I’m building a woodworkers workbench for my first formal project in my new woodworking shop. This is also the last piece of stationary equipment to complete outfitting my woodworking shop. The design is loosely based on the traditional european style woodworking bench with front and end vises. I live in the Pacific northwest and want to use northwest materials for the workbench. The top will be made of 8/4 maple, as that is indigenous to the area. My question is does it matter what type of wood the base structure is made from? I considered using Madrona for the base, or Douglas fir, which got me to thinking what wood qualities would be required for the base structure? Seems to me just about anything would be suitable so long as it isn’t brittle or weak, but that’s the thing about ignorance, you don’t know what you don’t know! These workbenches are expensive to build, I only want to build ONE. BTW, for what it’s worth, I’ve built a number of workbenches over the years out of dimensioned lumber, but this is my first woodworking bench. Lastly, any recommendations for finish for the top?
Thanks…JJ
Replies
I built my entire bench out of recycled old growth doug fir. For the base I don't think it is that critical, I would not use something really soft but madrone or any number of hardwoods would be fine. As far as a finish I like a oil based poly because it makes it easier to scrape dried glue off. Have fun a nice bench is a wonderful thing.
Troy
Recently I made a set of dimensioned drawings in TurboCad of the top of Frank Klaus' workbench as shown in "The Workbench Book". Haven't been able to build another bench to test the drawings, but I think they're correct. I can try this coming weekend to upload to my web site a pdf of the 24 or so pages if you are interested.
Thanks for the offer. I've ordered a copy of The Workbench Book and will be reading it, so I'll see the workbench then...
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled