workbench

[charlie kapper]

I am just about to begin building a workbench, 3" square legs with 1 3/4" thick stretchers. I would like to get opinions on the best method of connecting the legs to the stretchers. I was going to use the Veritas bench bolts but the plans call for mortise and tennons. Any feedback appreciated. If the suggestion is bench bolts, should the stretchers be housed in a shallow mortise in the legs to prevent them from twisting.

regards,
Charlie Kapper

[Jim Young]

Mortise and tennon. I like the old ways of joinery.

[Rich Person]

Mortise and tennon. I like the old ways of joinery.

Me too. Half the purpose for me building my bench was to get more experience in joinery. M&T all the way.

On a side note, I purchased the Veritas planks and believe that I have a full set of the Veritas bench bolts that I never used (because I used an M&T base). PM me if you are interested.

[jonathan snyder]

Charlie,

I too am in the planning stage for a bench. I just picked up my vise hardware from LV. I was contemplating using their bench bolts, but they seemed a bit spendy. I found 3/8" cross dowels here (http://www.woodpeck.com/crossdowels.html) for $1.00 a piece.

All of the bench plans I have seen that use bolts to attach the stretchers to the legs, do so with a shallow mortise. I guess this is to prevent twisting as you say.

Jonathan

[Calvin Crutchfield]

I used long threaded rod. My stretchers are two 3/4" pieces of oak laminated together. But before I laminated them together I put a dado down the center of each. Once glude to gether I had a nice square hole running the lenth of the stretcher. This 'dado' was just wide enough to accomodate the thickness of the coupler used to connect two pieces of threaded rod. On the outside of the leg I simply have a nice fat washer and bolt recessed. It is very sturdy.

Using M&T has a lot of merit, especially if you want to get better at M&T.

[Bart Leetch]

I used both M&T & bench bolts so I could disassemble the bench to move if needed.

[Hank Knight]

Charlie,

Your bench base sounds exactly like mine. I used through mortise and tenons on the short end strechers and stub tenons with bench bolts on the long strechers. The bench bolts allow the bench base to be disassembled into the two end assemblies and two long strechers - should it ever become necessary to move the bench. The stub tenons on the long strechers are an inch long by 3/4" thick. Two bench bolts for each joint is probably overkill, but I didn't want even the slightest chance they would work loose. I've been using the bench for three years and have had zero problems with the base.

Here are some photos: