Split Top - Advantages?

[Michael Peet]

Has anyone built a split-top bench like in the Benchcrafted plans?

http://www.benchcrafted.com/plans.htm

It sounds kind of neat, but I was wondering if it was worth the extra effort.

Mike

[Sean Kinn]

I built a split-top Holtzappfel, and I love it! Vey handy for clamping, and when working with things like chairs.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4zu_BDW7_VE/SxMLOste20I/AAAAAAAACTg/CkUvW9uj8PM/s400/IMG_1642.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4zu_BDW7_VE/SxMLPE6a6SI/AAAAAAAACTk/fL4nvpBGgYI/s400/IMG_1643.JPG

[Michael Peet]

Thanks Sean. Did you also make an insert to fill the gap when you want a totally flat surface? If so, is it just a friction fit?

Great-looking bench by the way!

Mike

[Sean Kinn]

He he...I intend to make a piece to fill in the gap, but I still haven't gotten around to it.

It will be just like the one that Jameel from Benchcrafted designed. If you insert it "right-side up" it will be flush with the bench. If you insert it "upside-down" it will sit about 1/2" proud of the surface to act as a planing stop. I was very careful when I secured my two top slabs to keep everything at 90 degrees, and the gap very uniform for the entire length of the top. I won't fasten the gap filling piece in place, and only friction and gravity will secure it. It will also have through slots in it like the Benchcrafted version to hold tools.

[James Taglienti]

I'm afraid that would drive me insane- do you have an insert to put in it when you don't need it split?

[Harlan Barnhart]

It seems like a good idea for clamping but I'm afraid chisels, precision squares, marking knives, my new tite-marks guage ect... would roll/slide/get pushed into it.

[Sean Kinn]

It seems like a good idea for clamping but I'm afraid chisels, precision squares, marking knives, my new tite-marks guage ect... would roll/slide/get pushed into it.

That's exactly why you make a removable piece to fill the gap. Check out the pictures of the "original" at Benchcrafted.com

If you wanted to you could even make multiple inserts..one that is flush, one that is recessed 1.5" or so to act as a mini tool tray, and on and on.

[Matt Benton]

Seems to me there is enough real estate around the edges of the top for clamping with a standard bench. I wonder how beneficial it would be for ripping by hand. I assumed that was the primary benefit (not that many people do that, btw)...

[Jon Toebbe]

If you wanted to you could even make multiple inserts..one that is flush, one that is recessed 1.5" or so to act as a mini tool tray, and on and on.
Bob Lang's "21st Century Workbench" employs an interesting solution to this problem. He build three boxes that fit into the gap. Turn a box right-side up and you've got a tool tray. Turn it upside-down and you've got a flush work surface. Remove it, and you've got room to sneak a clamp in just about anywhere.

It seems to me that having three, smaller, removable tool trays would be better than one big one. Time to put away the tools? You've got three conveniently sized totes to ferry things back to the chest/cabinet/shelves/etc. Tray full of shavings? Dump it straight into the bin and get back to work.

The other thing that appealed to me was Bob's demonstration of a Japanese bench hook. The cleat hooks onto the gap, the fence is near you, and the pulling action of the saw clamps the board up to the fence. Much more flexible than clamping a "backwards" bench hook into your face vice, it seems to me.

Some examples of the Nicholson-style English workbench have a gap in the middle, I seem to recall. Takes care of the wood movement problem, for one thing.

Of course, all this is purely academic for me, for the time being. My "bench" is going to be a red cedar planing beam and a pair of trestles. Yeah, cedar is soft, but it's all gotta live outdoors year round since my "shop" is the front porch of our apartment.

[Mike Siemsen]

I built a Nicholson bench a while back with a split top. When Chris Schwarz saw photos of the split top in use he said, "it opened my head like a can opener". You can see some photos of the build and bench on my blog at http://schoolofwood.com/node/27 There are some other posts about the bench and building it in the blog.
Mike

[Michael Peet]

Thanks Mike, I just read your blog as well as the Schwarz blog where he mentioned your split-top.

Also, welcome to SMC!

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

I have seen a split bench were one side was moveable with a couple of screw so it could work like a vise for long glue ups. It also had other advantages.

I think it was in an old FWW on benches.

jim

[Johnny Kleso]

My Bench is a Charlesworth Split Top

http://home.comcast.net/~rexmill/projects/bench/bench2_small.jpg

More Pics
http://home.comcast.net/~rexmill/projects/bench/bench.htm

[Frank Drew]

I like a broad, flat-topped bench; I intentionally didn't incorporate a tool trough in mine because I think they take up valuable real estate and just become catchalls for junk and sawdust, and more often than not tools in the tool trough stick up too much and have to be removed anyway when you need the whole top. Pains in the butt, says I :D.

Same with a split top; I can't think of any advantage over other methods of work holding, but I do see disadvantages; plus, as Harlan noted, they're just another place for tools to roll off the bench onto the floor.

