Thread: Decorate a workbench.

No worries, that last pic makes it very clear why the growth rings didn't make sense to me. I suppose I was also led astray by the expression "decorating" the bench, which sort of implies adding something after the main construction. In your case you "built decoratively..."

I hope you're mentally prepared for the inevitable dings & marks a used bench acquires - this is what mine looks like after 35 plus years: preparing stuffing.jpg

Actually, it's only about 8 or 9 years since I last re-surfaced it. That is probably the most beaten-up area, because I spend 90% of my time using the tail vise. I'm not cavalier with it, I try to be reasonably careful, but a bench is just a work-holding device, after all.....
Cheers,

Originally Posted by botesmj1

... Beats my shoddy dovetail(s) on my bench [emoji16] .....

They don't look at all shoddy to me, botes, they look functional. Functional is good too....

Cheers,

Wow! What a wonderful bench Botesmj1! Dovetails that are equally beautiful as they are practical. That's a bench to most certainly be proud of and make your mates green with envy.
What's it made of if I may ask?

Cheers,
Siggy

Originally Posted by botesmj1

Its lovely work Siggy. Beats my shoddy dovetail(s) on my bench [emoji16]

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Spot on they don't look at all shoddy!

Originally Posted by IanW

They don't look at all shoddy to me, botes, they look functional. Functional is good too....

Cheers,

Hey Ian,
You're too right, I think I got confused too with the definitions of decoration
Oh the love marks will come, yup I am fully prepared for this, but I don't intend on doing any heavy bashing upon the bench as I have a set of robust saw horses and some form ply I can lay on top for doing rough work upon.

Thats a beautiful bench! looks like an Ulmia/Scandinavian type. I love it atleast what I can see of it, and the cheeky peek of the dovetails on the tail vice there!
I'd love to see more pics of it and it's very nice features.
Beaut planes too by the way. Are you making dovetailed infills?

Best regards,
Siggy

Originally Posted by IanW

No worries, that last pic makes it very clear why the growth rings didn't make sense to me. I suppose I was also led astray by the expression "decorating" the bench, which sort of implies adding something after the main construction. In your case you "built decoratively..."

I hope you're mentally prepared for the inevitable dings & marks a used bench acquires - this is what mine looks like after 35 plus years: preparing stuffing.jpg

Actually, it's only about 8 or 9 years since I last re-surfaced it. That is probably the most beaten-up area, because I spend 90% of my time using the tail vise. I'm not cavalier with it, I try to be reasonably careful, but a bench is just a work-holding device, after all.....
Cheers,

Thanks Siggy, its made from New Zealand Rimu.

Originally Posted by Siggykc

.....Thats a beautiful bench! looks like an Ulmia/Scandinavian type. I love it atleast what I can see of it, and the cheeky peek of the dovetails on the tail vice there!
I'd love to see more pics of it and it's very nice features.....

To save repetition, it's here in the workbench summary thread (post #19 on page 2).

Dunno what I'd call it, tbh, but it's certainly in the European tradition as far as general construction goes. The dimensions were taken (roughly) from Frank Klausz's bench in a FWW (circa 1984??), but I skipped the shoulder vise, because space was very limited at the time I made it. So I made a front vise using water pipe for guides and a metal tail-vise screw. I did put a bit of thought into it, but as much by luck as forethought, it turned out to fit my needs extremely well. The tail vise is a conventional European design, with a wooden screw (an early foray into wood threading).

Originally Posted by Siggykc

.....Beaut planes too by the way. Are you making dovetailed infills?.....

Yeah, made a few - the body in the pic is just one that I made after saying I wasn't going to make any more, so we'll pretend it isn't there.....

Cheers,