Roy Lindberry
09-02-2013, 5:56 PM
I've finally finished the project I started two or three years ago...my Klausz style workbench. I built the base a while back, and then it got put on hold for other things, and I finally got back to it last year. This morning I put the BLO on it and pronounced it done.
Originally, I planned to make it out of maple, but soon realized that I couldn't afford that. So I went down to Lowe's and picked through their stacks of doug fir 4x4 and 4x6 to find the best wood I could. I wasn't too worried about including tight knots, but I did try to minimize them as I prepared my stock. Basically, the entire bench is douglas fir, with a few pieces of hem-fir thrown in at non-essential areas. I also chose to accent it with the use of a little black walnut that I had on hand. I was hoping for form and function, but I ended up with a lot more function than form - the pictures don't show the faults very well.
In case I ever have to move this thing very far, I built the base to be able to break it down. The top will lift off, and then the stretchers are joined to the leg assemblies via angled tenons with wedges on top which effectually turn them into very large dovetails. The vise hardware is from Lee Valley and works very well.
I learned on this project that I really don't like working with DF, because it splinters off too easily. But for the money savings, I think it was worth it. I didn't keep a really precise record, but I'm pretty sure that I'm under $500 for the whole thing. Also, I learned the value of a selection of saws. A lot of the joinery is pretty crude because the doves on this thing were too big for my dovetail saw. Since I don't have a tenon saw or anything else really, I ended up cutting most of the joinery with a Bishop 6 TPI rip. The results were far from impressive, and yet, I am extremely happy with what I ended up with and look forward to using this to maximize my hand tool capabilities.
270069270068270070270071270072270073
Originally, I planned to make it out of maple, but soon realized that I couldn't afford that. So I went down to Lowe's and picked through their stacks of doug fir 4x4 and 4x6 to find the best wood I could. I wasn't too worried about including tight knots, but I did try to minimize them as I prepared my stock. Basically, the entire bench is douglas fir, with a few pieces of hem-fir thrown in at non-essential areas. I also chose to accent it with the use of a little black walnut that I had on hand. I was hoping for form and function, but I ended up with a lot more function than form - the pictures don't show the faults very well.
In case I ever have to move this thing very far, I built the base to be able to break it down. The top will lift off, and then the stretchers are joined to the leg assemblies via angled tenons with wedges on top which effectually turn them into very large dovetails. The vise hardware is from Lee Valley and works very well.
I learned on this project that I really don't like working with DF, because it splinters off too easily. But for the money savings, I think it was worth it. I didn't keep a really precise record, but I'm pretty sure that I'm under $500 for the whole thing. Also, I learned the value of a selection of saws. A lot of the joinery is pretty crude because the doves on this thing were too big for my dovetail saw. Since I don't have a tenon saw or anything else really, I ended up cutting most of the joinery with a Bishop 6 TPI rip. The results were far from impressive, and yet, I am extremely happy with what I ended up with and look forward to using this to maximize my hand tool capabilities.
270069270068270070270071270072270073