Grand Prize Workbench Winner!

[Trevor Walsh]

For being the 1,000,000 person to start a workbench thread on SMC I won a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears. I've only shed sweat and 45 green ones though so far. So maybe it's not so exciting, I'm excited, and I know many of us like to see benches being built, or learn about people's different approaches.

I found a great place, Atlas Wood Products in Philadelphia. They deal in salvage lumber, reclaimed house beams, pallets, BIG pallets etc. Their website is a little uninformative, but they are great people, and helpful on the phone.

I went with a friend of mine who is also getting into woodworking, I showed him the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop (he took a class) we've rehabbed some tools for him, and now he is also building a workbench. I'm thrilled for him, he'll get to start with a proper bench rather than making due with the rickety constructions most of us have started with.

The photos are of the new space and some of the wood that will become the benches. The material is Radiata Pine from industrial sized pallets/blocking. It had some mega-nails, but a propane torch helped char wood around the nail shanks and allowed us to free the boards of all nails. We started surfacing some of it and it's beautiful wood. The beams are roughly 4x6 in 10 foot and 8 foot lengths. Our benches will be 60 inches long, 22ish wide and around 33" of the floor. They will be built in a hybrid form, think Holzappfel joinery (with knockdowns on the long stretchers, and removable drawbored tops, we live in appartments after all) and Roubo-esque workholding, holdfasts, vintage quick release end vises, crochet and a B.o.B./Moxon.

The Candy...

[Gil Knowles]

Trevor
That is some good looking wood, should make good benches. It is nice to see old lumber getting used for something usefull rather than going to the dump or firewood.
Looking forward to seeing the build progress
Gil

[Chris Griggs]

Trevor,
I also made my bench from recycled/salvaged wood. My bench top was a support beam in a church in its previous life, and the rest came from a salvage yard (was probably pieces of old homes). It's some extra work getting those nails out but it's pretty satisfying too give a new life to old materials.

Just get it done by next summer - I should be living back in the Philly area by then and may want to see it in person. Keep us updated, bench builds are cool!

[Trevor Walsh]

My project list is on a tight schedule Chris, I should be done in a few weeks if it all goes to plan. A get together would be awesome, I'm looking forward to keeping the build log.

[Chris Griggs]

Dang, that's quick. My major projects take me 3-6 mos. Good for you man!

Sound's like a plan. A tentative get together is planned for 8-9 mos from now - sounds good - I'll hold you to that. Looking forward to it and looking forward to seeing the bench. Set aside a Yards Pale for me!

[David Keller NC]

Guys - As a veteran of several bench builds, including one that was 5 feet long (your chosen size - 60"), I would strongly, strongly recommend that you consider adding an extra foot to this length. No doubt you've chosen 5 feet to fit in an allotted space, but this length of bench will be very, very restrictive once a tail vise is added unless you're focusing on small boxes, musical instruments, or other small projects. You will find that most furniture components are in the 3-4' length range, which you will be able to just barely accomodate between a bench dog on the left and a tail vise stop on the right, but almost all of those projects will require one or two components in the 5' - 6' long range. Molding is a good example - while in theory you can strike 3 pieces of molding to wrap around the top or bottom of a bookcase, in practice this is almost impossible to do with molding planes and still get a good match at the miters. Heck, it's very difficult to do with a router, although you can do it with a full-bore router table and fence (but even that is not ideal).

[Trevor Walsh]

Chris, deal (not the pine stuff either), though be forewarned the Yards box holds my sticker stock, I will have homebrew soda or hard cider most likely though.

David, I know all the reasons, I also expected to get some blowback about this choice, but I am really limited to this length there's still some furniture that needs to move into the space. I may regret this eventually, but compaired to what I have worked on this is going to be amazing. I've got some idea's cooking about how to orient my planing stops so I can work on 5" or nearly boards. When I move into a house and have a shop on the ground floor that I don't have to share it will convince me to build a 8 foot monster, I just can't swing it now.

And we already cut the boards for the tops, so I'm rationalizing a bit.

As for mouldings, I'm planning on a multi-layer baltic birch ply sticking board 8' long that will be able to support itself for the feet it overhangs the bench.

