workbench question

[Zahid Naqvi]

I'm headed to join the neanderthal brethren in building a work bench. Have some questions, figured I'd ask some of you who have been there done that. I have the design in my head and most of the lumber, sans the top, already acquired and in the process of hand planing/dimensioning. I want to keep the stretchers bolted as opposed to glued. This is for ease of transportation. I am using Ash (thanks to Ric DeRogue) for the base and the top will most probably be laminated Cypress (Home Depot or Lowes). Back to questions

1. Most designs I see only have a single stretcher across the front and back. I got the Ash at a very "competitive" price, as a consequence the boards are not wider than 5" and some only have 3.5/4" usable width after I trim out the bark etc. So the question is, is a single stretcher each side ,perhaps 4" wide, bolted towards the bottom of the legs enough to prevent any racking during hand plane use. The top will sit on dowels and will not be glued to the legs either.

2. When building the top is it easier to just put all the boards together and be done with the gluing, and tackle the making of the cutouts for the front vice, tail vice etc after the slab is ready. Or cut individual pieces first before glue up and just make final touches after glue up.

3. So really how useful is the leg vice. I have hardware for a quick release front vice and a bench screw. The choices I am contemplating are: use the quick release as a front vice and use the bench screw to make an L shaped end vice. Or use the quick release as the end vice and use the bench screw for a leg vice.

I think I started something like this a couple years ago, but life got in the way. Hopefully this time I can get this accomplished finally! As a side note my electron burners for WWing are limited to a bandsaw, router and a skill saw, I do everything else by hand and plan to keep it that way.

[John Sanford]

1. Most designs I see only have a single stretcher across the front and back. I got the Ash at a very "competitive" price, as a consequence the boards are not wider than 5" and some only have 3.5/4" usable width after I trim out the bark etc. So the question is, is a single stretcher each side ,perhaps 4" wide, bolted towards the bottom of the legs enough to prevent any racking during hand plane use. The top will sit on dowels and will not be glued to the legs either.

Yes, as long as the stretcher is also of reasonable thickness. 1/2" stretchers probably won't be adequate, but my stretchers are simple 2x4s and the bench does not rack. I do have a shelf screwed down to the stretchers though, that may add a bit of stiffness.

Keep the stretcher as low as possible, while still giving you foot room under the bench, i.e. similar to a kitchen cabinet's toekick.


2. When building the top is it easier to just put all the boards together and be done with the gluing, and tackle the making of the cutouts for the front vice, tail vice etc after the slab is ready. Or cut individual pieces first before glue up and just make final touches after glue up.
I don't know. My first benchtop was a repurposed solid core interior door topped with hardboard and a quick release face vise added.

My second top is a manufactured laminated maple top from Jorgensen, which I cut a notch for the same vise to sit back into it. Setting the vise back, which puts the benchtop edge flush with the rear face of the vise, has greatly improved the utility of the vise.

I also use round dogs, not square. Everything I've seen indicates that you definitely, positively want to cut the square dog holes before gluing up the top. Round you can drill after.


3. So really how useful is the leg vice. I have hardware for a quick release front vice and a bench screw. The choices I am contemplating are: use the quick release as a front vice and use the bench screw to make an L shaped end vice. Or use the quick release as the end vice and use the bench screw for a leg vice.
With those Givens, I'd go with the leg vise and put the QR vise on the end. I have a Record QR vise, and when I build my next bench, it's migrating from the face to the end.

Good luck with your build.

[Jim Koepke]

+1 to what John said and…


1. Most designs I see only have a single stretcher across the front and back. I got the Ash at a very "competitive" price, as a consequence the boards are not wider than 5" and some only have 3.5/4" usable width after I trim out the bark etc. So the question is, is a single stretcher each side ,perhaps 4" wide, bolted towards the bottom of the legs enough to prevent any racking during hand plane use. The top will sit on dowels and will not be glued to the legs either.

