Lie-Nielsen workbench impressions

[Aram]

When I started woodworking about 14 years ago, I chased down a Craigslist table saw. It was gone by the time I got there, but the seller had a traditional workbench he had built when he trained as a cabinet maker. He never used it, but kept it "for sentimental reasons." He didn't seem sentimental about anything but his bottle of Kronenbourg, but for $250 I scored big. It wasn't very flat, it was covered with some hard substance I had to belt-sand off, the tail vise sagged in a way I could never completely fix, and the shoulder vise was always awkward to me -- but it worked. After a lot of flattening by hand plane, I had a usable tool in my garage shop.

I moved last year, sold the bench to a friend, and picked up a Lie-Nielsen for my new outbuilding wood shop. Surprisingly, I didn't find much in the way of reviews online. I don't know why. I've had it for almost a year, and I thought I'd post some impressions.

It took a couple of months to get. The delivery people, it turns out, also assemble it on site. That's not saying much though -- this bench is all about simplicity. A few bolts, less than ten minutes, and I had a workbench. My floor is not quite flat, so I tapped a hardwood wedge in under one of the feet. It is rock solid.

This is the standard LN workbench. It runs 7' long, 24" wide, and 35" high, though by request you can have a different height. I find the dimensions very usable for everything I do. I use a Roubo-type vise for precision sawing, and otherwise, the 35" height is perfect for my 5'11" frame.

Side and end views:





To my surprise, it was pre-drilled for holdfasts. I had thought that was by special request (and extra fee) only. Nice.

The bench is solid, and as simple as it gets for a bench with moving parts. The top is solid 4" maple. No apron, just thick and square. Oh, and dead flat. Even a winter of soaking wet Oregon weather didn't warp this beast.


Nice features abound. The legs are flush with the top, and as we are talking Lie-Nielsen here, I mean dead flush. Chris Schwarz has written extensively on the reasons that is a good thing. There are also holdfast holes in the leg at the tail vise. Lots of ways to hold boards here. Support just where you need it. Clamping without cursing.



Accessories? Bench dogs come with the bench. Wood, as dogs should be should you bash your plane. Holdfasts are a few bucks extra, but well worth the cost.



Again, the overall simplicity of this table gives me confidence that I won't be doing tricky re-alignments over the years. The tail vise is straight, no L, thick, and strong.



The jaws are lined with leather, and are aligned to meet perfectly. Clamp and saw away!



Miraculously, it is dead flush with the benchtop, a feature my previous bench definitely did not boast. If you like to use dogs for planing, go for it. The board sits dead flat even under clamping pressure, and won't budge.



The holdfasts work reasonably well, though for some operations -- for example, rabbeting the end of a board with a skew rabbet plane -- I also need a bar clamp to keep the work from pivoting.



The face vise is chain drive, twin-screw affair. Again, lined with leather.





It works perfectly and as long as the vise is adjusted parallel to the table edge, it holds perfectly along its entire length. The obvious disadvantage of this design is the fixed distance between the screws, which limits the width of wood that will fit. I'm happy with it. There are plenty of ways to clamp wider boards, again, with the flush-to-the-tabletop legs adding quite a few options. Mine came a touch out of parallel. No biggie. Parallelism is adjusted easily from under the table via 4 Allen head bolts, big enough at 1/4 inch that you are not likely to strip them, and easy to adjust if you own a ratchet -- and an extender! I had it dialed in in minutes.



I am very happy with this bench. It is a beast. It is flat, and I mean dead flat, something I care about very much as I have been cutting a lot of dovetails. It is a precision tool. No frills (unless you consider the twin-screw feature a frill; I don't). 

I'm happy I bought this.

[Bibliophile 13]

Great review! That's no surprise coming from LN, but your perspective on the whole thing is helpful.

I remember a time when many of us here were into building our own workbenches. Back then, it almost seemed like cheating to buy a bench ready-made. But a lot of craftsmen in the past never built their own workbenches, either because the benches were owned by the shop in which they worked, or because they bought them for their own shops. For people who would rather spend their valuable time building other things, buying a bench makes a lot of sense.

It's good to know that there are still high-quality workbenches being made commercially!

[Strokes77]

Thanks for review. I've lusted after one for awhile and like you, have not seen a lot of reviews.

[Mark A Smith]

The Swarz wrote a review shortly after they modified them to bring the legs flush with the front. He found a lot to like and nothing to complain about.

A few years back I built a clone of this bench using LN tail vise and optional vise jaw, and 18 inch twin screw vise. Mine is seven feet by about 22 inches. Rock solid. I lined both vises with some leather to improve the grip. They are both great vises. This bench offers a lot of clamping options. I found it to meet my needs perfectly.

If you can't build your own, the LN is probably the best bench you can buy. Their design of the tail vise sets it apart from all the others I know of. I am a fan of flush set legs to increase your clamping options.

[Philip1231]

I've been using my clone of a LN bench for a few years now, and have no regrets: it does everything well, and if it has any shortcomings, I have not found them yet.

[AHill]

Nice review.

Fine Woodworking did a workbench review in 2007 and Lie-Nielsen came out on top.  I think the Sjobergs Elite 2500 also scored well, but it has 1" dog holes, which are somewhat unconventional.  I have the Sjobergs bench (LN not available when I got mine).  I would have preferred a tail vise like the LN were I to do it all over again.

