Who else is benchbuilding?

Re: Who else is benchbuilding?

thomd coralseacat@yahoo.au


>What's wrong with my phlune log? It's not finished yet

I'm building another horse, and I have a top to surface.

I am... *LINK*

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA


>Been working on it for about 2.5 years now. Got my bench designed finally. Got my vises, dogs and hold downs, too. All I need now is wood. I'm getting that this week because my wood supplier had 10/4 maple on sale for over havf off right now, life is good!


Jackel Enterprises

Me too

Doug Littlejohn


>I have almost everything for a modified Roubo (sp?) (antique leg vise I got off the Bay - oak with 2" oak screw, got my maple though it's 4/4 and got my Grammercy (SP?) holdfasts, etc.) but since I know that will take me 1-2 years and I need something (just getting my shop together) I'm going with a smaller bench ala what Harry Strasil calls his portable bench.

4' by 1' with a 4" thick top and a 3 " thick side. I can have it built in anothe month or two and it will at least give me somethng solid to plane on, pound on, cut dt's on, etc. I have the major pieces all cut, trimmed and finished and am starting on the joinery (really honkin DT's for the legs to the top).

I'll put together some pics and post.

Would love to see what you others are doing, where you started from (Roubo, Klaus, Kirby, etc.) and what mods are being done.

Re: Who else is benchbuilding?

VTAndy4


>I'm building a modified version of Chris Schwarz's Roubo design. The top is done, and I'm using it atop two wooden sawhorses. I'm working on the legs but that's going slowly.

-Andy

Re: Who else is benchbuilding?

duy


>I am in the process of building one:

1. +4.5" hardmaple top, ~72" in. long, with PA cherry endcaps, 30" wide. Probably no tool tray.

2. Pauduk Tail vise with an oak core.

3. ~30" Veritas twin screw front vise, 22" center to center of screws. Front skirt will be about 7-8in. No cover, I will probably leave the chain and gear exposed for an industrial look (till I ding a project)?

4. plan on building cabinets to store hand tools below bench when all is said and done.

5. Legs and strecher of cherry or red oak (left over stock taking up space in shop). Will be held together with 1.25" round .5" holes tapped with #13 threads to take a 7" bolt through the legs into both bottom and top strechers. Legs will be substantial enough as to not look out of proportion with the thick top. It will sit about 32-34" high.

6. big square dogs from Lie-Nielsen.

7. Will be on a delta universal mobile base of 1.5" square steel tubing support.

8. Flattening and preparing lumber so far with #8, #7, #5, #4.5, shoulder planes, block planes, low angle smoothers, shepherd infill smoother, Ryobas, Disston's, and Hirsh chisels.

Not yet completed, but I am having loads of fun. I have the top completed with the tail vise prepared for mounting. I Will be working on morticing the endcaps and handling the front vise details next. I am just taking my time... a little here... a little there. I getting good now from rough boards to no sanding finished boards with hand tools. I have produce a lot of kindling for the fire place this winter.

Enjoy reading this forum... Thanks

Is there a time limit?

John in New Mexico


>I built the cabinet base of mine a couple years ago, and have been working on it in stages as I could afford to buy parts. Lucked into some 12/4 maple in part of the country where it is rarely seen. Spent almost a month trying to decide whether to do traditional drawers, or hang them on ball bearing guides (BB won out due to weight carrying, etc). I haven't worked on it in over a year though, as I kinda have to finish the house before I can justify building furniture or even workbenches again.

It does give me lots of time to ponder a solution to a lingering problem though. I very foolishly raised the panels for the base cabinet with one of those planes Garrett Wade used to sell for the purpose, not realizing that its intended for a thicker rail/stile than what I've built. So the raised field of the panel is about 1/8" outside the plane of the frame. I'm thinking an applied moulding around the inside edges of the frame would be sufficient to disguise the difference. Maybe in a year or two I'll be posting some pics.

John

I'm assembling a bench.

Chuck Nickerson


>Bought-top, Noden legs, LV Tucker vise, etc. I'll post a photo when done (Thanksgiving weekend).

yep . slow going.. top sits on saw horses...

Victor P

Re: Who else is benchbuilding?