I think you would do well to mortise this in a bit and then use barrel nuts and a bolt through the leg. This would let you keep them tight and also take them apart if needed. As John said, keep them low.
My problem was with my bench being too light and the tail lifting off the floor when planing long boards. Even with a light frame, it didn't rack.

I would suggest a bolt into the top at each cross support. It could even be a threaded dowel.


2. When building the top is it easier to just put all the boards together and be done with the gluing, and tackle the making of the cutouts for the front vice, tail vice etc after the slab is ready. Or cut individual pieces first before glue up and just make final touches after glue up.

I think it would be easiest to plan where the hardware for vises and such are going to need to go into the top before it is a solid mass.

Especially if you are going to want some square dog holes. It is easier to cut them with a router, skill saw or even a chisel before glue up. After glue up, it is a lot of beating on a mortise chisel.


3. So really how useful is the leg vice. I have hardware for a quick release front vice and a bench screw. The choices I am contemplating are: use the quick release as a front vice and use the bench screw to make an L shaped end vice. Or use the quick release as the end vice and use the bench screw for a leg vice.

I think the attraction of the leg vise is the depth of the work that it can hold. It can also be fine tuned to tilt forward or back when desired. Some find this to be a disadvantage if their lower rail doesn't have enough adjustment.

The disadvantage is it is prone to racking when holding a piece vertically. My simple vises have a tendency to do this also. My solution is to have a lot of thin pieces and also some thick pieces to counter the racking. Some will mount a leg vise at an angle so pieces that are held vertically will cross the center line and this helps to lessen the racking.

That could be a good new thread for all of us to talk about our vises and maybe move to Off Topic if people want to talk about their vices.:eek:

Maybe some of the leg vise users could tell us what they like about them.

jtk

[Russell Sansom]

Some decades ago I built my current bench which is really modest compared to the Schwartz-inspired balloon in bench making going on right now. It was 6' 6" long and 19" wide using 8/4 hard Maple. I glued it up, THEN put in the hand-made tail vise. I still have a serious scar on my right shin where the bench came off a low support and landed just there, requiring a pain-wracked trip to the Veteran's hospital ( I was so poor back then I actually went to the VA for health care! ). I say all that to say this: Be really careful of the potential energy in a fully-sized workbench top. It is really dangerous and will crush fingers, scrape off skin and break things if you let it.
In retrospect, I'd cut any fixtures for vises in the thinest width of top available, then finish gluing the top up as an entire slab. Once the slab is flattened you can install the vises that need to be co-planer with the big slab ... Like a tail vise. If you apply your engineering sense, you can predict how ( incredibly ) heavy that top will be and behave accordingly. It will be really awkward to handle and to perch on an edge while you saw on it.
And about positively cutting the square dog holes ... I chopped mine and will do it again. It's rewarding, instructional, and in my case it was much easier than cutting out a comb and laminating on a front strip. Many older benches that I've seen have had chopped dog holes...perhaps because hide glue wouldn't have been an ideal adhesive. It's fairly easy. Drill a set of holes very precisely, incise the squares with a knife, sides tangent to the ( accurately! ) drilled holes, and chop out the triangles that the drill didn't remove.
I now have one of those monster pig-stickers that is vibrating in its cabinet in anticipation of my bench-build this spring.

[Michael Peet]

2. When building the top is it easier to just put all the boards together and be done with the gluing, and tackle the making of the cutouts for the front vice, tail vice etc after the slab is ready. Or cut individual pieces first before glue up and just make final touches after glue up.

I built the cavity for a Benchcrafted wagon vise into the top lamination. It's the newer version one with the rectangular cavity. It was trivial to do while building the top, and when I got to the vise installation step I was very glad that part was already done.

Mike

[Chris Griggs]

1) +1 what other have said. Just make sure a) the lower stretcher connects securely. Bed/bench bolts will work as will a threaded rod running through the stretcher. A stub tenon will also help keep things aligned.

