Moravian Workbench Build

[Steve Southwood]

Posting this for Ken Hatch, because he wanted a tic-tock of the build.

Let me start off by saying this will be a long build, I work lots of hours and a variable shift, in my real job. I will post the dates the work was started.

Also, I will let you know this is not a total neanderthal build. I like to think of it as multi-craft, using both power and hand tools. (No I don't like the term hybird, I'm not a rechargeable car. Using either form of tools is a craft. The power tool is my shop apprentice. Doing the grunt work.)

Back in the summer I was thinking about building a Roubo and had ordered the hardware from Benchcrafted. The more I thought, the more I figured I needed some sort of bench to actually build the bench. I had watched several bench builds and kept coming back to Will Myers and the Moravian bench. I like the looks, I can knock it down, being knock down I can replace just one part if something happens to it.

So Moravian it is. I ordered a bench screw from Lake Erie Toolworks. July 9, screw arrives.

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Time for the lumber. I chose to use SYP for the main parts and White Oak for stretchers and vise. Aug 7, trip to Home Depot for 2x12x16-0 SYP. Then it was off to my hardwood supplier for the White Oak. I got everything ripped and stickered.

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Aug 13, I checked the moisture content to get a base line.

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Now it is time to wait, the summer was entirely too hot to work in the shop. I checked the moisture every so often. It stayed around 10.5 until fall hit.

[Steve Southwood]

December rolled around and work slowed a bit, giving me time to start. The moisture was about good as it was going to get as well.

These next shots are from Dec 1 through Dec 4.

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First thing to do was glue up the legs and mill back to finished size.

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I glued up the long stretchers and let them sit in the clamps while I was working on the legs.

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I double checked the layout of bridle joint and the others real quick before I started the main work.

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Once I was happy with the layout, I cut the bridle joint with a router.

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Once the sides were cut I then brought the joint down to its final location with hand tools. I always stop short when using a router so I don't over cut. I cut the mortise for the center stretcher as well with the router and cleaned it up.

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[ken hatch]

Steve,

Thanks for the tick tock. It should help other builders. It looks good. BTW, I have never mastered using routers, I admire anyone that can. Years ago my best friend and I would build furniture side by side in my shop. He always used the router, I never figured it out.

ken

[Mike Manning]

Steve,

Thanks for the tick tock. It should help other builders. It looks good. BTW, I have never mastered using routers, I admire anyone that can. Years ago my best friend and I would build furniture side by side in my shop. He always used the router, I never figured it out.

ken

Where'd you get your SYP? I'm just curious if you bought it at the big box stores and if so how many trips and different stores did you have to hit to find pieces good enough for your workbench?

[Steve Southwood]

One trip to my local HD did the trick. There were several folks watching to see how I would fit those 16 footers in a 6 foot bed truck. Once I started cutting them up, the questions started. I explained to the one guy, the boards are better grade with smaller knots.


Where'd you get your SYP? I'm just curious if you bought it at the big box stores and if so how many trips and different stores did you have to hit to find pieces good enough for your workbench?

[David Silverson]

I think that’s the most important thing with using big box lumber, select the wider and longer boards which do seem to be better quality.

[Steve Southwood]

Here is the rest of the Dec 1 - Dec 4 progress.

Next it was time for the stretchers to be made. They were brought to size with the power tool apprentices. I cut the shoulders on the tablesaw and dado stack, as to keep them all the same distance. They were then cleaned up with a Stanley 10 1/2 carriage makers plane.

Test fit of the stretchers.

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The dovetailed stretcher is the last one the list for the legs, so I cut a 1:8 slope for the tails. While I had the dado stack in the saw I also took a little off the bottoms of each to make marking them a little easier.

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Once that was done I marked all their locations and traced the tail. I set the router depth and hogged out most of the waste in two passes.

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After the bulk of the of the waste was removed, I took a chisel and trimmed back to the lines and test fit.

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And that is where we are at since Dec 4. The next chance I will get to work on the bench will be Dec 24, for possibly an hour or so.

