"I don't much care for furniture making,but I love to make work benches!"

[ken hatch]

That quote from George Wilson post 255 on the "Show Us Your Bench" thread.was like a slap upside the head. I build furniture so I have an excuse to build benches. It may be time to cut the middleman and just build workbenches.

ken

[Frederick Skelly]

Nothing wrong with that. You make them really well. Why not make a couple per year and sell them? You could sell them for full price, or just cover your materials and shipping. Lotsa options and most importantly you'll enjoy yourself immensely!

Fred

[ken hatch]

Nothing wrong with that. You make them really well. Why not make a couple per year and sell them? You could sell them for full price, or just cover your materials and shipping. Lotsa options and most importantly you'll enjoy yourself immensely!

Fred

Thanks Fred,

You are too kind.

I may do just what you suggest for no other reason than I have no room for another bench in my shop and the ones there do not need replacing. I expect I'll make a woodstore run this week, I'm thinking small, light, and portable, Poplar base with a Beech slab and of course a Lake Erie screw for the leg vise. I'm already getting a sparkle in my eye :D.

The other thing I need to make is a slightly prettier shave horse.

ken

[Frederick Skelly]

Remember to post build pics for all of us to enjoy along with you!

[James Pallas]

Maybe just make everything looking like a Moravian. A little more square for an end table, a little lower for a coffee table, hang drawers under for a dresser. A house built like that would go well in the SW desert.
Jim

[Stew Denton]

James just suggested the exact thought I had. He even picked the exact same two pieces of furniture I thought of. Thus, to contribute to the post, I had to think about further pieces for furniture.

Then it struck me....a very low Moravian. Have your wife make or buy 6 pillows. Put three of the pillows on the top, and put the bench close to a wall. Finally lean the last three pillows against wall, and then use it for a couch.

Be careful to put all of the vises on the side against the wall though, because powerful woodworking vises and small grandsons are probably not a good combination. Being once a small boy myself, I can think of several unfortunate things that I did that involved a vise. Fortunately I did not get caught by dad....otherwise I would have regretted the consequences greatly.

The more I thought about it, I began to think the possibilities might be endless. Think of one like James mentioned as an end table, but make it a bit taller for a TV stand. Finally make a fairly tall one with several large drawers and us it for storing china in the dining room. The mind is beginning to free up to the possibilities.

You might want to get buy in from the better half first though. I can see what would happen in my case. Her first statement and questions going something like: "what is that thing in the hallway, and where is my hallway table?" Things could begin deteriorate rapidly for me in such a situation. Fortunately it is not too cold at night here this time of year, so sleeping in the garage at least would not involve freezing to death.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

A house, tables, dressers and many other objects of furniture with a Moravian influence?

Maybe take it a step further and blend a little Greene & Greene in with the Moravian for a 21st century arts & crafts movement.

A Moravian Morris chair with Greene and Greene joinery.

jtk

[ken hatch]

You guys are too much :p.

It did get me to thinking about furniture for frequent movers, think almost everything in the housebroken down to flat packs and then put back together by driving a few wedges home. A few years go my life would have been much easier.

ken

[James Pallas]

Just think. Break it down, house and all, load the whole works into one C 47 throw the laundry sack in the back. Fly to wherever you want to live. Be set up in a day or so and life goes on.:)
Jim

[James Pallas]

It came to me in an extremely rare stroke of genius. Moravian campaign furniture. I really didn't mean genius, just a rare thought.:)
Jim

[Stew Denton]

Guys, I think we are on a roll here!

Ken, you may have made a major break through in the thinking on this.....we need to follow up on that idea, and James is the first one to begin to flesh out the basic fabulous idea.

Just think a whole house full of furniture that can be knocked down into basically flat pieces that will only take up 10% of the room to move. Think about the possibilities.

This could be the greatest new idea in furniture design since the Arts and Crafts movement that Jim alluded to. It could sweep the country.

Then, 100 years from now, in "Popular and Fine Woodworking" they could be writing about HPK (Hatch Pallas and Koepke) Moravian Dual Stinger Dinner Tables. Maybe accessories like: "Build a vintage Denton Moravian cigar Box", or "I can do that:, make a Skelly Moravian Theme Nic-Nac shelf." These articles would follow one like "How to Restore Your Great Grandfathers Junker Table Saw."

Now to get the movement started....Ken we will follow your lead!

Stew

[Frederick Skelly]

I love it Stew!