Also make sure the top of the legs are securely connected to either the top or some top stretchers. It really takes 2 strong connections, 1 top and 1 bottom to prevent racking.

2) eeeerh. Not sure. I guess its depends on the vise. For a leg vise I would definitely drill the large screw hole and mortise the leg before putting everything together.

3) I really wasn't sure I would like a leg vise before I had one. Well I've only been using my leg vise for about a week but I can't say enough good about it. The clamping capacity if quite large, particularly in terms of depth. I have zero problems with racking when clamping vertical pieces, although the mine is slanted which I'm told helps with this. One of the cool things about a leg vise that gives it so much power is that it uses racking to its advantage. The pin is placed just a hair wider then the piece you need to clamp which causes the top of the vise to rack into the work piece. The only disadvantage to a leg vise is if you are switching between clamping a lot of very wide and very thin stock with regularity. Those big screws certainly aren't the fastest things ever (although they're fast enough), and when you have major changes in thickness you need to move the pin in the guide (although this only takes all of 3 seconds

IMHO build the leg vise and stick the quick release on the end.

[Richard Francis]

Look at Patrick Edwards bench on the woodtreks site. He has an excellent solution to vice placement and work practice.
http://woodtreks.com/design-build-traditional-woodworking-workbench-tail-shoulder-leg-vises/1651/

[Joe O'Leary]

I have my 3 1/2 in. thick top resting on dowels and it works fine. The legs are 3.5 x 5. No racking BUT...pay attention to what Russell said! I almost lost a finger when the top unexpectedly dropped onto the dowels. Be careful out there!

[Zahid Naqvi]

I do plan to make about 1/2" deep mortises for the lower stretchers, makes it more secure and prevents twisting. The top (Cypress) is probably not going to be as heavy as maple or oak, but the point on careful handling is well taken.
I am also inclining towards the leg vice, if only to avoid making an overly complicated L shaped end vice. I need mortising practice so I guess I will take your advice Russel and chop them out after the bench is put together.
I don't know if I have enough lumber to laminate two 3/4" boards to thicken the stretchers. For now I will stick with 3/4" thick stretchers, if I notice any racking during use I can probably add a top stretcher as a later modification if needed.

Now that I am back in a house and done with moving around, hopefully this time I will have a bench to show as a result of this discussion.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Zahid, Do yourself a favor and somehow make arrangements to somehow get the extra lumber to laminate your lower stretchers to make them thicker. If the stretchers were 6" wie or wider, you might be OK with a single layer, but at 4" you are looking at the possibility of the stretchers bowing in and out perpendicular to the 4" width. Even a stiffener (spine) half of the 4 " width would do the job and would have the added benefit of providing you a ledger to rest a shelf on. Skimping on $10 worth of lumber with all of the work you are going to put into this bench is not going to please you down the road.

Congratulations on having a new home.

[David Keller NC]

Zahid - You might want to watch this video:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/20552/the-workbench-of-a-lifetime

Garrett has a different take on the lower stretchers to prevent racking. You could easily do the same by edge-gluing two of your boards together and make wide double-tenons as shown. Personally, I think using a tensioning rod the entire length fo the stretcher as he shows is a bit of overkill. However, this is a guy that's been doing handtool work long before it became the "in" thing, so a layperson's overkill might be his necessity.

As for a leg vise - I've built a number of benches. My last one had me considering a leg vise after reading The Schwarz, but I eventually rejected it. Instead, I used a Jorgensen quick-release vise in the face position. For me, that was the best compromise in 1) low investment (about $130), 2) ease of use, 3) long service life (these vises' design is superior to the Record design, in my opinion), and (most importantly) the ease of clamping wide panels for carcass dovetailing.