[Matthew Hartlin]

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to following along, by rough lumber for the same project is currently stickered and under a stack of soon to be Christmas presents(ie more lumber).

[Matthew Brawley]

That is what I did with my bench except I did 12' boards.

[Steve Southwood]

Dec 21

I made a mistake. Don’t know for sure why I decided to check the depth of the top stretcher bridle joint, but I did. The plans called for a 4 inch deep bridle and I made these only 3 ½ inch deep. Using that depth, I would have taken too much off the stretcher and possibly weakened it. Couple minutes with the chisels and we are back in business.


I am going to start using this hashtag on social media to show my mistakes. I think it is important to show that bad along with the good. #showyourwoodworkingmistakes


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[Eric Rathhaus]

Steve - enjoying your process. I'm getting ready to build this bench but have two start with top as I have no other bench to build on.

[Steve Southwood]

Yeah, I am fortunate to have that big assembly table. Not really made for the amount of abuse it's getting but holding up well. Make sure to post your build Eric

[Steve Southwood]

Dec 24th and 25th

Well I caught some free time over the holidays. I got the top of each leg cut to the 15 degree angle. Yep, I used the tablesaw to hit this as close as I could.

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I got the long stretchers all milled up to final size. Then I laid out for the tenon on each end and also for the through mortise on the legs. All the layout marks came off of the face sides of each piece, as the legs and stretchers are different thickness.

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If all goes well, I hope to have the frame done this weekend.

[Jake Rothermel]

Love the build so far, Steve. Keep 'em coming - "mistakes" and all!!

[ken hatch]

Steve,

Good to see progress on the build. The long stretcher mortises need to be loose, especially up and down and even a little side to side if you plan on the bench being portable. When you get around to the vise backer board remember the up/down dimension of the parallel guide mortise isn't critical, in fact needs to be loose, but the side to side is. The tighter the fit that still allows easy movement the better. Also when it becomes time to secure the Screw nut I've found the made in Germany "Spax" brand lags the best. Home Depot carries them.

ken

[Steve Southwood]

Dec 29- Jan 1


I started the long weekend off trying to get the frame put together and standing on its own.


First task, was to get the tenons cut on the long stretchers. All started well, I made short cuts on all three sides to establish my saw kerf.

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While cutting the first side of the very first stretcher, this happened.

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I honestly have no idea how this happened. I did feel the kerf closing up while I was cutting it, so I figure that must have done it. I waxed the sawblade some more and went on. I mixed up some epoxy and filled the cut on the bad one. Taped it up and let it set for the rest of the day.

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With all the tenons lengths cut it was time to cut the angles and clean up the tenon.

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This got me to thinking I was getting close to needing the top. So I shifted gears, so I glued up the top, also I went ahead and glued up the vise back.

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Sadly, with 4 days to work on the bench, this is all I got done.

[Steve Southwood]

Jan 17 & Jan 18

With the mortises done in the legs, it is time to glue them up. While test fitting the joints I dropped one of the dovetail stretchers and this happened.

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Nothing a little glue and couple clamps couldn’t fix.

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With that issue fixed it was time to try and glue up again. Both leg assemblies’ went together pretty well. I did have one that was slightly out of square, so I pulled it back in.

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All in all, still plugging along, just not at the rate of completion that I would like.

[ken hatch]

Steve,

Looking good. The stretcher tenons are a long cut, stuff happens. Good recovery. With the two base units glued up the rest of the build should go quickly.

BTW, what's the wood used for the dovetail stretcher?

You will love the bench once finished, mine are a joy to use.

ken

P.S. Seeing your build had me thinking about another build for a second or two. Ain't going to happen but I did think about it:o.

[Steve Southwood]

White Oak is what I am using for the stretcher, all of them. The dovetail was left over.

[Steven Mikes]

Steve thanks for the detailed build, following closely! I plan on building one of these benches late this year, will refer back to your build (and Ken's of course). I was thinking of using yellow pine and white oak too, but yellow pine for the base (legs and stretchers) and white oak for the bench top.

