benchtop to leg join - full mortise or shallow mortise with stretcher?

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Putting off working on the bench, and was reading this entry @ the Benchcrafted blog after stumbling around the internet:

http://benchcrafted.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-benchcrafted-bench-details.html

The idea of the short tenons to immobilize the bench top (to counteract the levering a leg vise could put on against the top), combined with stretchers and lag bolts (Spax, of course) to secure the top to the base appeals to me, as chopping deeper mortises in my thick maple top isn't super appealing, plus this seems a little easier to take apart, which, even thought my bench is small, would probably help get it down from my second floor house.

I was originally planning on large drawbored tenons . . . but this *is* appealing - this isn't ever going to be a perfect bench, but it'll be more perfect than not having one as the case is now . . .

I still need to square up my laminated leg stock, so this is a way off - but does anyone think this is a terrible idea?

[Joe A Faulkner]

I think it is a reasonable option. Just don't go crazy in tightening the leg vise. I recall seeing a bench that where the top was joined to the base by 1" hardwood dowels, and someone managed to shear the dowel pin closest to the leg vise.

[Salem Ganzhorn]

I built a bench using the Benchcrafted plans. I wasn't sure about this at first. But it works wonderfully. There is no way you will move my top with the vise. I think if they were sloppy mortises it could be a problem. Maybe... But even then I doubt it. The stretchers are beefy and the spax could hold up a car.

Also the split top is great. There is no way I could have handled the full slab at once.
Salem