WorkBench Skirts and Aprons?

Agree

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Brad,

I'll just slip in a response here: I agree with the others!

Seriously though, I appreciate the apron on my bench for holding all kinds of wide stuff upright to the side of the bench (wide boards for jointing, panels, boards for end work like dovetails etc.). I don't have any vises on my bench (I'm not as bad as I used to be, insofar as I now can see myself adding and end vise eventually, or making a new bench with one), so the apron lets me use holdfasts on the side of the bench, much handier than using clamps. I do see how no apron would let me clamp stuff to the surface more easily, but I usually get along by clamping stuff at the very edge of the bench top (with the clamp grabbing the bottom of the apron), or else using holdfasts on top. I use the Veritas holdfasts which produce a lot of clamping power. If I do make another bench, it will probably have an apron.

Re: WorkBench Skirts and Aprons?

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>The end cap on the bench traditionally extended past the edge of the bench on the vise side and held the nut for the tail vise. Whenever I get around to building another bench top this is how mine will be. The other end will extend past the edge of the bench to attach the shoulder vise.

Re: WorkBench Skirts and Aprons?

Norman (Ottawa, Ont.)

>I agree with Frank and others about the practicality of aprons

for holdfasts and such, but there is one small downside to aprons I had not realized. One of my benches is a Veritas bench with end caps but no aprons on the front and back. It is much, much more practical to be able and reach the underside of the benchtop and pop the bench dogs up without an apron getting in the way, maybe this is why it was designed so. An apron is typically quite a bit deeper than the benchtop thickness. I use the dogs that run along the faces of the bench quite a bit and need to extend , retract them, move them around, etc.. and I am appreciating the quick access.

Norman

Re: WorkBench Skirts and Aprons?

Adam Cherubini, NJ

>I think aprons were traditionally used to increase stiffness/decrease weight/allow use of 2 by construction lumber. I think the sort of people who needed to take advantange of such things, didn't care about clamping tiny drawer parts or the like to their benches.

Adding an apron to a 4" thick bench seems silly to me. You add an apron when you don't have a 4" thick bench.

I added aprons to the ends of my first bench. That was a stupid idea. Stiffness there can be better provided/increased by a shear web/bearer across the legs there.

I recently built a Nicholson bench and it makes sense for what it makes sense for; planing long stock, investing little time and money on a banch and being able to quickly and easily transport it to a job site. And tho I like the bench and am willing to recommend it to others for teh reasons I just mentioned, I'm not convinced its a cabinetmaker's bench. There's no historical/archeological link to cabinet shops and this bench. We have 3 period images of it, all dating from the early 19th c, and all relating specifically to joineries. I don't know how much of an extrapolation it is to place this bench into cabinetshops historically. But if you find the wide aprons on a bench restrictive, it may be that you are asking your bench to do something it was never designed to do.

Adam

Re: WorkBench Skirts and Aprons?

ThomD

>Getting in the way of clamping supposes you have clamps of good quality and convenient manufacture, or that if you do your main interest would be securing things horizontally.

Screw are pretty expensive, take the example of the acme screw vise parts manufactured for the Landis book/Fortune bench, and stocked by Atlas for about 20 years, they may still have some. They were designed to produce a tail vise that matched the record face vice. 100 bucks you say? Maybe I will just make my own... Of course today stuff like that apparently cost less to make than the raw material itself. Wasn't always the case though.

It's equally not the case that every user has the same needs. The cabinetmaking bench is suited for general work about as well as the top of your table saw. Either can be pressed into service but neither is a universal workstation. So some customization should be assumed. If you need an apron, a little lightbulb may appear over your head, at which point, being a woodworker, you can slap one on pronto.

Re: WorkBench Skirts and Aprons?

Glenn Madsen near San Francisco

>"If you need an apron, a little lightbulb may appear over your head, at which point, being a woodworker, you can slap one on pronto."

Which is what I did with mine, a simple laminated plywood bench top on a construction fir base. The apron gave me a place to clamp horizontally that wasn't in the original design. When I build the megabench, the one of which all others will be jealous, it also will have an apron.

(now where's the tongue-in-cheek emoticon?)

Re: WorkBench Skirts and Aprons?

Warren in Lancaster, Pa

>I have to agree with you, Adam, that the main reason for an "apron" is for stiffness. Many factory-made workbenches have double the thickness at the front as compared to the rest of the bench for the same reason.

I have used a bench with a 2X3 skirt for 28 years. I have clamped pieces to the front (which has a total depth of 5") many thousands of times. However I also use holdfasts for many operations and could probably use them exclusively if clamping were a problem.

I have holes in the skirt for use with a holdfast or with a pin to support work. If one is dovetailing a board that is 16 or 20 inches wide it is nice to have a holdfast rather near the top of the right hand side to compliment the vise in holding the work. I also have a sliding jack. I often see pictures of jacks with 3,4,or5 holes- mine has 23.

Re: WorkBench Skirts and Aprons?

ThomD

>I need some of those emoticons also. Right at the moment I would settle for getting my hyphens, etc... back from the French language keboard option I installed.

Both I and my bench have aprons...

Stephen Shepherd in the State of Deseret

>but neither one a skirt. Although I do have a tartan, I don't have a kilt.

The apron on the front of my bench is a mixed blessing. It has holes for pegs and holdfasts and I can secure stuff with a clamp but it does reduce access to under my bench. I would like to have a drawer or two but they would interfere with the holdfasts which I use all of the time.

My bench top is 2 1/2 inches thick and I believe it would be just fine without the apron. But the apron does serve to strengthen and make the legs more rigid as the apron is let into the legs with half dovetails.

If I were to build another bench it would also have an apron and not a tool tray (I gave those up years ago). I just like the looks of the English Joiners bench, clean unencumbered by permanent vices.

Stephen

Re: WorkBench Skirts and Aprons?

paul womack

>Why add a skirt/apron, or end cap to a work bench?

It would only seem to get in the way of clamping.

Gets in the way of horizontal clamping. Helps a lot in the case of vertical clamping.

Your call.

BugBear