I don't think I have all the answers, but I know what I'm getting myself into for the most part. After I get this bed out of the way I want to start working on smaller case pieces and wall cabinets with kamiko and stuff. I think this will be perfect for that.

[Bill Moser]

I've built three benches so far. The first was a 6' monstrosity made of pressure treated (don't ask) lumber. the next was also 6', but a "real" bench, d. charlesworth-style. the third is a mini-bench, 4' long, and only 15" high, so I work on my knees with it. I can plane a 4' long, 8" wide board on that tiny thing. I think 5' long is fine for a bench, unless you're building a Newport Secretary, like the one Dave Diaman posted a couple of weeks ago. Really, planing is the only operation that requires any length to a bench. Mortising, sawing, dovetailing, etc, can mostly be done on other, smaller contraptions (mortising or saw-bench for example). Just a long way of saying that a 5' bench sounds like it should work out just fine :)

[Steve Branam]

That's awesome to see you doing another apartment workbench! That's one of the real strengths of hand tools, the ability to work even in the most restricted space.

[Chris Griggs]

Trevor, I'm in a similar situation. Rent a ~1k sq ft 2 bedroom house. My bench sits in the back of the house literally a few feet from the kitchen counter. I manged to eek my bench length to 65 inches and it really works fine for most furniture pieces. I find I run in to issues when I have a lot of tools, bench hooks/shooting board, and project pieces out on the bench - you just need to be good about putting stuff away and only keeping stuff you need out on the bench (which I'm really bad at). If you have the opportunity, build some good storage above and below the bench (which I haven't done yet). That said, like you, when I buy a home and get a dedicated workshop space, I will definitely build an 8-10 ft bench.

Also the type of end vice you use can alter the effective length of the bench. For example a wagon vise will effectivley shorten it while a cast iron (or QR front vise hardware) on the end will effectively lengthen it - that was one of the major reasons I chose a an iron vise as an end/tail vise.

Anyway, just for fun I've included some pics of my "workshop" - I've posted bench pics here in the past, but never shown the surrounding shop. Hopefully, in addition to the bench you can make out the kitchen counter/sink, the fruit bowl, the stone, the toaster over, and the microwave, etc....(the bench is in the foreground of the 1st and the background of the 2nd) I guess if nothing else having the sink close in nice for water stone use, and I can say I mind having a fridge near by :D.
210379210383

[Trevor Walsh]

Chris that is awesome, never far from refreshments. That's important, I see many people trying to solve this problem by putting mini fridges in their shops. I think that's just backwards thinking. We need to start putting shops in kitchens.

I wrote a response to the last few comments, but it seems to have disappeared, Steve, I'm thrilled to have a bench that isn't in the basement, doesn't have a linoleum tile floor, and has a window. It's going to be amazing.

The other one was about my 5" bench justifications. I did score two Sheldon style quick release vises from a guy where I also scored that mahogany. I believe with the right dog and plaining stop setup I should be able to "appear" to have a 6" bench. We'll see how that plays out.

I'm not worried though, after the bed and kitchen table are out of here, I plan on working on molding plane making, kumiko (this japanese shoji lattice work) and get back into smaller cabinet work. I'll do the occasional country furniture piece, but that's about it for large stuff I think. If I get hooked on these planes, well I could find myself doing that for a while.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Trevor, good luck with the bench! Anything that allows woodworking in small spaces sounds great.

What is that trick you mentioned with the torch to remove the nails? I have some nice planks full of nails (were used for concrete formwork), and it's always a pain to remove the nails.

[Trevor Walsh]

Federico, the first nail I came to could spin a bit in the hole, so I knew there was some clearance, I knew they were barbed nails and I figured there was some sap or wood shrinkage holding on. By heating up the nails to red about just where they enter the wood it burns off the sap, and chars the wood down through the nail hole. Some cooling of the nail and they were strong enough to pry out, they had tons of sap on the ends. I'm sure a demolition bar would have taken them out, but we didn't have those, just regular ripping hammers and a small crowbar.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Oooh, nice trick! Thank you!

[Trevor Walsh]

Momentum. Using the last few weeks of constant woodworking as a spur to get this bench done, I got pretty far today...