Ernie Miller


>I still ned to make the drawers for that last drawer box that fit under mine. I also have a few modifications that I would like to build. I keep finding my mind wandering off into other directions. I anm wanting to cast some sculpters that are floating in my mind. so I guess I am more into mold making and pattern making right now. and that is going slow

Re: Who else is benchbuilding?

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native now in Jax Fl.


>No John, there is no time limit. I just found it interesting that several of us where having bench building conversations at the same time, and got to wondering if there was others other there that wasn't known to us. I am also curious, just for the sake of courisoty of all the different styles and whatever "accessories" maybe being incorparated into the various designs.

So far we have the full gambit of highly engineered like Dirks, tho the ultra minimilistic Roubo style benches.

T.O.

Re: Who else is benchbuilding?

Jay St. Peter - Southern MD


>I'm not a serious neander, but I am building a bench to practice my neander skills. I have just glued up the legs/supports. They will be based on the Klaus bench, but the bench will be much simpler. I'm using LV bench bolts, a LV front vice and a large LV front vice as an end vice.

Jay St. Peter

Me too

Derek


>I'm making one - but have hadalmost no time for woodworking for months.

I have a workbench I made 15 years ago or so but it is definitely NOT a woodworker style bench. My new one will be a woodworker style bench, mostly, with a large cabinet below - I just can not afford the lost storage space. I plan to have a face vise (Tucker clone) and an end vise (Record 53D I've had for years). I'm making it so it's height is slightly lower than my tablesaw. It will have drawers and cabinets underneath.

Mine is out of red oak - got a great deal on it so decided to use it even though it is coarse grained and porous. I think it will work out well for me though. The top is almost ready for final glueup - I have five glued up planks ready (jointed and squared after glue-up). They will end up being effectively quarter-sawn since the stock was flat sawn and I'm face gluing them. It should end up on the order of 2 5/8" (I hope) x 30" wide x 7' long. I'm gluing the top up with epoxy - will fill gaps and pores. I'm not sure what I'll do for a finish - probably just lacquer, because it will be easy to renew.

I was ready to glue up the planks 2 weeks ago but then got very sick and must rest. Maybe I can finish gluing the top this weekend though. I'm almost ready do do some shop work.

I have a powered jointer but have done a lot of the prep with handplanes. I'll use handplanes for the final flattening.

Correction

Derek


>I should have said "Emmert clone" rather than "Tucker clone"

I am benchbuilding also

Mitch from TN (formerly from NYC)


>Since I moved to Tennessee back in May, I've been setting up shop in a very small basement. It's small, but not as small as an apartment in NYC! I have a space of about 7 feet by 13 feet. I'm building a bench with the approach of making it as practical as possible as soon as possible so I can use it to make things. Someday I will build a beautiful, all-maple masterpiece but for now, I need something to hold wood while I plane and cut and chisel. For example, I built the base out of 2 by 4s. The top is a slab of 1 7/8"-thick butcherblock maple that I bought at Perfect Plank on top of MDF (for weight). I also bought several pieces of Perfect Plank's backsplash, which is 7/8" thick maple butcherblock about 4" wide, that I'm using to make the aprons and the parts for the vises. Buying those pieces pre-ripped saves me lots of time seeing how I don't have a table saw. I'm making one end vise and one front vise that is sorta in the middle of the bench (as opposed to the far left end) so I can clamp boards for thicknessing with a scrub plane (I also don't have a power planer). I'm doing round dog holes instead of square. I'm not using endcaps on the benchtop. I'm totally going with things that I think will work well for me in my space.

I'm making good progress -- got the end vise parts glued up last night. Next step is fitting it to the metal plate, then on to the front vise, which is made out of a bench screw and some aluminum tubing for guides. I'll post pictures at some point.

Re: Who else is benchbuilding?

wilbur


>I finally have electricity and lighting in the workshop area in my basement so I can finally start building things. A workbench is #1 on my priority list. I was thinking about a beam/trestle arrangement, as described in the chapter on Japanese woodworking in The Workbench Book, and most of my planes are Japanese planes.

I'm pretty sure I'll be posting all kinds of silly questions in the near future. :@)