Thread: WIP Shaker Workbench with Split Top

For those interested what the troublesome butterfly inlay looks like after some finish was applied......



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I'm happy enough with how it turned out in the end.

Originally Posted by ian

............any idea how much hardwood (in cubic metres or kg) is in your bench?

All the way back in post #22, Ian asked how heavy the bench was at the time. I kinda guessed that the base at that stage was about 150kg. Well.....now that the bench is finally finished, curiosity finally got the better of me and I decided to calculate it the best I could. Below is my guesstimation:


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The figure above is my best guess. I gave an arbitrary figure of 50kg for the 9 drawers which I believe to be conservative. My calculations do not take into account any screws/bolts, vice hardware, and the ply used for the centre panels/shelves/and walls of the cupboard. I also do not know the species of timber I used for the leg vise and sliding deadman. The timber was sold to me as Blackbutt but its density is closer to Tassie Oak so I used a density figure of 675 kg/cu.m . I've also noticed that I didn't include the sliding deadman in my calculations. My source for the density values was Business Qld who I figured would have the more accurate figures for the timbers I primarily used.


I knew she was a heavy girl........but I certainly wasn't expecting 600kg !!! That's 1322 pounds in the old currency for our American friends.

CORRECTION: I had the decimal point in the wrong spot for the thickness of the front leg vise chop......




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She's "only" 537 kg or 1180 lb .

Having met Mike today and seen the bench in person I am no longer surprised by the 500kg+ weight. T what a fantastic looking bench mate. Well done. Biggest challenge will be finding big enough timber to need the full extent of your masterpiece!

I just went and looked at the photos on page 17. Wowwwww you have done yourself proud Mike.

I only hope I can do half as well when I pull out the hardware I bought some time ago.

Originally Posted by DerekC

Having met Mike today and seen the bench in person I am no longer surprised by the 500kg+ weight. T what a fantastic looking bench mate. Well done. Biggest challenge will be finding big enough timber to need the full extent of your masterpiece!

Thanks Derek. It's always a pleasure to shoot the breeze with a fellow woody. The next bench won't be as long or as deep and therefore won't be as heavy but it won't need to be because it'll be up against the wall. I'll probably cheap out again and use reclaimed timber or whatever I already have in the racks. Cheers.

Originally Posted by AndrewPatrol

I just went and looked at the photos on page 17. Wowwwww you have done yourself proud Mike.

I only hope I can do half as well when I pull out the hardware I bought some time ago.

Thanks for your kind words, Andrew. I'm very happy how it turned out and I really surprised myself. Tune in next week to the same Bat-channel for the next installment titled "Shaker Roubo Hybrid Workbench #2".


Cheers,
Mike