[Steve Southwood]

Steve thanks for the detailed build, following closely! I plan on building one of these benches late this year, will refer back to your build (and Ken's of course). I was thinking of using yellow pine and white oak too, but yellow pine for the base (legs and stretchers) and white oak for the bench top.

And you will probably be done before me. :) I do believe the two woods go together nicely. Yours should be awesome

[Graham Haydon]

Steve, great thread so far. Thanks for being honest with the trials of a build, looking forward to seeing the completed article.

[Steve Southwood]

March 16th- 21st

Now that the legs are all glued up it was time for a test assembly.

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Everything went fairly well, so I made the wedges and cut those mortises. Time to test fit again.

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While everything was going good I sat the top in place.

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The bench was now usable, for the most part. Next up was to cut the vise face out and get the hole drilled. I did cheat and used a drill press and a 2 5/8” bit. I then checked it against the bench to make sure I haven’t botched up anything as of yet.

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Now is the time to make the vise back piece and get it cut and mortised in place. This went fairly easy.

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Time to decide and what parallel guide to use.

[Steve Southwood]

April 2nd- April 6th

The parallel guide I decided to go with was the ratcheting type that Will detailed on WK Fine Tools. It actually wasn’t a bad install, and I am happy with the results. First up was making of the ratchet bar.

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Then getting it inset into the parallel guide

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I marked the location of the screw hole and drill it into the vise back. I test fit it all together, just because I wanted to see how it would look.

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I got the locking piece ready and just about welded it up, then thought I could use that for finding the arc of the travel. I dug out some dowel centers and used those to make the layout.

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With the bolts welded in, I could now mark it out and cut the area down to depth.

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I took some 3/8” rod and bent the lifting handle.

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Here is a view with it all in place without the vise.
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[Steve Southwood]

And a view with the vise in place.

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Here’s a couple videos of the ratchet system. Sorry they won't load so a couple pictures of it.

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I need to cut in the vise garter, to make sure the vise moved with the screw. Fairly straight forward, just mortise straight down.

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Now the bench is totally usable. First time I have had one in the shop, pretty exciting.

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Had some scraps left over so I knocked out this bench slave real quick. I really made it to test out my finish regimen.

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[Steve Southwood]

Apr 22- Apr 26

Time to make a tool tray. I started by picking out some straight grain boards and cut them to size. First thing I did was to put the groove in for the bottom panel. The combination plane worked great for this.

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Once that was completed I laid out the dovetails and the filler notch for the groove.

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First time I ever cut dovetails with the filler left in place, but had to try it. I think it turned out well and actually wasn’t that hard. It was like anything, think it through and take it step by step.

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Used my MDF square’s and made the glue up.

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While that was drying, I started on the bottom board. I had already glued it up, I cut mostly quarter sawn pieces out of the 2x12’s. I cut the long portion first, once again with the comb plane. The depth was just about all it wanted, but it did the job.

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I thought pretty hard how to cut the two ends, router with a rabbiting bit? Nah, too simple. I marked it out with good layout lines and made the long cut across the grain.

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[Steve Southwood]

Next I took a wide chisel and starting breaking the waste out from the end.

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Came back with the same chisel and went across the grain and cleaned it up a touch.

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Put a screw in each end and sat it in place. I used to scrap pieces to somewhat lock it under the bench and also added two small short dowels at the back to myself from pushing it off.

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Still having scraps left over, I broke out the T&G plane and made bottom boards for a lower shelf. It still needs more pieces, but I will get those done when more scrap presents itself.

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[ken hatch]

Steve,

The bench looks great. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do my three.

ken

[Steve Southwood]

I uploaded the videos to Vimeo last night. You can see how the ratchet system works a little

https://vimeo.com/339095164 (https://vimeo.com/339095164)

https://vimeo.com/339019850

[Patrick Whitehorn]

Steve,
That is a great looking bench - well done! I am in the midst of building my Paul Sellers-inspired bench and the more I see the Moravian benches, the more I think that I should have built one of those!

