Thread: New bench? NO - a renovation!

I decided to renovate the old workbench. It has served well for a few decades, but there were some things I did not like about the old design. The inability to easily clamp to the surface of the bench, it was a pain reaching under the wide apron to push up the dogs and it was also just a bit too light at times when planing. The mass just wasn’t there, even though the legs, bottom rails & stretchers were very dense aussy hardwood (when I made it originally it was green F27 building hardwood. Also, the old Dawn quick release vice on the front was just – well - TOO quick to release! So it was time to upgrade to something beefier and more reliable. And I wanted an end vice.

The old design was a traditional English cabinetmakers bench – a wide front apron to prevent wracking, and a comparatively light (compared to the Roubou design at least) framework below – two side rails & a single long centre stretcher between the two. The top was a wide front work surface with a generous tool well and a narrow area at the rear for supporting wide stock & for assembly. The whole thing was a bot together design. The apron was key to the rigidity, with four bolts into each leg.

Unfortunately I forgot to take any “before” photos, but it was something like this design from Graham Haydon (but with a centre stretcher between the two bottom end rails, and an apron only at the front):
English Workbench.jpg

Plan of the old stretcher layout:

Original Stretchers.jpg

I kept the original legs & laminated some more hardwood to the front to bring them out flush with the Oregon top (once I removed the old front apron, the top wasn’t flush with the legs). The bottom end rails & the stretcher were not reused.

I was happy with the original top (300 x 75 Oregon for the main work surface) and I like the tool well. So that didn’t need a refresh, just some work to fix old Dawn vice mounting bolt holes & the cut-out where I had originally had to thin the top a bit to fit it:

Repair.jpg

I laminated some recycled Oregon & Radiata pine (both left over from house renovations) for the new stretchers & bottom end rails. The end rails were a simple lamination of 2 pieces of 170 x 45 Oregon, but the long stretchers were a bit more complex. The idea was to make a full length cavity to take some 12mm threaded rod – this would allow the whole thing to be tightened, but to allow disassembly if required. The centre 70 x 19 pieces of the lamination were extended to make double tenons at each end, and a piece of 40 x 19 Radiata made a ledge for the shelf under the bench.

Stretchers.jpg


I morticed the legs for the long stretchers (and also the left front leg for the parallel guide) & glued up the bottom end rails & front & back legs to make rigid assemblies for both the right & left sides (as well as draw boring & pegging them), then assembled the frame with the long stretchers & the threaded rod. The whole thing was VERY stable, even without the top end rails attached.

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The shelf between the stretchers was made from some cypress pine flooring.

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The top end rails bolt to the top of the legs, and the benchtop bolts down into the top end rails.

I laminated some very dense hardwood (forget which species) that I had left over from a door sill to make a leg vice. I used a steel tail vice screw from Carbatec, and treated myself to a Hovarter X-Link rather than the traditional parallel guide. The shipping from Len Hovarter was very quick & the whole thing was quite an easy install. The installation guide from Len is very thorough, and the mechanism works really well. It’s a precision piece of engineering. As its aluminium, the shipping is a lot less than the Benchcrafted Crisscross, and aluminium is actually stiffer than cast iron. The swivel bearing Len uses for the top pin makes alignment much easier, so there is some tolerance for a bit of inaccuracy in drilling. I can highly recommend this (and no – id did not get a freebie or a discount for publicity – just very happy with the outcome.)

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I used a Carbatec Front Vice as an end vice. As I have two rows of dog holes, this works out really well. The jaw is also from some of that recycled Oregon, and I have dogs in the moveable jaw of the end vice.

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My bench anvil is on the bottom shelf to add even more mass – not that it needs it. It requires two people to move this sucker!

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All in all this was a great bench renovation. I only wish I had done it sooner!