Thread: My Jarrah Workbench

Rob, the other members comments are spot on, couldn't agree more.
What also impressed me is the beautiful patina the Jarrah has developed over the years, if only you could bottle that.
Cheers, Ian

That is all class. The DTs look great.

Rob, that is one impresseive chair you have under construction there!

The other examples of your work are also superb.

I looked at your new photos Rob and thought not much going on here
Lots of great projects over the years and all look challenging.
I would kill for a Wellington chest like that, I don't have enough drawings to store or space to display it but that wouldn't matter, love it.
Cheers, Ian

Auscab....he can talk the talk, walk the walk and do the work. Outstanding Rob.

Originally Posted by Ball Peen

Auscab....he can talk the talk, walk the walk and do the work. Outstanding Rob.

Oh, I agree. Absolutely outstanding.

Who is the table for, Inspector gadget? Can it turn into a helicopter.

HaHa , to all the above.

No Helicopter, nice if I could . If I had those type of powers I would like a Tardis thanks.

The people that ordered the table had an original smaller one , they wanted the same thing but bigger . The original was a French table ,and a lot of French tables extend that way , dovetailed rails . The table has to have center support to work though,and they have to be braced in a way that does not let them twist. The table in the picture also had a rule joint at each end ,so when it was closed they could drop the ends down so it went from tiny to huge. The rule joins are just out from the legs , I cant see them in that picture.

The Wing chairs are finished in leather, we once owned the original which makes it easier to figure out how to make them.

Rob.

That is one extremely nice bench

if you were building it today, what would you change?

I would change two things.

I made the tail vice to tight the first time , It would squeal in winter and come good in summer. I had to get to it with some flat thin saw blades and it came good . I took about five years to get around to fixing it though , it now spins with one finger.

The other thing is, I would have liked to have planned a locking system a bit like a Cutler Desk where a lever pushed releases a catch at the back of all the drawers at once to leave them free to open . I don't know if I could still do this or if I will fit locks one day. Being able to lock away a tool collection would be good though.

Rob

Thanks

It is interesting that you understood and appreciated your woodworking skills and needs back when you made the bench. I am impressed on a number of levels

Thanks Nick,
Dad started his Cabinet Making apprenticeship in 1950 , I started a Cabinet Making apprenticeship under him in 1979 . roughly 17 years later I built that bench ,another 17 years and I posted it here. I say roughly because I know the drawings were done in 96, I just cant remember if I finished the bench that year. it's written under the top. I will carve it in the end of the bench one day.
The drawings, some of them sketched at home have cats and dogs drawn on the back that I did for my 3 year old son in 96 this week he has been working for me , he's 19 . If he stays and starts an apprenticeship he will be my 8th .

When I built the bench I stayed back each night with my first apprentice , he built one for himself to his design and I did mine. After machining they were hand planed , scraped ,lightly sanded and french polished.
Ian mentioned the patina,and yes if it could be poured from a bottle it would be great Ian .
What happens though , is every now and then when it gets a bit to dirty I give it a light cut back with a oil and turps mix and give it a go over with a rubber with shellac and it comes up like in the pictures ,the top has had a few more goes than the base though . Its a heck of a slab of Jarrah on the top, made in parts it was bolted together with concealed nuts and two pack glue,the back board dovetailed in . the Jarrah was second hand from a demolished winery I was told, some of it was rough and obviously from a huge vat construction , none of that went into the bench ,the good timber was 200 x 90s all about ten feet long , quite an amazing load of wood for $300 thinking back.

I have a few more pictures I can show of a cabinet scraper holder that fits in the tail vice that I made, and a saw holder which sits in the face vice. I will try and take some snaps of.

Rob

I've looked a lot of benches and a lot of books about benches, yours is the exact bench I have been daydreaming about and doodling pictures of for years... only so much nicer.

Do you find the board jack/dead man useful, Rob?

Cheers,
Matt

Thanks Matt,
Doodle then draw to scale, If you need it, I'm happy to help answer a question, if I can, of a person who goes down the right path of sketches then scale drawings ,then a cutting list marked out in L x W x Thickness . It's the only way to do it.
I remember at the time of planning that trying to see in my minds eye how a tale vice would work while sitting on a cabinet was a bit confusing . plans with a cutting list ?? I wonder if there is a buck in it? like a lot of things these days , probably not.

The board jack is just as useful as the tail vice , it's always at the ready to support work for things like shooting joins of every size, but it gets a lot of work whenever I work on assembled drawers, like fitting escutcheons and placing handles, fine tuning drawer sides and fitting applied cock beads to drawer ends and fitting hinges to door sides locks to doors.

When I'm in full swing building, which only happens with no interruptions, and I have a set of drawers or whatever and I'm going from bench top work with the tail vice to face vice with board jack, then to the table behind me and I have figured out the sequence of the things that need to be done to make the work happen the right way [ It is different with each job ] Things do get done quick, and many times I have had a smile or laugh out loud at having such a tool.

Roughly the first fifteen years including my apprenticeship were spent restoring Antiques after that I went into mainly building what people wanted in Antique styles , this is when I needed a bench with the features that it has. before that there was only one bench in the place that had a tail vice , when it came to building furniture without tail vices and I was paying guys to do it as well , plenty of time gets wasted.
We have a loose board jack as well that gets shared with the other benches.

Rob