One last comment. Since you've no machines for surfacing, do yourself a huge favor and seek out some thick (at least 8/4, but at least 12/4 and much more preferably, 16/4) wood for the top. Hand surfacing a bunch of 4/4 to laminate together is going to be a very large task, even if it's softwood like Cypress or SYP.

[Yuri Sadykov]

I completely agree with Dave and want to highlight that 3/4" is NOT enough. Will be weakest place in your bench, and you know what? Whole bench will be as strong as weakest part in it, so have everything balanced is the key.

[Zahid Naqvi]

Only if you insist David ;)
I can probably use some other wood for the side stretchers and laminate the front and back to get thicker boards. The reason I was reluctant to do so was due to the Ash being very dry due to long time storage and if I mix it with something new from a local store they might give me problems after the glue-up.
But I will heed to your advice of using thicker stretchers.

[Zahid Naqvi]

Hey DK, thanks for that link. The video was very informative. The initial draft me and Dennis came up with a couple years ago was almost like this bench (minus the tool tray). We decided we could use a leg vice on top of a QR front and a tail vice. After watching some of the videos of Robert R. I think we (the amateur WWers) make too much of a workbench. I just want to start with a solid based which I can keep for a long time and if in the future I think the top needs a reconfig, it will be easy to replace. I actually have no table at all, all I have is a computer desk the previous owner used as a counter in the garage, it's particle board and very flexible. So I can't surface plane even if I brought up the will power to do so. I'm thinking even if there are a few gaps here and there in the top there will be enough surface area to hold the laminations together.

[Andrae Covington]

I agree with others that 3/4" thick stretchers are probably too thin. Doubling up (1 1/2"), @ 4" tall should be fine. My stretchers are about 3" x 3", doubled-up old 2x4's, but that's more than enough thickness. I just did it that way to simplify making a shouldered tenon. The long stretchers run though mortises in the legs and are held in place with keys (aka tusks). My top is not glued down, and I haven't had any problems with racking. I do have upper stretchers on the short sides. Both sets of short stretchers are glued and drawbored mortise and tenons.

I like my leg vise, but I haven't had much experience with other options. I also like my sliding leg vise. If I didn't have that, I would want a twin screw vise, either on the front or the end.

[Johnny Kleso]

I would save the 3/4 stock for face frames for a cabinet to fit under the dug fir base :)

[Dan Andrews]

Being a follower of Buckminster Fuller I advocate diagonal bracing. Traditional bench design is a lot like post and beam barn building. Notice the old barns use lots of diagonal braces. A diagonal from the center of the long stretcher to the upper short end stretcher, or from the center of the top to the outer end of the long strecher will provide stiffness you will not get with a 5" wide long stretcher no matter how thick you laminate it to be.

An alternative to laminating 3/4" boards to make a thicker stretcher, would be to screw and glue another 5" wide board to the top of the 3/4" thick stretcher. This resulting "T" shaped stretcher will be stiffer than the laminate. The top of the 'T' will also be a good fastening point for the diagonals recommended above.

I have two workbenches. One for woodworking and one for mechanical work and welding. Both have massive cast iron ends that were cast in a local manufacturing facility for their own machine shop use. Each end weighs about 100 pounds. Each leg has a hole cast in it to occomodate a threaded rod. I welded bolts to the ends of angle iron for each (one front, one rear) stretcher. I then welded diagonals from the rear stretcher center to the angle iron top frame that the tops bolt to (one wood, one steel).
My point is not to suggest that the typical woodworker will want to build a bench from steel, but that even though I built mine from steel, I still ran diagonals. Both my benches have 100% ridgidity.

A gloatworthy note that may be of interest to fellow scavengers; I bought one pair of cast bench ends from the factory when they were going to scrap them. I paid for them by the pound based on scrap prices only. Many years later I saw a pickup truck parked with a load of scrap metal and a bench end sticking out of the pile. I parked behind the truck and waited untill the owner came out of the Post Office. I asked him if he would sell me the bench ends. He sold them to me for $10. delivered! My bro.-in-law who used to work for the manufacturer saw them and said he knew guys who had been looking for a pair of these New York Air Brake bench ends for years. He said I could get a lot of money for them. No deal. I use these super benches constantly and would not take $2,000 for one of them.

