OMG!! Another Bench!!

[James Adinaro]

Sadly, it's true. Another bench thread.

After promising to build myself a bench for several years, I finally got after it in February. Just finished it up last night. It's a little bit of Schwartz, a little bit of a plan from somewhere, and a little bit of everyone else's ideas here on the creek. Thanks to all for the inspiration.

Here are the particulars: The top is 26 inches wide. She's short by what I'm seeing recently - she's just over 6 and a half feet long. BUT... She's made of solid hickory and purpleheart, so she weighs in at over 400 pounds! There are some pieces of hickory ply in the end panels and for the shelf. I figured there was NO WAY the ends were going to rack with the ply in them.

I used the Veritas bench bolts to hold the base together. I like them, and would use them again. I also used Dominos to align the bench top when I was putting it together. I made four slabs as big as would fit on my jointer, and cleaned them up. Registered the dominos off one face, and used them to line the four slabs up when I was doing the final glue-up of the top. There's a pic of the top glue up (that's 31 clamps). With minimal clean up, the top came out as flat as my veritas straight edge - which is a good thing, because I *really* didn't want to plane that much hickory.

This is the only project I've ever done that made my physically tired after working on it.

I will one day post a bunch more pics of the construction and a shop tour on my web site, where the pics will be better.

Thanks for looking!

[jerry nazard]

Now THAT is a pretty picture.....

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=113732&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1237743084 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=113732&d=1237743084)

Very nice bench. The purpleheart adds a classy touch.

[Bruce Page]

Beautiful!
I never tire from looking at work like this.

[Dewey Torres]

Great looking bench. Funny how you almost need a bench to make one. You are going to love that twinscrew vise.

Any plans for cabinets or drawers underneath or just leave open as is?

[Eric Brown]

When I built my bench I made it pretty so that it would inspire me to do better work. Your bench looks as though it will inspire you just as much. Good job. Now don't be afraid to get it dirty! Enjoy.

Eric

[Will Blick]

Killer BENCH!!!

[Garth Keel]

It will get banged up, but that's what it is for. :) A beautiful bench.

[Barry Rowland]

Just Awesome!!

[John Keeton]

Nice!! I really like the size myself. Seems a lot of the benches are too large, but then, maybe bigger is always better??

The purpleheart really adds a lot to the finished project. And, you gotta love the Domino!

[Wilbur Pan]

Your bench really came out nicely! I have to admire your taking on hickory for a project like this.

[Dominic Greco]

James,
You wrote:
"She's made of solid hickory and purpleheart, so she weighs in at over 400 pounds!"

:eek::eek::eek: Holy moly! When you pick tough hard woods, you don't mess around!! I think this thing could survive an F5 tornado!:D Calling it "STURDY would be the understatement of the century!

Seriously, you bench looks awesome! I love the combination of the woods. I think you'll enjoy using this baby for years to come.

Well done!

[Ron Brese]

Now that's a good looking work bench that looks like it's ready to work. You should be very proud.

Ron Brese

[James Adinaro]

Thanks to all for the kind words!

I may put some cabinets underneath, though they would only be "half-height", so as to leave plenty of room underneath for clamping.

Working that much hickory was a lot easier since I replaced the head in my jointer with a shelix (the planer already had one). I'm sure I would have gone through several changes of HSS knives - judging by the volume of sawdust, chips, etc.

[Bob Easton]

...

Working that much hickory was a lot easier since I replaced the head in my jointer with a shelix (the planer already had one). ...

HEY!!!! This is a Neander forum. The best "head" you can have in your jointer is a Hock blade. What's with this "shelix?" Real Neanders hand plane their bench lumber.

Seriously though, it's a fabulous looking bench. Enjoy!

[Bob Easton]

... Seems a lot of the benches are too large, ...

Not this one. Depends on what you want to do. Here is 16 foot long boat lumber on a too-short 12 foot long bench.

http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/big-board-long-bench.jpg

[Michael Sobik]

Looks great! Nice work on the glue up. Gluing up those big slabs can be really tough.

[James Adinaro]

HEY!!!! This is a Neander forum. The best "head" you can have in your jointer is a Hock blade. What's with this "shelix?" Real Neanders hand plane their bench lumber.

I know, I know... :rolleyes: But I'd still be working on it... For the next 6 years!

If it helps, I did hand plane each of the benchtop boards individually before the glue-up to make sure I got the grain all the same way so that future maintenance can be done with handplanes (you can see the "towards me" on the ends of the boards in the clamp picture - that was the only way I could keep them straight).

I actually made a quiz of it, and I got about 70% of them right from looking at them. That's a lot better than I used to be. I'm still early on the learning curve on the neander side.