Replies

1. 
   geedubbee | Sep 17, 2020 05:12pm | #1

   I think this question is a little too wide open. Is this a hand tool bench? What vises will you use if any? Power tools use? Double duty as an assembly surface? etc.

2. 
   IrishBill_NY | Sep 17, 2020 05:25pm | #2

   Hand tool, almost exclusively. I have a Jorgensen quick release, and later a Moxon/tabletop...

3. 
   john_c2 | Sep 17, 2020 06:59pm | #3

   5 or 6 inch wide apron, mortise and tenons to the legs, near the bottom of the legs. Legs mortised into the top. Everything drawbored together.

   4x4 legs are a little on the spindly side, especially if they are 3-1/2 x 3-1/2. Id feel better if they were 5 x 6 or so, actual.

4. 
   gulfstar | Sep 17, 2020 08:43pm | #4

   I built this 40 years ago and its always been my best friend in the shop. It started with 3 4X12 maple slabs, two went in the top and the third was cut down to make the 4 X 4 legs, they are not flimsy, nothing is in that bench. Four tie rods keep everything square, two crossing each other and two joining each set off legs along the inside of the lower stretcher. It measures 7 ft long by 24 inches wide and 36 inches high, weight about 500 #.

   
5. 
   lat_axe | Sep 18, 2020 03:57am | #5

   A heavy, stiff and immovable (in normal use) bench is the prime requirement. How many Youtube fellows do you see trying to demo hand tool use on a bench that wobbles and creeps about the floor. No good, that!

   But heavyweight and immovable can be an inconvenience if & when you want to move it, especially if the move is miles rather than a couple of feet across the workshop. So, make it break-downable.

   I built mine with heavyweight end pieces and four substantial stretchers between them - two high and two low. The stretchers are connected to the 4" X 4" legs in the end pieces with large bed bolts (1/2" diameter steel bolt shafts into 1" diameter round brass nuts) and unglued stub tenons. This assembly weights a lot; and with the 3" thick hard maple work top on (held by gravity and four small locator screws) cannot be pushed across the floor without the aid of another beefy bloke and a great deal of heaving & sweating.

   Further weight is added by a large slide in cupboard/draw set that rests on the two lower stretchers. It's of a height such that there's a gap between the cupboard top and the upper stretchers. More weight is added by putting my numerous large steel Marples T-section bar clamps on top of the cupboards. The stuff in cupboards and drawers also weighs a lot.

   There was no plan used other than the general plan found in a thousand workbenches to be seen on the interweb. It's simple joinery, at bottom, so easily configured to suit your own space, work top and other particular requirements. Workbenches built to someone else's plan are not always going to suit you and your workspace or work practices.

   ***
   I moved house a while ago - only 200 miles but the moving men were relieved that the bench was knock-down. Even so, they moaned about the weight of the various parts. :-)

   Lataxe

   
6. 
   geedubbee | Sep 18, 2020 02:09pm | #6

   A few benches ago I landed on poplar as the material of choice. Inexpensive, tough and stable. I BLO all surfaces and wax the top every year or so . . . or after flattening if required.

   
7. 
   jfsksa | Sep 18, 2020 03:07pm | #7

   I'll go against the purists here and say the 4x4 legs are big enough. Add stretchers top and bottom and cut a tenon on the stretcher ends. Cut dados into the legs. this makes a solid joint that won't rack. They are lots easier to cut, especially if you don't have a hollow chisel mortiser. Make them good and tight and I defy anyone to convince me that my leg assembly is less solid than one using mortise and tenons. Glue up the joints, reinforce with lag bolts and your base will last a several lifetimes. I would not add the apron. I clamp things to my bench top all the time and the apron makes this cumbersome. I made a bench this way with a 3" SYP top and love it.