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31st March 2022, 12:58 PM #1Senior Member
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Evolution of a retirement workbench
For about 35 years I worked from a European/Scandinavian style L-shaped bench. Pushed a fair amount of wood over it. But it was a little smaller than I wanted. Plus, several years ago I bought a large pattern makers vise and wanted a bench on which to mount it. Then I retired and moved house and shop and found myself with an opportunity to "go big."
I found several bench designs that seemed to have parts of what I was after so I cobbled them together and came up with this a couple of years ago. It is made mostly from European beech with a few NA hardwoods (big leaf maple (Acer macrophylum) side panels and drawer fronts, Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) drawer sides, hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) for runners in the tail vise. And a bit of ebony accents. The drawers slide open from both front and back of the bench.
Benchtop BLO - 2.jpgBenchtop BLO - 3.jpgWorkbench build draw boring - 14.jpgIMG_8181.jpg
I put a European style tail vise on one end.
DSC_0007.jpg
The other end is a USA made Emmert pattern maker's vise. Probably made in the 1930's. It weighs about 90 pounds/40 kg and is a beast. Mounting it required some careful excavation of the laminated top. But worth it. It tilts, rotates, opens to about 450 mm and the jaws cant fore and aft to accommodate tapered pieces. I admit for 98% of the things I have made with it so far I have rarely used and sometimes even forget about all of those features but it sure is fun knowing they are there.
IMG_8180.JPG
After using the bench for awhile I would change two things. I would have made three shallower drawers instead of two taller drawers. And I would have made it easier to clamp/cramp along the back edge of the table. I might also add holes for holdfasts. I actually bought some holdfasts and still could do but also still hesitate to drill extra holes into the top.
In the past couple of years I have also moved toward Japanese approaches to woodworking that use more pull strokes than push strokes. That required re-thinking my bench a bit. Last week I added a simple planing stop on one end to accommodate that use.
IMG_8145.JPG
And a small Japanese planing bench (atedai) to sit on top as an experiment. I don't know yet whether I will like this or not but the idea was to use it for planing, sawing and shooting.
IMG_8169.jpg
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31st March 2022 12:58 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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31st March 2022, 04:22 PM #2
A very nice bench and I will admit I've got vice envy.
Nice bench dog too.
Regards
John
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1st April 2022, 10:57 AM #3
Glad you explained what the vise was - I thought it was a part off a locomotive !
Very nicely integrated in to the bench, and you have a great setup there
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2nd April 2022, 07:10 AM #4Senior Member
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- Nov 2020
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- Oregon, USA
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Thanks, gents. Those Emmert vises have a following. Patented in 1919, made until the company folded in the late 1970's. There were many made but became obsolete as pattern making turned to CNC and other methods. They still come up fairly often on auction sites but complete ones are expensive. I was fortunate to get one from a friend who bought two from a pattern making shop that went out of business. Some history here:
The Iron Hand - Emmert Vises
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3rd February 2023, 08:44 PM #5
Lovely work mate, You're dog don't seem too impressed though.
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