Workbench Finished -- Thanks

[Rich Person]

I'm not really a regular, due to lack of time. But I have sought the advice of many on this forum regarding tools and this workbench. I just wanted to say thanks and post some pics. This was my first project using dovetail joinery and also my first using several techniques. The bench is maple and purpleheart with some inlay of some unknown wood that I picked up somewhere. I designed it around the top planks I purchased from Lee Valley. I didn't like the rest of their design that much though, so I customized it to give a wider bench and deeper tool tray. I really beefed up the apron so I could support the big end vice.

http://person.smugmug.com/photos/125868420-S.jpg
http://person.smugmug.com/photos/125868576-S.jpg

Here is a link to the full size images if interested:

Photo Gallery (http://person.smugmug.com/photos/125868420-S.jpg)

[Ted Miller]

Rich, Nice tails you have there and a clean finish, great job. I still smile after all these years when I make clean good fitting tails. By the way I could not bring myself to put a scratch in that top, keep the wax handy...

[Tim Malyszko]

Great job on the workbench and dovetails. Did you hand cut those?

[Mike Shoemaker]

Very nice, Great looking bench

[John Schreiber]

Rich, that looks really nice.

How deep is that tool tray? Why did you decide to do it that way?

I plan on building a bench in the future and I'm always looking for new ideas.

[Jim Becker]

Very nice work, Rich!

[Bart Leetch]

WOW Rich that looks great. You sure can't miss getting a strike on that bowling ally the gutter is right down the middle.:eek: :D
Gee I wish I was a Rich Person so I could afford a beautiful bench like that.:D :D

[Rich Person]

To answer some of the questions:

I did hand cut the dovetails, and learned a lot. Because of the 8/4 stock, they had to be hand done. I liked the idea of starting with the dovetails first. Since the side aprons were so long, I decided to cut them with a Japanese saw, rather than fight them onto the bandsaw. This worked okay, but the precision was lacking. Then I marked the pins onto the end pieces and made a vertical fence for my miter jig so I could cut the pins on the table saw. This worked very well. In hind site, I would have cut the pins first on the table saw and then built a temporary support table to cut the tails on the bandsaw. Functionally the dovetails are tight, but they could have been cleaner. I viewed this project as a practice project anyway, so it achieved it's purpose.

On the tool tray, the standard one recommended by Veritas is less than 2" deep and only a few inches wide. I wanted to be able to put mallets and planes that I was using down there, so I made mine 6" deep and 9.5" wide. I made it more shallow at the ends so I could use a strait support beam to help keep the two panels flat and coplanar. I had originally designed it to put a cover over the trough, but I'm not sure I need that now.

I like the way the inlay between the apron and the planks ended up. My confession is that that was not in the original plan. When I glued up the apron, there was a 1 mm gap at the non-vice end and a short gap on the adjacent corner. So, I decided to cover it with an inlay.