Patrick

[Steve Southwood]

Its not a bad little bench for the time you put into it

[ken hatch]

Steve,
That is a great looking bench - well done! I am in the midst of building my Paul Sellers-inspired bench and the more I see the Moravian benches, the more I think that I should have built one of those!

Patrick

Patrick,

It is never too late to start over :-). The Moravian is a better bench and it is easy to make portable so you can take the bench to the work vs. work to the bench.

ken

[Patrick Whitehorn]

Patrick,

It is never too late to start over :-).

ken
Ken,
It *might* be too late to start over. But it might not be too late to start a new one! <laughs>

[ken hatch]

Ken,
It *might* be too late to start over. But it might not be too late to start a new one! <laughs>

Patrick,

I know the drill, just push the old bench to a new place and purpose and build another. Right now I have a really old bench in the back garden holding MsBubba's stuff, two French benches in the shop plus two Moravian benches and a third Moravian apart and standing in a corner. They all get used.

ken

[Steve Southwood]

Apr 27th - May 1st
With the bench usable, I wasn’t happy with the garter I had made for the vise. Didn’t chop the mortise square enough and it created some slop and racking in the vice. I ordered the brass garter from Lake Erie and installed that. This helped a bunch, now the vice functions much better.

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Then I patched the original hole for the first garter.

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Next on the list was to install the Benchcrafted seat. First up was to glue up a block and get that mounted.

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I ordered some square head lag bolts from Blacksmith bolt, got to keep with the look, and installed the seat. I glued up a seat blank and mounted that to the seat arm.

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The bench is now as complete as it can be. I have been using it off and on for about 2 months. I still need clean the layout marks off and apply a light coat of finish, but I want to wait for a while yet. I have the finished height at 34 1/2 “ for now. The jury is still out on this.
There are some things I like and some that I don’t. The seat was a mistake. Because of the lower stretcher, it sits too high. The way the top is, if you sit down to fast, the bench wants to flip in your direction. The seat issue is my fault and not the bench’s. I could add another top section in the back and remove the tray, but I like the tray. I will try to remember to give another update towards the end of the year.

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[ken hatch]

Apr 27th - May 1st
With the bench usable, I wasn’t happy with the garter I had made for the vise. Didn’t chop the mortise square enough and it created some slop and racking in the vice. I ordered the brass garter from Lake Erie and installed that. This helped a bunch, now the vice functions much better.

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Then I patched the original hole for the first garter.

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Next on the list was to install the Benchcrafted seat. First up was to glue up a block and get that mounted.

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I ordered some square head lag bolts from Blacksmith bolt, got to keep with the look, and installed the seat. I glued up a seat blank and mounted that to the seat arm.

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The bench is now as complete as it can be. I have been using it off and on for about 2 months. I still need clean the layout marks off and apply a light coat of finish, but I want to wait for a while yet. I have the finished height at 34 1/2 “ for now. The jury is still out on this.
There are some things I like and some that I don’t. The seat was a mistake. Because of the lower stretcher, it sits too high. The way the top is, if you sit down to fast, the bench wants to flip in your direction. The seat issue is my fault and not the bench’s. I could add another top section in the back and remove the tray, but I like the tray. I will try to remember to give another update towards the end of the year.

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Steve,

The bench looks good. I'm sorry the BC bench seat didn't work out but looking at it I can see why it would try to flip the bench. My guess is your bench is ~24" wide with a narrow slab. That would put the bench CG someplace close to 10" inside the the slab side. Again just guessing from looking at the seat it looks to stick out about a foot. Using Wt X Arm=Moment and a guess depending on how much you weigh you could have 400 lbs or so of force trying to roll/pick up at most 100lbs of off side bench. Pretty easy to tell who wins at teeter totter:).

That's the one place where a very light bench (one made with only construction grade pine or DF) can fall short of a Roubo style bench. Add a slightly larger and thicker slab made of one of the Oaks, Maple, or Beech would help a little but my guess not fix.

ken

[Steve Southwood]

Its fine where its at. You just have to be careful. I had it for the Roubo build and just thought I would try it here. Live and learn