Wood for a bench build

[tablesawtom]

I have been wrestling with the idea of gluing 2 boards together to make it thicker. If you look at my bench closely you will see holes in the side of the top and in the top itself. The holes are for my holdfasts. I like holdfasts and mine are made out of car tire irons.  since it was 13 degrees below zero this morning when I got up and it is recommended that both the wood and glue be at least 55 degree I do not see myself getting started any time soon. I have a lot of air dried 6/4th walnut and I am considering doing the legs and stretchers out of it for contrast.

I have two books on benches, the workbench Book by Scott Landus and the The workbench by Lon Schleining. And if a person is thinking about building a bench I would recommend either one for ideas and information before starting. The book  The workbench by Lon Schleining,( a complete guide to creating your perfect bench ) covers a lot of information about size, material, and such . I guess I am saying there are a lot of benches out there to build besides a Roubo, which is somewhat limiting as I see it.

Tom

[tablesawtom]

Tom:  I recognized the inspiration from the Hancock bench; I've not read Scott's book, but I've been to Hancock Shaker Village and saw that bench in person, the guy in the woodshop let me across the ropes to play with it.  That being said, I like your's better!

I would love to see the bench and play with it. I would love to look over some of the old shops out east if there are any left. I liked going to  Handworks in Amana and wandering around in the old buildings. I took the tour of the Furniture factory twice now. 

The hardest part of building the bench was deciding how deep to make the drawers. I prefer to use Steel rules so the inside width had to be over 24 inches wide . Then I had to decide what else was going into that drawer . So what was going into a drawer controlled the height of the drawer.  Also I do a lot of glue up and Bessey didn't make 18 " K body clamps until recently so the top had to be wide enough for 24 inch clamps to set on the bench when they were wide open so the top had to be wider and so I got 15 inch drawer slides for the front and 12 inch slides for the back

I guess a lot of thought and research and development went into the bench.  The base boards are held on with magnates they pull off and I have threaded inserts in the legs so I can fasten on Rockler bench casters s o I can move it.  All the cabinets just set in there and everything comes apart for transport so there are 2 end caps 4 stretchers. 5 separate cabinets and the bottom of the tool tray pulls out for places for the hand s to grip. And here is a picture of the Moxon vise that was also built in.

   

So I am very pleased that you like my bench because there is a lot going on that is not seen.

Tom

[Timberwolf]

Why not a 6 foot bench? Because here are a couple of pictures of my 8 foot bench in my shop.





I have wanted a portable bench for a long time now and it will come in handy if I am doing some work at home, or at my son's or daughter's house. My bench is my most used tool in my shop. When I finish, I will have a good solid  portable bench to work from. I chose a Moravian bench because from the you tub video it knocked down in about 2 minutes.  And a 2 inch solid top should be plenty solid enough for a portable bench.  I also have bench top saw and it can go where my cabinet saw can't, to location.

When a person is on a fixed income $100  for ash is $100 and free is even better. Glue up time doesn't come out of my pocket.

Here is the leg screw I posted a while back, and the other picture is a picture of a screw I bought for the bottom of a leg vise on a previous bench. Rather than having a board at the bottom with holes in it, I used a screw .







Anyway I can mortise and trap the nut in and that takes care of the screw part of the vise.  Much like I did for the moxon vise I built into my bench. I figured I could pull the jaw back by hand but since I have access to a metal lathe I am going to cut a grove in it and make a holder. Here is a picture of a screw I bought from lee valley  and basic ally I am going to do the same thing on a smaller scale. The big nut in the middle will be the small hex nut.



I am going to check black iron pipe tees in the next couple days for the handle. I chose the iron tee because of the top thickness. I want stuff to be able to hang over the entire top of the bench.
Here is a picture of how the fabricated wagon vise will look and operate. and I thought I would trow the other leg vise components. Vise hardware can get expensive only because you let it. Being able to spin the vises open and closed adds about $700.






And I got help from here on the forum just finding the plans. 

Tom

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
That's a serious bench.......