The Kunz workbench

[john brenton]

Yes, that is kind of what it looks like..and has about the same quality of craftsmanship. Paint rarely looks like it does in the picture. I thought it was a much lighter shade of red, like a country milk paint looking red. Anyways, it does what I wanted it to and hides a multitude of sins/shortcuts. It's flat enough to where I can't tell where it may be out of flat, and where trying to flatten it out any more will invariably lead to a disaster. It doesn't budge an inch, which was priority #1. I set my jack to an extra deep cut and went across a scrap piece in every direction and felt zero movement. Mission accomplished.

Dimensions are:

3 3/8" thick x 15" wide x 7' 10" long work surface. The tray brings the total width to 22".

In the picture it looks like the face legs are angled, but of course they aren't. The back legs are angled back at 10 degrees.

The dog holes are spaced 14" apart to accommodate the Veritas round dogs (lovely) and the Gramercy holdfasts, which work PERFECTLY. I don't even have to rap them in, just use hand pressure. If I ever decide to add the quick release vise at the end (which would be awesome), I would add dog holes to bring it to 7" spacing.

The vise jaw is about 7" tall by 36" long, with the screws centered 24" apart. The vise did not work well at first. There is play in the escutcheons that would send the upper bit of the jaw angling back. I disassembled the pieces, and with a plane angled the top of the mounting blocks to put a slight upward projection on the vise screws. I could have put the angle on the jaw/chop itself, but didn't want to mess with it. Either way, it now has a "positive clamping" action or whatever it's called where the top closes first. It works perfectly now.

Thus far it has proven to be the perfect bench for me. I love it. Ripping, crosscutting, planing, joinery, whatever...the bench has it covered. I can't think of a function that it can't do as well as can be expected. I need to make a video to show all the functions and show the tool tray box that doubles as the side plane stop.

[Will Boulware]

I like the idea of using two tail vise screws for a twin screw vise. Good thinking!

[john brenton]

I would have much rather had the wooden vise screws that Matt Evans was offering, but I just couldn't swing it and wasn't sure about the severity of wood movement in my garage. It's like a sauna in there. Within a few days the vise handles themselves had gotten tight in the tee.


I like the idea of using two tail vise screws for a twin screw vise. Good thinking!

[John A. Callaway]

great job... One of these days I will need to catch a off day and come over and test this thing out....

[David Weaver]

Looks pretty nice to me. I can't fathom a reason to get excited about how a bench looks (i.e., i wouldn't worry about the paint for a second as long as it doesn't end up on whatever you're working).

The whole bench hysteria thing puzzles me. You are way ahead of me on quality of bench. Aesthetic perfection and watertight joinery is all fine and good, but I will also never do it on a bench.

[john brenton]

Even though there's no reason to go overboard in correcting a cosmetic error, there's no reason a bench shouldn't be perfect. A picnic table is more complicated than a work bench when you think about it. In my case I do suck, but also all of this 8" x 10" x 8' lumber had to be planed on a 5' long bench. I tried to get by without planing, and although a few pieces were good with just a little work most of it had to be fully planed because it was ripply as hell and the first lamination proved that I couldn't get around it. So when you talk about planing all that semi-wet wood on a small bench with 105 degree heat index that makes your workspace a freakin' sauna, you just start looking for the short cut and getting it over with.

It was a bad time to build the bench, but I wanted to have it done to enjoy the good weather when it comes...that, and I just couldn't take not having a cabinetmakers bench anymore. I just got to the point where I decided that I'd do nothing else until I built the bench.


Looks pretty nice to me. I can't fathom a reason to get excited about how a bench looks (i.e., i wouldn't worry about the paint for a second as long as it doesn't end up on whatever you're working).

The whole bench hysteria thing puzzles me. You are way ahead of me on quality of bench. Aesthetic perfection and watertight joinery is all fine and good, but I will also never do it on a bench.