I do plan to build a more traditional, all wood workbench for a winter time all hand tool woodworking shop in my basement. So all of these workbench threads are of much interest to me too.

[David Keller NC]

So I can't surface plane even if I brought up the will power to do so. I'm thinking even if there are a few gaps here and there in the top there will be enough surface area to hold the laminations together.

Actually,yes you can. Christopher Schwarz has the method down in his first book and some of the Popular Woodworking articles he's written about benches. What you want to do is build a couple of sawbenches first - these are fairly trivial to build compared to the bench, and you will require them anyway. Search the Pop woodworking site for the article/plans. He's refined his design a few times, and the current version requires even less wood and less time.

Once you've a couple of sawbenches (you can build one "primary" sawbench and a secondary, simpler sawhorse, so long as both are at the same height), you need at least one piece of substantial wood - ideally, 16/4 by about 8" wide (which you can use in the bench build for legs or part of the top). One clamps this board to the 2 sawbenches, planes the face flat and true, and then temporarily attaches a planing stop made from a scrap of wood at one end. You then have a stable, flat surface on which to plane and true the boards used for the laminations of the top.

Considering where you live, you should be easily able to get suitable bench building wood in 16/4 (or maybe even larger if you can find a business that supplies timbers for timber frame houses). Don't settle for Home Despot - you can definitely find a small sawmill that will have what you want, and not smack you too hard in the pocketbook.

[Jim Matthews]

I think doubling the stretchers will make a box section, and lead to a much stiffer frame.

If the components are bolted together, racking may result, but a quick turn with your spanner should bring things together again.

If you set in a cabinet, you'll add mass and provide hardpoints to tie the frame together - sort of the way cladding stiffens a house frame. The only proviso I would add is to make sure you can get all the way around the bench.

A bench will last 40 years, and some of us will see dimensional changes at our beltlines...

[Zahid Naqvi]

Made some progress this weekend. Took the advice of y'all and laminated two boards for stretchers to get 2"x4" thickness. It feels pretty solid even with the stretchers at the bottom of the legs. The tenons are about half inch deep to prevent any twisting, but they are still snug fit even if not glued. I found some 4x4 doug fir at the local borg, I'm thinking that will make a pretty decent top.

[Jim Koepke]

It feels pretty solid even with the stretchers at the bottom of the legs.


I think the stretchers being close to the bottom makes it more solid than if the stretchers are further up the legs.

Looking good so far.

One day soon I am hoping my bench building project steps out of the realm of my mind and lands on the floor of my shop.

jtk

[David Keller NC]

Jim's right - the closer the stretchers are to the floor, the stiffer the resulting construction will be once the top is in place. However, you may want to re-consider the top just resting on the legs (based on your first post - wouldn't surprise me if you'd re-thought the entire design, I know I do each time I build a bench!). One way to make a bench like this and still make it dissassemblable (is that a word?) is to put top stretchers between the short distance between the legs. In other words, to make two "end assemblies". On my current bench, these top stretchers are the same width and thickness as the legs, and I cut two enormous dovetails to attach them flush with the tops of the legs. I also drilled through these dovetails and draw-bored them with a couple of shaved white oak pins. The top is bolted to these two top transverse stretchers from the underside using (2) 1/2" lag bolts per end. The front lag-bolt hole is drilled through the transverse stretcher at close tolerances so that the front surface of the legs of the bench are flush with the edge of the bench top, but the back lag-bolt hole is elongated by about 3/4" to allow the top to expand and contract with seasonal humidity changes.

