Workbench Critique wanted

[Matt Day]

All,

It's due time I upgraded my 3 year old "temporary" 2x4 and MDF workbench. Long story short, I bought my old bench top when I visited my old place a few months ago. The top is 3" thick maple and has a Veritas twin screw vise and a QR face vise. The top was designed, built, and used by an old friend of mine before I inherited it. So the top is all together and I don't plan on changing the location of the vises or anything, and the base is what I need to start on. The bench will also be used as an outfeed table of my TS and the height will match (-1/16" or so), due to the size of my shop I can't have a stand along bench.

My design is heavily based on Chris Schwarz's version of the Holtzapffel bench. I'll use his technique of bolting the M&T joint so it's knock down, though I didn't show it in the design. I'm planning on some kind of floating tenon to attach the top to the base (without glue) and use the mass of the top to keep it intact. Also not shown, I included a top stretcher to tie the top of the leg sections together instead of relying completely on the top (figured it would be easier putting the top on if I have to wrestle it on myself too). I went ahead and bought some 8/4 Ash for the base and it's acclimating now.

The main thing I'm not sure about is the sliding deadman - The bench obviously isn't very long and the deadman might not be necessary but I thought it could come in handy so why not put it in. Also, I thought if I ever did decide to make another top and make it bigger, I could reuse the base and the deadman would be even more handy.

Any suggestions or comments on putting in a shelf? Any other comments?

Thanks

[Carl Beckett]

The deadman 'might' come in handy. On one of my benches I have a row of holes down the leg as you do, and I use a holdfast (which acts like a deadman), especially if not that big (long) a bench. The shorter stuff I find the vise just clamps it in place. Same on going without a crochet hook.

But someday I will add a deadman. There was accommodation for it, but I just havent done it.

On another bench I have a full set of drawers underneath and love it. This bench the top edge overhangs, so there is still a place to put my feet. I would be concerned about standing over the working piece if the entire front was flush (just an ergo thing, and my back isnt the greatest). I have considered, however, of adding drawers under there but facing out the back. Because its a pretty wasted space and something should be done with it. The concern is that I dont want to walk around the thing if wanting something out of the drawer. Maybe I will consider just recessing the drawers part way under.

Shelves seem to pile up, get dusty, and become inefficient use of space.

[Jeff Bartley]

Which side of the bench will the TS be connected to? If it's the back side of the bench (so that the long-axis runs along the outfeed side of the TS) you might consider a short 'shelf' between the two that could accommodate miter slots.
I really like a sliding deadman. It's not much work for the ease of supporting a workpiece. On my bench I glued the end assembly's and used stub-tenons and spax bolts to hold the long stretchers in place.
Cool project Matt!

[Matt Day]

Thanks for the input guys - I think I'm going to keep the deadman in the design if not just because it's much easier to put it in now rather than later.

Jeff - thanks for the reminder about the miter slots! The bench will be parallel to the TS so I will need them, but I don't want to cut them into the bench. I've been thinking about putting some kind of "shelf" spacer in between the TS and bench that will have slots in it. I'll start putting something on paper and post back.

[Kurt Cady]

That's a tall bench! Is your table saw really that tall? What, if anything, are you going to use to level the bench with your table saw?

I'm planning a similar mini roubo. 6' long. I have an outfeed table now with slots routed into the table and they don't get in the way. I am planning on doing the same with my bew bench.

[Matt Day]

Kurt - thanks for the comment on the tall bench. Made me realize I must have mixed up a number or two - the height of my TS is 37 1/2". I know that's taller than most, but I got used to using the saw on a raised 2x4 platform that I used to level my TS and extension wing at my last house which had an uneven floor.

Attached is my first shot at a miter slot shelf design made out of two sheets of 3/4" MDF, which will span a cleat on the bench on one side and the TS fence angle iron on the other side. The open span is less than 6" so I don't think I need any additional support. I have some 1" ply which I might use for the bottom instead to beef it up.

edit: forgot to mention, i'm undecided on using leg levelers or just wood shims.

[Kurt Cady]

Interesting spacer idea. Head wheels turning

[Jim Matthews]

Is this shelf removable?

I'm constantly clamping things to the bench, and having anything on the periphery makes that difficult.
I would recommend making your bench a little LOWER than the TS, if you're using it as an outfeed table.

Feet are much easier to level with shims. My floor is covered with a rubber mat intended for horse stalls.
Leveling the top wasn't necessary.

[Jeff Bartley]

Matt- I'll measure the slots in my outfeed table, I'm not sure 6" slots would be long enough for all the sleds and things but the length of the slots would be relative to the position of the blade. But I do use a pretty big cross-cut sled sometimes. Worse case scenario is that you cut the slots into the bench......then down the road if you ever transition the bench to be a stand-alone bench you could patch in the slots, sure you'd see them but that would just be a reminder of the evolution of your shop! Oh, and I just put a hardwood shim under one of the legs on my bench.....it's so heavy that it never moves.

[Matt Day]

Jeff, I don't use to many big sleds but I made the extension shelf have 8" long miter slots and of course since I'm still designing I could make them longer if I had too. The reference to the 6" number I made was the unsupported length, not the overall.

I'm trying to think of a way to make the shelf removable using something like cam clamps (think bike wheel quick release) and t-nuts, see attached. I think this would make it easy to remove for clamping. But I've had this workbench/TS setup for as long as I've been ww'ing, and very rarely clamp at the rear of the bench. So I might keep a design like this in my back pocket, and just do the standard bench for now.

[Hovey Moore]

Given your constraints I think you have an excellent bench design. You can always build the bench to accept a deadman but not add one. Then if you do decide you want one its an easy addition. On my outfeed table I left a gap with the edge chamfered should the piece drop slightly. This solves the slots lining up issue or should you want a clamp near the back of your bench, and it makes it much easier to grab a piece after you finish cutting it.