I'm willing to be convinced, barely, but I just can't see it yet.

[Jeff Ranck]

Has anyone built a split-top bench like in the Benchcrafted plans?

Mike

I've had the same exact question and was about to start a thread when I ran across yours. I guess I'm not going to do any woodworking until I get back from a 2+ yr work assignment in India. However, I do sit here with sketch-up and draw things I dream about. I have a bunch of ash sitting in my shop back home waiting to be made into a bench. I've been seriously considering the split top design. A couple of things have been drifting my thinking that way. First, I've always had a wider bench. The rickety old bench (ROB) has a plywood top that used to be 4' wide and which I've now cut down to about 3'. The thought of going to something as narrow as 20" or 24" scares me a little. I guess if I split the top, I can always make it wider by moving from a fill like that of the benchcrafted design to something like the tool trays of Bob Lang's 21st century bench. Just make 4 new boards on the base. I've seen demos of using the split to either rip or crosscut boards. Seems like it could be useful. Of course, by the time I get home and start working on it, new designs will be out there and I'll think "now that is the design I want."

[Joseph Klosek]

It would seem to me that a split top would just make you have to reach more to get to the work that is clamped in the center.

A more narrow top that is about 22" - 26" seems more practical.

Other than using the gap as a clamping space for narrow boards, I can't see any advantage.

Although I do see trying to accomodate the work to the bench because of the gap as opposed to the other way around.

I am a curmudgeon. I have seen a lot of new fangled bench designs but the idea of a solid slab with a stout base just works.

I am speaking from a hand tool perspective as opposed to some sort of power tool work holding device.

J.P.

[John Sanford]

One big advantage of a split top is it's easier to build the top, and the separate elements are easier to flatten. Not as much easier as one may think though, because you have to make sure that the splits are flat to one another, which probably gets harder as the split gets wider.

Another advantage is it can simplify some clamping tasks, and as far as I can imagine, it doesn't make any clamping tasks more difficult.

A drawback to the split top is you can't actually build a Roubo structure. The split top requires top stretchers between the front and back legs.

I personally am currently leaning towards a wider Benchcrafted design, i.e. the Benchcrafted base and vises with a wider split (a la the 21st Century Workbench), largely because I do want a "tool tray" of sorts to keep things from sliding off the bench, and I'd like the planing stop functionaly. I may simply fab up a loooong "planing stop", i.e. movable backstop, for the backside of my current bench. Doing so will allow me to determine if it works and solves my problem of tools heading off the backside of the bench. My bench is freestanding, not backed to a wall.

[Brian Tymchak]

I built the 21st Century bench with just a few tweeks on the original Bob Lang design. Pictures (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?156226-Creeker-s-Weekend-Accomplishments.....New-Years-Edition&p=1599904&highlight=#post1599904). Really like it. It took me a while before I built it to warm up to the idea of the split top. but glad I went that way now. I like the tool trays. Have already clamped several pieces of work thru the middle. I haven't used the front dog holes to clamp anything yet.

Brian

[Mark ten Haaf]

Check out Mcguire's video on YouTube. He has a split top, but the split is only about two inches. The filler piece comes out (it is held in place only by rabbets); when it is turned over and replaced in the bench, it forms a perfect planing stop. It's a really nifty idea.

[Jeff Bartley]

I built this bench last year:
185732
After much uncertainty in the design and couldn't be happier with the way it works. When I first saw Jameels split-top design I knew he was onto something. But I also wanted a tool tray. So my take on the split-top gives me a tool tray and allows me to remove the tray shelves (there are four pieces that make up the length) to clamp work through the middle of bench. I still plan to build a couple stop blocks that I can drop in there. The bench is 26" wide, 8' long. The center shelves slide into a dado on each side of the bench. It makes cleaning out the tool tray really easy: you just pull out on shelf on the end and sweep everything out. Generally I only use the tool shelf while working; a block plane, marking knife, and mortise guage are the only things that live in there most of the time.
My other comment about benches in general is that the Benchcrafted wagon vise is the bees-knees!
185733
After using it now for almost a year I think I'd pay twice what Jameel charges for that vise....it's really that good. In fact I need to send Jameel a much overdue thank you with some pics......
And I still have a list of upgrades for the bench; like a Benchcrafted glide for the leg vise, some type of cabinetry for underneath, oh, and a sliding deadman is first on the upgrade list.
Jeff

[Jeff Ranck]

The bench is 26" wide, 8' long.


So the tops are 12" wide each and the split where your tool tray goes is 4"? That is the other aspect - how wide a split? Something smaller like your bench or the split top Roubo or wider like Bob Lang's?

[Jeff Bartley]

The tops are just under 12"; the split is about 2 1/4" and is about 2 1/2" deep (enough to allow a #65 block plane sit on its side).