[george wilson]

I have gone overboard,and cut grooves in my 2" x 6" stretchers all the way across. Then,I've taken 1/2" col rolled steel rods that run clear across the stretcher's lengths,emerging at the outside edges of opposite legs. Large washers and 1/2-13 threads on each end,and tightened nuts have made for an extremely rigid bench.

[Zahid Naqvi]

7 posts of 4x4 doug fir, couple bags of shavings and half a bottle of glue later I finally have a slab for the top. I just flipped the base to use the stretchers in lieu of saw horses for holding the slab during glue ups. For glue up I started with 3 posts and kept adding two for each subsequent glue-up.
One of the things I constantly struggled with when jointing the posts was, surprisingly, eliminating twist and keeping three faces at a perfect 90 degree with each other. I've really never had to hand joint something on all three sides and at this length, found it to be more tricky in reality than is seems reading about it. Despite owning a 24" wooden jointer (which I have flattened on a granite slab) I kept getting "waves" on the surface. In other words when two posts were put together I could see slithers of light at some spots, despite the fact that the jointer was taking full length shavings on both mating surfaces. But as this is a work bench and the "work surface" I had to work on (can bee seen in the backdrop) was bendy particle board I didn't fuss about perfection.
Now on to the "real" job of flattening the top before I attach the hardware.

192755

[Derek Gilmer]

Looking good man! I wish the borgs around here had 4x4 untreated lumber.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Great progress Zahid. Most of the serious grunt work is now done. Everything from here on is finesse and fiddling. The worst is behind you and when you are done you will be totally unable to understand how you got along without a decent bench. Your quality of work is about to take a quantum leap upward.

[Zahid Naqvi]

Derek I know exactly what you are talking about, as I was a resident of Little Rock about 7 months ago. On the other hand I got the Ash from a friend in Conway for $1 a foot.


Looking good man! I wish the borgs around here had 4x4 untreated lumber.

[Zahid Naqvi]

So is there any practical benefit to making end caps to a bench or is that for cosmetic reasons only? I wasn't planning on making them for my bench unless someone can convince me otherwise.
The bench has now been flipped and is sitting in the upright position. Flattening the top remains, but I have drilled holes and made markings for the front vise, which will act as the tail vise, a leg vise being my front vise. The top is attached by a couple of dowels in opposite legs to prevent sliding.
193142193141

[Sean Hughto]

I suppose there is some possibility that stout breadboard ends help some to restrain cupping across the top and keep the top more flat through the seasonal changes. I doubt it makes too much difference though. I did them on mine most because the Fortune Nelson bench I made (from the Landis book) had 'em:

193143

[Dave Anderson NH]

I'm one of the no breadboard ends guys. I didn't see the need and since I don't use an end vise of any type there was no particular reason to make them

[Joe O'Leary]

Sean,
Nice bench. What is the purpose of that groove in the face?

Zahid, I used the dowels (four) and the top doesn't move at all. Still need a buddy to get that top off, though.

[Sean Hughto]

Thanks, Joe. The groove has a T-track in it and allows a toggle clamp on a little wood sled to be used in conjunction with the face vise to secure longer and wider work. Now I'd mostly use my moxon vise for panels though.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5069/5608136319_ca9b88c9ac_z.jpg

[Joe O'Leary]

Please, Sean, no more pics. I'm getting sick with jealousy :D.

[David Keller NC]

So is there any practical benefit to making end caps to a bench or is that for cosmetic reasons only? I wasn't planning on making them for my bench unless someone can convince me otherwise.
The bench has now been flipped and is sitting in the upright position. Flattening the top remains, but I have drilled holes and made markings for the front vise, which will act as the tail vise, a leg vise being my front vise. The top is attached by a couple of dowels in opposite legs to prevent sliding.
193142193141

Zahid - Actually, there is one practical reason you might want a breadboard end, at least on the left end. Specifically, it allows you to drill dog holes within about 1" of the end of the bench, and use them as a planing stop. This is what I use 95% of the time on my current bench - just with planing force pushing the board against the dog. If you try that without a breadboard end, there is at least a possibility of having the dog break out the short end-grain.

