New workbench

[Howard Klepper]

I built a bench, and want to show it off after two months of hard work on it. While I am an experienced turner and guitar maker, I am new to cabinet making, or "real woodworking" as I like to call it. So I relied heavily on Chris Schwartz, but combined elements from the benches in his book rather than copying one of them. It's 85" x 23", hard maple except for the outer lams on the long stretchers which are cherry. 34" tall. The top is 2-3/4" thick, laminated from 4/4 and 8/4. Legs are about 4x4, laminated from 4/4. The vises are Eclipse copies of Record quick release, and they are quite decent. I attached them with lags, figuring the top is thick enough to hold them, and if they ever needed to be bolted through it would be an easy mod. 10-1/2" vise on the front, 9" on the end. There is a top stretcher on the end frames not showing in the photos. The end frame stretchers are deep mortise/tenon, drawbore pinned and glued. The long stretchers have 1" deep mortise and tenons, each with two 7" 3/8" bolts going to a barrel nut in the stretcher, and the top is just held on with four lag screws through the upper stretcher on the end frames, so it can be taken apart. The front is coplanar; I'm waiting until the need arises before adding holes in the front for hold downs. The finish is boiled linseed oil.

It is heavy and rigid. I have added shelves since taking these photos--one across the bottom side stretchers for holding long clamps, and one across the long stretchers for planes, etc. The bench in the background is one I bought years ago from Garrett-Wade. It will be going to a friend.

http://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL362/1585732/24698395/412090604.jpg

http://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL362/1585732/24698395/412090605.jpg

[Terry Hatfield]

Very, very nice, Howard! Beautiful job. The bench looks like it will serve you for a lifetime.

[Christian Thompson]

Wow. Sweet :)

[Joe A Faulkner]

Great looking bench that is nice and heavy. It will serve you well. The quick release vises are a joy to use. Nice job!!

[Jim Koepke]

Nice job.

Looks like it will give you years of service.

jtk

[Steve Kinnaird]

Very nice!
Would love to build one like it.
For now I will drool over yours. (Keeping a towel over the keyboard) :)

[Andrew Hughes]

Sharp looking bench,You done good Howard!

[David Eisenhauer]

Great bench and I believe guitar making definitely qualifies as "real woodworking".

[Chris Hachet]

Fantastic bench. One of my sons friends is building an electric guitar, and I am attempting to assist him. I think guitars are beautiful!

[Daniel Rode]

Very nice bench! It's almost a dead ringer for a bench I plan to build eventually. Same size, same thickness, same design. You are even using a pair of metal vices just as I am planning. The only difference I can see is that I want to add a tool tray.

How is the metal vice working as a tail vice? My may concern is vice wracking when holding wood between dog hole and vice for flattening and such.

[Howard Klepper]

Thanks All!

Daniel, so far no problem. It doesn't need much tightening to hold work between dogs. If it did, placing a spacer block on the side of the vise away from the dog should help.

[Matt Lau]

Nice bench.

Still building guitars?