213853213854

I'm hoping another day will do it. Minus finish.

[Chris Griggs]

Awesome Trevor - that looks great so far! I'm really impressed by the speed of your progress....

[Steve Branam]

Gorgeous! You'll really love having a good bench. It just gives you so much confidence after cursing some rickety contraption. Makes you feel like you've really arrived! That radiata is some nice stuff. Just think, you're one of the few people who was actually able to build one of these out of solid timbers!

[Trevor Walsh]

Thanks Chris and Steve, I do like the look of the radiata, especially the little dark flecks. I know some people hate the stuff. The build is going pretty fast because the beams are to big I think, there are only 12 pieces, 14 if you count both vise chops. and only three glue joints in the top. Tomorrow the morti for the top/leg connection will take a while, I'll be hogging them out with a brace and bit. If I'm lucky and my arm holds out I'll get to installing the vise and boring the dog holes.

[Jim Leslie]

I too went with 60" when I built mine, which was the Tage Frid style popular *many* years ago. My next will definitely be a Roubo but while I would like to go the full 6' due to it's location may need to stay with 5'.
I can't really say 5' has been a great handicap with the stuff I build.

[Trevor Walsh]

I'm excited to biuld a house and be able to stick a 7 foot bench in a dedicated shop. But until then we'll all make do with our 5" foot benches.

The whole "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality never made sense to me, I guess Mr. Jones just needed a Roubo?

[harry strasil]

I have 2 5 foot benches, one in a hybrid basement shop and one in portable handtool only demo shop, no regrets using either of them with boards up to 10/12 ft long. Go For it Guys! Smallish Benches for Smallish Shops!

[Simon Frez-Albrecht]

Trevor, that bench is looking good! (I just came from your blog where I saw the top about ready to go on).

After having used a couple of benches, and experimented with some minimalist work holding "in the field", I've come to a similar conclusion as Bill Moser. The only time you need to support the whole length of a piece is for planing, which in many cases could be accomplished with a simple planing beam holdfasted to the bench top, clamped to some saw horses, or even set on the floor. When not being used, a 6x6 8 foot long or so could be stashed away somewhere else, laid on the floor behind the bench, etc. The other major operations, namely joinery, can be done on a much smaller surface. For chopping mortises, only the mortise itself really needs to be supported on the bench. Extra length can be supported by a sawhorse. Dovetailing pieces longer than the bench is high (30-35" for most) takes some working around regardless of bench length.

The bench I have now is 6 feet long, with a tool well, but I find much of the length is simply filled with tools and parts that I set down, and the well tends to be full of shavings most of the time. Perhaps you would do well with a simple little folding table that you set up beside your bench to lay out some tools and keep the surface clear. Or you could work out of a tool chest like Schwarz.

In the future (who knows what it may hold?) I may even forgo building a bench, instead opting for more of a traditional Japanese setup. A good planing beam and maybe some horses for joinery. We'll see...

[Andy Margeson]

These "in house" workshop posts are very interesting to me. Even though I am fortunate enough to have a somewhat larger dedicated space, I can see that amazing work can be done in a very confined, shared space. One of the things I like about Nicholson style benches is that you don't need a front stretcher so you could have a rolling tool chest that could live under the bench when not in use and could be an auxiliary work surface when closed.

[Trevor Walsh]

I'm looking at racking the majority of the tools on the wall behind the bench, either side of the window, a lumber rack on the right wall. I've got a largeish tool chest and I'm building a small one for my really prized tools. I'm not sure where I'll store the toolboxes yet, I've got to get organized first.

[Trevor Walsh]

And without further adieu, le bench...

[Rob Fisher]

Looks great! How about a front vise? Leg vise? What is the end vise?

[Trevor Walsh]

The end vise is some manner of quick release related to the sheldon style. Essentially the same thing that Schwarz and Megan Fitzpatrick use on their roubos. The front vise is going to be a 9" Columbian QR that I got on Craigslist about a year ago. I have to grab that from my parent's house and repaint it. For some unforeseeable reason I painted it a hideous blue, but I'm making it match (in black) to the end vise. I also have to turn up a proper handle for it and make some chops.