[Mark A Smith]

I've been using my clone of a LN bench for a few years now, and have no regrets: it does everything well, and if it has any shortcomings, I have not found them yet.

Fine Woodworking did a workbench review in 2007 and Lie-Nielsen came out on top. 

That is the older LN bench with the inset legs, single screw vise, and L shaped tail vise. So even with those 'handicaps' the LN bench came out on top. The new bench is far superior: twin screw chain vise, new tail vise, and flush legs. If you don't have the time to build your own, but have the money I don't think you can find a better bench to buy.

Here is the Swarz's review on Vimeo and then at Pop Woodworking. The reviewed bench is close, but not identical, to the one LN is now selling. LN has moved the legs so that the top now overhangs on the LHS as seen in Aram's photos.

[titanxt]

Nice review and that is a really nice smoothing plane you have!!! Andy

[adamcherubini]

I built a bench like this when I first started.  Not my first or second bench, because it was pretty hard to build. It was pretty beautiful when it was done.  All beech. My legs weren't flush, which i totally regretted, but otherwise I had a similar set up, tail vise, etc etc. Everyone who visited and especially all the women oohed and aahed, thinking they would like one as a kitchen island. (I guess these look like big cutting boards).

I grew to hate that bench. Its such an iconic popular style, I even felt bad about it.  But I grew to hate it none the less. I found there were features these benches just missed:

1) I never loved using the tail vise to pinch boards for planing.  It works, but when you plane at an angle, invariably the board slips sideways.  Tightening the tail vise either mars the ends or causes the board to jump when it inevitably slips out. Thin or narrow stock cups or distorts between the dogs. And I didn't love planning over the gap. Eventually all of these tail vises sag. The tail vise opening kicks butt.  But I fell out of love with trying to pinch wood to react a side load. That's just dumb.

2) The adjustable height dogs should need a mallet blow to change their height.  But they never do.  That spring on the side needs to be steel I guess. I used to jam plane shavings in their to get them to stop retreating in the bench.

3) Those flat machined hard wood tops are slippery. No amount of clamping a smooth board to a smooth bench can resist the effort of planning a rough board to thickness. Maybe light smoothing is ok.  Best bench mod I ever made was buying some rubber coated open weave burlap used for drawer liners such and using that under my work pieces.  With that, you almost don't need a planning stop. Second bench was sawing 2" off the legs and dropping the bench down so I could use my upper body weight on my planes. I think my bench is 2" under my palm height, which is 2" shorter than most people recommend.

4) The most useful and efficient operation I think you can perform on a work bench is edge work.  All too often, this operation is an after thought. I've used a variety of different vises on the LHS of my bench.  My favorite has been my 2-1/2" wooden twin screw.  But I either remove it or at least yank out the RH screw when I edge plane. When I dimension stock, I typically remove it for the day (or week).  It only comes back once I start joinery. Not sure if Chris was influenced by my thoughts on that or if he reached the same conclusion (hoping the latter). When I think of operations you can legitimately do better, faster, cheaper by hand, edge joining/ edge work is #1. Often overlooked.

5) Last, cross cut sawing on the RHS is such a vitally important task to me, I would never clutter the RH end with a vise. I leave my bench hook there all the time.

Glad you are happy with your bench and don't let me change your mind or make you feel bad about your choice one bit. Guys have these benches and spend a lifetime of happiness with them. But if you are committed to hand work and find yourself fighting the bench that SO many woodworkers think is absolutely awesome, I just wanted to say that it might not be you.

I guess I feel like not enough people qualified their statements when I was learning the craft and I feel/felt misled to some degree. When I later encountered these various authors, I found that they wrote about things that maybe that really didn't have that much experience with.  When I make furniture by hand, ripping, edge work, surface planning and cross cutting are a significant portion of the hours that go into a project. These are all operations sane people do with machines. They bring dimensioned stock to their "hand tool" benches for joinery. That's not a hand tool bench to me.  That's a hybrid woodworkers bench. Hand tool benches need to have easy provisions for undimensioned stock. I consider 8' long benches to be the minimum I would accept.  Next bench will be 12'.

Here's one I'll bet will find its way into someone's book or magazine article unattributed. Let me know when you see it!

Saw horses are table saws.
Work benches are jointers, planers, band saws, miter saws, shaper or router tables.
Vises are jigs, like dovetail jigs, tenoning jigs, maybe hollow chisel mortisers or drill presses.

[Skip J.]

"snip  ......by hand, ripping, edge work, surface planning and cross cutting are a significant portion of the hours that go into a project. These are all operations sane people do with machines. They bring dimensioned stock to their "hand tool" benches for joinery. That's not a hand tool bench to me.  That's a hybrid woodworkers bench. Hand tool benches need to have easy provisions for undimensioned stock. I consider 8' long benches to be the minimum I would accept.  Next bench will be 12'.

Here's one I'll bet will find its way into someone's book or magazine article unattributed. Let me know when you see it!

Saw horses are table saws.
Work benches are jointers, planers, band saws, miter saws, shaper or router tables.
Vises are jigs, like dovetail jigs, tenoning jigs, maybe hollow chisel mortisers or drill presses.

This...

Thanks Adam, we appreciate it!