Hickory and Red Oak workbench
The finished bench with Veritas end vise,sliding front vise, and patternmaker's vise.
The end panels are drawbored together and hold the raised panels in mortices
When I finally decided to build a real workbench in 2008 I bought all the popular books on the subject. I took a little bit from all of them, but Chris Schwartz’ Le Rubo design made the most sense to me for the way I work and the projects I take on. I bought the hickory for the top from a sawmill in Southeastern Massachusetts and made the legs from a Red Oak that the top blew off of in my backyard. I stickered the hickory to dry in my basement for a year prior to jointing and glueing the top. The legs sit in mortices in the underside of the top and are not pinned or glued so that the bench can be taken apart. The total weight of the bench is in the 400 lb range. I use an automotive floor jack and a pair of skateboards to move it when necessary.
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The finished bench with Veritas end vise,sliding front vise, and patternmaker's vise.
The end panels are drawbored together and hold the raised panels in mortices
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Other than the vises, there are no metal fastenings in the bench. Shown here are the tusk tennons which secure the stretchers across the front and rear of the bench
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Top glueup almost complete
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The patternmaker's vise had to be recessed into the top to be flush to the front and top.
This took lots of work with holesaws, chisels and routers, not to mention scrapers and sandpaper!
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A view of the vise cutout prior to installation
Comments
Nice looking bench. Where did you get your patternmaker's vise? Is it an old one, or one of the new ones? I've been looking to get a patternmaker's vise, so any comments would be appreciated.
The Pattternmaker's vise is one of the new copies, This one came from Highland. Works fine for me.
Nice work. Something that will last for generations.
I wish I could find the time and patience to make an awesome bench like this. I am still working on a bunch of 2x4s screwed together for a bench.
How many feet was the bench top overhung to accomodate the twin scre veritas?
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