.marcus.brown


>This is one time that my opinion differs from Chris'. Personally, I hate holding stock with my knee when sawing. I do use the holdfast when I saw. Right now, there's one holdfast at the front of the sawbench. I'm going to add a second one at the other end. Different strokes for different folks . . .

Re: Question about the holdfast hole

William Duffield, on the Cohansey


>It works great to hold your chopsaw in place on top of the bench.

...ducking and running...

Seriously, I don't have one of these, but I recently replaced the tops/jaws on a WorkMutt with 8/4 hard maple. I put lots of dogholes into these, because the original WorkMutt dogholes never seem to be in the right place to get an effective grip on anything. Afterwards, I discovered that a holdfast works well in these dogholes, for all sorts of things beyond holding tailed apprentices in place, not necessarily furniture joinery, which I do at my main bench. Unlike Chris's bench, I would NOT recommend mortising on the top of WorkMutt, no matter how thick you make your replacement top.

A question: On your other saw bench, the plywood one with two steps, you have a pair of parallel vertical slats attached to one side that are used for holding doors, etc., vertical to facilitate planing the edge. It seems that your saw notch should work for that function, too. Do you use it that way?

Re: Question about the holdfast hole

Christopher Schwarz


>William,

First: It's been to long since we've had a beer. I wish I could get out to the Philly area more often,

Second: I use the ripping notch for a lot of things, including wedging assemblies for planing. On page 26 of the current issue of Woodworking Magazine I'm using it to plane the top of a table base flat. I do this *all* the time. I really should concoct a blog post or article on using these suckers for things other than sawing. Honestly, I think I've only scratched the surface of their uses -- and I'm impressed.

Chris

Re: Question about the holdfast hole

david.marcus.brown


>I just used mine tonight to stack some oak in my lumber rack. It's much better than the stepstool I've been using -- much more stable and the perfect height.

Ah, mortising

Michael Recchione


>I usually use my main bench for mortising, but I have used my sawbench for this job a few times. When it did that, I held the work down by sitting on it :-)

- Mike

Re: Ah, mortising

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX


>Yeah, me, too, but it hurt a lot. I like the holdfast idea, but have to question its placement. Granted it would be handy for the carrying function, but for mortising it seems it should be offset from the center.

Pam

Re: Ah, mortising

Michael Recchione


>I didn't feel any pain when I did it - and I'm not very well padded :-) I do prefer mortising at my regular bench, though. I guess it's what you get used to.

- Mike

Re: Ah, mortising

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX


>Yeah, it didn't seem to bother Kingshott either. In fact, he explained that it was a useful method for gaining some sit down time in the shop. But I've done more comfortable things than sitting on a 2" board while mortising. It did encourage me to get it done quickly.

Pam