[Michael Peet]

You might need one if you want a wagon vise, or if you want to add a couple inches to the length. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

Mike

[Zahid Naqvi]

wagon vise is too expensive for this galoot, I am going to put a QR front vise at the end and a leg vise using a bench screw ala Roubo.

[Trevor Walsh]

Form my bench plan I've settled on using a quick action vise as a tail vise and a crochet and dog holes on the front. Planing stops, battens and a bench on bench should take care of the dovetailing and work like that.

[Zahid Naqvi]

So we finally get to a state where the bench is functional. The QR end vise is installed and reporting for duty. Not the prettiest install you may have seen but it is functional, i.e. it does what it is supposed to do.
193817

Now on to making the leg vise and putting dog holes, how many? how far away from the front edge? square or round? etc.

[Sean Hughto]

Well considering that you have already assembled the bench and, square is gonna be tough. Round is easy as drilling or plunge routing.

Close to the edge - like 2" or less so that you have room for guide fences and rails on stuff like plow planes and molding planes to hang over the edge while narrow stock is held.

Every 4" or so. Too far and have to spin your vise too much or too far and you have some size sticks you can't hold without messing with filler blocks.

[David Keller NC]

Not the prettiest install you may have seen but it is functional, i.e. it does what it is supposed to do.
Now on to making the leg vise and putting dog holes, how many? how far away from the front edge? square or round? etc.

Zahid - Don't worry about "pretty". Pretty is for botchers (paraphrasing a quote from an old Disston saw...).

Regarding dog holes - Sean's right on. Chopping 40+ square dog holes with a mortise chisel would be an exceptional drag. From the standpoint of placement, one typically wants the front row to be as close as is pratical to the front edge of the bench so that you can grip narrow work for plowing grooves, using molding planes, etc... I see 2" from the front edge as a typical dimension, but that needs to be tailored to your bench and vise hardware. One specific bit of advice after having built a few benches - carefully lay out all of your dog holes before you drill the first one! It is really easy to place a dog hole over a piece of iron hardware and ruin your drill or brace bit by running into it, and it's also really easy to place a dog hole over a bench leg so that it can't be drilled through. The resulting blind hole will drive you crazy by accumulating chips, dust and dirt.

[Zahid Naqvi]

Thanks for the advice on the placement of dog holes. I was thinking about lining them with the shaft of the vise towards the front edge of the bench, which comes out to about 4 inches. This way I can reduce any racking torque on the vise hardware. Not that any hard tightening should be required for such situations. For years I have been hand planning using only a clamped stick as the plane stop, and no lateral or back support, and have gotten used to it. Having bench dogs and rear support will be a remarkable improvement. I'll probably start with round holes, but I think I will eventually square them up, good mortising practice. Got to let those Narex chisels earn their keep :-)

[Paul Saffold]

Zahid,
It looks very solid. Did you use Douglas fir 4x4s for the top? Is the top sitting on a dowel in the top of the leg like you were considering some time ago? Keep us posted on the final details. Looks like you are almost there. I'm saving ideas from lots of different bench builds for "someday".
Paul

[Zahid Naqvi]

Yes to both questions. The local HomeDepot carries Doug fir 4x4 posts, so that is what I used for the top. I use two dowels through two legs diagonally across. I have used it some for planing boards in preparation of the leg vise and I don't feel any movement in the top. The dowels have to be perfectly aligned though no room for error. I did all the markings for legs, vise location etc while the top was still inverted. I only flipped it after drilling holes for the leg vise and the dowels.


Zahid,
It looks very solid. Did you use Douglas fir 4x4s for the top? Is the top sitting on a dowel in the top of the leg like you were considering some time ago? Keep us posted on the final details. Looks like you are almost there. I'm saving ideas from lots of different bench builds for "someday".
Paul