Shop tour #4 benches

[lou sansone]

Hello ww's
The thought occured to me as I am posting this photos that some of you might be thinking that this guy is one of those despicable type that simply buys machines and waxes them. He never really cuts a board with any of them. Well, you are 1/2 right ! I do wax my machines and keep them looking decent. But I also build stuff as well. So as part of the shop tour I thought I would show a couple of benches that are in my shop. One I built and one I bought. You will be able to tell from the photos.

The bench I built was completed last year sometime. It has a beech top and the rest is curly maple. The frame is made from 16/4 curly maple sized to 5"x3". That particular maple did not have real tight curl, but I thought it looked nice next to the drawers. The bench top is about 36" x 88" and 3" thick in the thinnest sections. All of the drawers are on full extension bb slides. The vice hardware is all german. It probably weighs about 800 lbs empty.

[David LaRue]

As before... very impressive.. :cool: I wish I could see your shop in person. :D

[Mark Singer]

Lou,
That is a bench!!!! That is the center of real workshop.....I have a big bench and really enjoy the stability and help it adds. Beautiful work! Wonderful drawers too!

[Jack Hogoboom]

Wow. I would LOVE a bench like that!!!

[Jim Becker]

Truly a "monster bench" Lou!! I bet that is really fine to work on...incredible stablilty, especially for working with hand tools. It's also a work of art. I really like how you used nice material when building it. There is no reason why folks can use beautiful wood in a woodworking shop, IMHO!!

[Ray Bersch]

You know, Lou, I keep looking and marveling at your pics and dreaming about having a shop like this but the more I see the more I wonder if this is a shop or a showroom!!! Never mind waxing the machines, where is the dust? In the lathe photo's I noticed that even the window sills were dust free. You gotta maid? I think on one of my next trips to Maine I am going to veer off course and sneek a peak through your shop window to see if you really do build things - unannounced, of course, I wouldn't want you to dirty the place just for me.

Great place you have there. I can tell you enjoy it.
Ray

[Mike Vermeil]

Great stuff Lou. As soon as I get more space, a real bench is the first project!

[Jason Tuinstra]

SMC won't let me simply type the word "wow" because that's too short of a message. So I had to type all of this to simpy say all that I can think to say, "Wow!"

[Jerry Olexa]

Is it necessary to wear formal attire to enter your shop!? Seriously, very nice job on that bench and a shop to be proud of!

[John Bailey]

I see the dust around the shop vac and some on the left leg of the bench. You're gonna' hafta' do better next time Lou.

John

[Doug Shepard]

:eek: You're actually going to do WW on that bench??? That's almost like using the Mona Lisa as a placemat at a chili cookoff.:D

[Frank Pellow]

It's hard to add to the accolades about your Bench Lou. So, I will just add "that goes for me too" to everyone else's comments. :) :)

800 pounds. That is the heaviest bench that I have heard claimed by a Saw Mill Creek member. Has anyone here got a heavier one?

What with your big shop, your heavy lathe, your heavy bench, and all the other heavy machines that I am now expecting to be introduced to, it seems that the "keep everythin mobile" advise that I followed in my shop does not apply to yours. ;)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Lou....Great bench.......I also notice you're dragging out the tour of your shop like a tv serial........one episode at a time! Probably good for the audience, however. We can drool for weeks this way!

[lou sansone]

Dear all


Hope the bench gives you some good ideas. I wanted to be efficent with space and the under the bench drawer setup seemed like the best way to go. They are somewhat complicated to build and I would be glad to answer questions if you have them.

BTW - beech is a really tough bench top and as you can see the ulima bench also used it for their tops. I found that beech is somewhat hard to find because it does not have a lot of other applications. I am planning on possibly building another bench for another section of the shop. If I do, I will probably pick up 500 bd feet of the material, I can not use all of it though and if someone local would like to buy the rest then why dont you let me know now and I will see if we can work something out. I assure you the price will be right. PM me if you are interested and we can discuss the details.

I used about 200 bd feet in the top of the bench ( there was a good part of waste in the process ).
lou

[Frank Pellow]

Lou....Great bench.......I also notice you're dragging out the tour of your shop like a tv serial........one episode at a time! Probably good for the audience, however. We can drool for weeks this way!
Hey Ken, but did you notice that Lou is stepping up the pace? We got two episodes this week. :)

[lou sansone]

It's hard to add to the accolades about your Bench Lou. So, I will just add "that goes for me too" to everyone else's comments. :) :)

800 pounds. That is the heaviest bench that I have heard claimed by a Saw Mill Creek member. Has anyone here got a heavier one?

What with your big shop, your heavy lathe, your heavy bench, and all the other heavy machines that I am now expecting to be introduced to, it seems that the "keep everythin mobile" advise that I followed in my shop does not apply to yours. ;)
hi frank

I think that at first I also adopted your philosophy of mobility and it is a good one. I found that as my machines got heavier that I could not do that any more. You will see one machine that is tipping the scale at around 4000 lbs. It just gets too heavy to move around. I do agree with you and others when it comes to dust collection. When I hear of folks that want to bury the DC in the floor I worry that they are painting themselves into a corner. I have move my system several times and am very glad I did not bury the DC.

regards
lou

[Sam Blasco]

I'd be afraid to work on that bench. Beautiful.

[Greg Narozniak]

Very very impressive !!! :eek:

[Dan Forman]

MAGNIFICENT!!! This is one serious bench. I really like the lazy curl of the frame, it sets off the tighter figure of the drawers.

Dan

[Dev Emch]

Lou... Now that is a workbench! When folks ask how high do the lower stretchers need to be, my response is jokingly, just barely higher than the pallet jack when its in the down position.;)

So something is bothering me about your bench however. What does the back side look like? Got any pictures? Do you have a second set of drawers on the other side or just panels?

Also, did you build a frame for the bench and then an internal drawer box or did you just hang the BB guides from the bench main structure?

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Nice 'Curly' Bench!! I probably missed it earlier, but how large is your shop?

[Alan Turner]

Lou,
Is that American Beech? KD?

[lou sansone]

Hi alan

Yes it is.

lou