[ken hatch]

As posted, you guys are killing me.

That said, I did have a couple of design ideas float through :D. I might even build one or two.

ken

[Scott Winners]

Is anyone else thinking small timber framed garden shed or timber framed dog house?

This thread does strike a chord with me. I got into "joinery" to make a better boat next time than the last one, but I am not looking to win a concourse d' elegance at Palm Springs or the Gentleman's regatta on the Solent. I want to get up the Goodpaster and put a caribou in my freezer. I want to get up the Little Delta river, portaging around both known log jams, and put a tender yearling moose in my freezer. I need a boat that will get me home after bashing into a bunch of rocks, not a work of art.

I am going back to my local library tomorrow. One of the timber framing books I previously checked out was written by essentially a coach, to make this joint lay out the mortise this way, and then ideally use these tools, or alternatively use these, or if you are really short of cash and have a LOT of time you could do it this way...

I am thinking most of the folks who "need " a work bench today can build their own, but there are a blue million people needing small sheds in their back yards, and some of them have outrageous bank balances.

[Stewie Simpson]

Personally I struggle to understand the approach of woodworkers in the USA. As someone that was taught under the uk system of of traditional apprenticeship training,as was my father before me, I can only put it down to the USA;s move away from traditional trade apprenticeships shortly after WWII, to a system that has become more heavily reliant on excepting what can and cannot be learnt on the job site, to a system that has become heavily reliant on the skill-set of Engineers and other white collar persuasion to fill the void of understanding within the craft.

[Frederick Skelly]

Personally I struggle to understand the approach of woodworkers in the USA. As someone that was taught under the uk system of of traditional apprenticeship training,as was my father before me, I can only put it down to the USA;s move away from traditional trade apprenticeships shortly after WWII, to a system that has become more heavily reliant on excepting what can and cannot be learnt on the job site, to a system that has become heavily reliant on the skill-set of Engineers to fill the void of understanding within the craft.

Hi Stewie.
I don't disagree that we lost something good as apprenticeships declined. I'm not following you on how that thought ties to Ken building workbenches for fun, or the whimsical idea of making "moravian workbench furniture". Did you mean to post that in a different thread?
Fred

[Matt Lau]

I think it'd make a very tasteful desk or dining table....and far nicer than anything ikea.

[Allen Read]

"I don't much care for furniture making,but I love to make work benches!"[/h]]That quote from George Wilson post 255 on the "Show Us Your Bench" thread.was like a slap upside the head. I build furniture so I have an excuse to build benches. It may be time to cut the middleman and just build workbenches.

ken

I'm the same as you and George. However, I do also like to tinker with restoring old tools.

Some great & humorous ideas above though!

Allen

[Tom Bender]

Stewie Stewie Stewie
For the most part the old ways are gone and not coming back. At least in the US we have a rich rural history of self reliance and what we are about is indeed reliant on what we can teach ourselves and pick up from helter skelter teaching. Individual growth is the reward.

[ken hatch]

I'm the same as you and George. However, I do also like to tinker with restoring old tools.

Some great & humorous ideas above though!

Allen

Allen,

Good to know I'm not alone :). Yeah, some of the ideas had me laughing and at the same time thinking "Hey, that's not bad. I might build it."

ken

[glenn bradley]

There are a few forum members out there who have been valuable and active contributors to our knowledge base who make very little. These people enjoy "getting ready" to do things. They have lots of really cool items and ideas implemented in their shops. They are well organized, well equipped and often ever-morphing their shops in order to be "ready" to do something new. Their joy of the craft is building workshops. Getting enjoyment from building workbenches, or coffee tables or M&M machines is no different. For many, making furniture is a hobby, for others getting ready to do so, or building things that help others do so is the fun. Have fun!

[James Pallas]

I think Ken has it right now. To build something that is essentially a copy is one thing. To understand why it was built the way it was is another. That lightbulb moment when you figure it out is very rewarding. Ken's explainations of realization why the joints were done a certain way is a fine example.
Jim

[ken hatch]

I think Ken has it right now. To build something that is essentially a copy is one thing. To understand why it was built the way it was is another. That lightbulb moment when you figure it out is very rewarding. Ken's explainations of realization why the joints were done a certain way is a fine example.
Jim

Thanks Jim,

As I make the joints on the new build I smile with each one. BTW, this bench is as good an example as I can find of my often stated: "If you can figure out how the old guys did it you've usually found the best way".

ken