Thread: Another new bench

Hi,
Top of my bench is about 70mm pine and is doing the job just fine but as those boards are already 70mm you will end up with a bit less after dressing. I guess if there is enough wood then ripping those boards and going for a thicker top would be option one. M&T work I usually have the tenon half the thickness of the member that leaves the shoulders a quarter of the thickness. Usually on benches the joint is a through joint then either wedged or drawbored. The long stretchers I secured with a bedboard bolt like joint so the thing can come apart for moving in the future. Has already been handy. Moving a whole bench to another shed is no light task.
Enjoy the build and keep the pictures flowing.
Regards
John

Thanks for the input John. The timber for the top was already dressed for its previous life so provided it measures up ok I don't expect to lose very much. With the M&T's I could go all the way through on the side rails but not on the end ones.

Don't know if you have read through this thread but covers a lot of builds and the design reasons behind them. Plenty good ideas there.
SHOW US YOUR WOODWORKING BENCH - a summary thread

Regards
John

We all love a good bench build. With lots of photos Work out where your vices are going to go and design accordingly. Also allow for holdfasts. Easily the most used holding option on my benches.
I recently installed Veritas Prairie Dogs in the dog holes over the face vice. Great little devices. Previously I had to open the face vice to use those dog holes with the tail vice.

Being right handed, my thinking is tail vice on the right end, face vice on the left. A line of dog holes for the tail vice with corresponding holes on the other side. Also a number of holes for hold downs, including some in the right hand leg. A sliding deadman also seems a good idea so planning for that as well

Huon, last September I picked up hnt Gordon face,tail vise and a couple holdfast clamps for my bench,

Here is the thread I asked where to put the face vise.
Front vise location?

I still don't understand why 1 side of the bench is overhang longer than the other but I just do it , it seems useful that I can put the shop vac under there.

Hoey

Hoey, where did you get the advice on the long overhang? Have you looked a Terry's video on bench set up? He doesn't have the overhang of yours. He also gives some advice on holdfast hole placement.
Video':' Setting up Your Workbench - Australian Wood Review

Originally Posted by Huon pine fan

Hoey, where did you get the advice on the long overhang? Have you looked a Terry's video on bench set up? He doesn't have the overhang of yours. He also gives some advice on holdfast hole placement.
Video':' Setting up Your Workbench - Australian Wood Review

I can't find any advices regarding the overhang so I just copied what I see on th internet

A lot of the time the overhang is for the tail vice screw. Well mine was as I just used a regular small vice and the screw and arms are underneath. If you are using Terry's tail vice then the overhang is not so necessary. Chopping mortices and other hammering is usually done over a leg to reduce bounce so that can have an infulence on layout.
Regards
John

I managed to advance the bench a bit this weekend. Starting with the piece of 200 x 150 oregon that I had, I first cut off a piece the length that I required. I then ran it through the bandsaw to get the size that I needed for the lower rails. That went pretty well until a shower of sparks stopped proceedings. It turns out that the rather large hole that can be seen contained a rather large steel washer. That managed to account for 3 teeth on my just sharpened resaw king blade and probably didn't help some others either. Ouch!!! After trimming off some further excess with the bandsaw, which still seemed to perform okay, I ran the timbers through the jointer and thicknesser to end up with some substantial rails. My next task, apart from getting a new blade, will be to cut out the mortises in the legs. I have never done M&T before so hopefully that will go well. I will catch up on youtube beforehand.

Sorry about the bandsaw blade but that is sometimes the price of recycled wood. Think most of us have been there.
Perhaps it's time to get a metal detector. I use a magnet on a string and it works quite well and also probe any holes with an awl as quite often the end of a screw or nail is still down there. Keep the pics coming as we all love bench builds.
Regards
John

Hadn't seen Terry's video on setting up the workbench - thanks for the link. Curious to note that calculating bench height by his method leads to something about 2-3" higher than what I get using the usual methods (e.g. to wrist joint with hands by your side). I was thinking of dropping bench height a fair bit for a new build, now I'm not so sure??

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

Hadn't seen Terry's video on setting up the workbench - thanks for the link. Curious to note that calculating bench height by his method leads to something about 2-3" higher than what I get using the usual methods (e.g. to wrist joint with hands by your side). I was thinking of dropping bench height a fair bit for a new build, now I'm not so sure??

I agree Mr Brush, Terry's thinking doesn't work for me either. I am about 173cm tall and my existing bench at about 910mm is probably a little too high for me so I am thinking of 50mm or so less. With Terry's method it would need to be higher. Having said that I suspect that he might have in mind extended periods of planing which ergonomically might be correct

Interesting - had to just go out to shed and check....

I'm 180cm, and fairly long in the arm. Existing bench, which I've always felt to be too high for most work, is 960mm. This almost exactly matches the height I come up with using Terry's method. Most other ways of calculating this (I have the Chris Schwarz bench book) come up with about 860mm for me, so maybe split the difference and go with something around 900mm high?

Since I won't be re-using the existing bench undercarriage (pinus crappiata) I might try hacking bits off the legs until I find a height I'm comfortable with, then build the new one.....