Finished my bench

[Robert Trotter]

Thanks to all who agve advice or just showed your benches. even the bench design I did follow were useful, especially for seeing how to hold work etc.

Here are some pics.

Cut and trim Tennons on 105mm square legs and stretchers.
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Drill mortices. LAter to trim the corners with a chisel.
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The base is mortice and tennoned into the top. Glued and draw bored.
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[Robert Trotter]

Glue on a hardwood edge strip

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Then prepare the jaws for the vise.

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Plane the taper onto the inside face of the front jaw.

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The rear jaw fitted.

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[Robert Trotter]

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[Robert Trotter]

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I only have to put a coat of wax on if I can find any.

I the darker picture, at night, you can see my tool wall layout.
I just used some scrap ply and OSB to wack some shelves up to see how it works and once I have made any alterations etc. I will put up propper timber shelves.

Anyway what do you think?

It is 2000mm x 600mm x 105mm deep top. (about 78"x23 1/2"x4")
The height is 900mm (about 35")
The jaws are 36" wide and a bit over 9" high. Screws at 24".

[Jeff Wittrock]

That is a fine looking bench Robert. Well done.

-Jeff

[Marcus Ward]

That is absolutely outstanding. Wow! Nice job. Do you have a vise on the end we can't see to hold things for planing?

[gary Zimmel]

Robert

Excellent looking workbench. Now that will come in handy for a bunch of years....

Good job!

[Mike Gabbay]

Robert - Great looking bench! Enjoy!

[Doug Shepard]

Very nice. Looks like you could park a tank on it without making it grunt.

[Don Pierson]

Great job...thanks for sharing!

[Jim McFarland]

Very nice, Robert. You mention adding wax -- what did you use to get the top to the finish shown in the photos?

[Jim Becker]

Great looking bench, Robert!

[Thomas Knighton]

Nice job!

Tom

[Phillip Pattee]

Robert, Very nice looking bench. And sturdy! I would have put that twin screw vise on the end so I'll be interested to hear how it works for you as a large front vise, and or why you chose to put it there. And as Marcus asked, is there one on the end too?
Phil

[Jim Nardi]

That huge face vice is neat.

[Bob Noles]

Robert,

Outstanding job on the bench and I really enjoyed the WIP pictures. Looks like you did a lot of the work outdoors and that is the way I love to work when I can.

Thanks for sharing.

[Zahid Naqvi]

great looking bench man!

[Paul Erickson]

[quote=Robert Trotter;764013]Glue on a hardwood edge strip

Excellent job Robert. When you say this does that mean that the rest of the top is softwood?

cheers, Paul

[Robert Trotter]

Some questions to be answered:-

Marcus and Phillip,
There is no end vice hidden around the corner:(.
I initially was thinking of a wagon vice or another twin screw for an end vice but with my limited space I decided to go for longer bench rather than a shorter bench with operating room for and end vice.

I have been woodworking without an end vice so I am used to it. But I should also add that I have been using a workmate for a few years now. Limited space then. But I have bit more space so built myself a bench. I put my top together first and have been using it while building the doors for my shed and for making the base. I have just been using battens and clamps. It has worked very well.

For my bench now, I will use a wonder dog from Veritas as an end vise when needed. I haven't used it yet though. Just battens and the hold downs. The hold down are great.

Doug,
It certainly is a solid bench. And I tell you, it pulls a few grunts out of me when trying to move it. I think the vice and front edge strip add a lot of weight to it.

Paul,
Yes the bench is softwood. It is made from 105mmx105mm (basically 4"x4") laminated spruce posts. There are five laminations in each. So it is pretty stable and better quality than the other construction grade timber.
The front edge strip and vise jaws are tropical hardwood; Serangan battu or yellow Baleau. I put the front edge strip on becasue the top is softwood and I wanted to have a bit more wear and tear resistance on the front.

I know the limitations of softwood but I didn't have few spare thousand for making a hardwood model. And besides, it is heavy enough as it is. I don't know how I would be able to get into my shed it were all hardwood. But I suppose I am thinking of tropical hardwood. That is heavy stuff.

The bench was pretty cheap to make. A few hundred including the hardwood. But the twin screw was rather expensive, especially shipping it to Japan.

Jim,
The finish to date is Watco oil. It comes up very nicely on the hardwood. This is my first time to use oil actually.

Bob,

Yep, lots of work out doors. It is nice but having to get the tools out and then pack them all away all the time was a pain. And that is why I built myself a little shed and plonked a great big bench in it. I still do a lot of stuff outside but now I can leave all my tools ready to go in the shed. I'll post some pics of the shed some time. My small shed basically operates as a open shed.

Jim and Phillip
The Twin screw face vise is just something I wanted. I figured it would work very well with the way I work. It would also allow me to place draws etc in between the screws for holding the work in the vise. Thus I have two pins, rather than the standard one, for keeping the work off of the screw. Four pins, that is.

This is my first real bench so I will have to use it a bit and see if it all works out. I will let you know and few months if things are working as expected.

Thanks again all, for the comments.

If any are interested in reading about the whole saga, I have a blog but I don't think I am allowed to post the link. So just PM me. I'll set a time limit on the PMs though I think. I don't want to be answering PM in a year or so. So how about I say until 10th of March, 2008.

[John Schreiber]

Congratulations Robert, It's a beauty.

[David Tiell]

Very nicely done, Robert!

[Dave Anderson NH]

Beautifully executed Robert. About the only thing I don't like about your new bench is that it's right handed. Yuck!:D

[John Maus]

Nice Job Robert,

I like to see other folks benches, especially in the construciton phase. The finished bench looks like it will give you a great place to focus your skills. A good bench won't make you a good woodworker but it sure won't hurt.

Thanks fo the details.

John

[Robert Trotter]

Yeah, I won't be able to blame the bench anymore.:D

[Charles Stanford]

Is that bench mostly Pine construction lumber? How in the world did you find it that clear?

Workmanship looks top-notch.

[John Timberlake]

Very nice. Looks heavy enough you don't have to worry about it moving around. Love the double vise.

[Robert Trotter]

John it made mostly of spruce but the vice hardware, tropical hardwood jaws and front edge strip add lot to the weight. It is very hard for me to move the vice end around. The other end is bit lighter but not an easy job. It is a LOT better than going for a rodeo ride with the workmate.

Robert

[Marcus Ward]

How much taper did you put on the vice face? I've noticed mine tilts when I crank it down and have been thinking of putting a taper on it so it's straight when tight.

[Robert Trotter]

Hi Marcus,

The twin vise instructions say to use 3/32". They are written for a standard 6" jaw depth, I think.

What I did was to mark down the 6" then in 3/32" and then marked the line and extended it to the bottom of my jaw.

The suggested 3/32" is probably worked out for their screw and nut fit. Ie. for how much play there is in the threads of the screws.

But I think that it is a good place to start. For my jaws this has worked very well so far. There is no gap at the top when I close the jaws.

Rob

[Sergio Leonte]

I hate reviving old threads but it seems like a good time to ask now how the bench has held up to 5 years of use.
I'm thinking of building a bench out of spruce and I was wondering if it's worthwhile or if I should spend the extra amount and just go with the maple top.
The bench looks fantastic btw :)

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Sergio,

Nothing wrong with reviving an old thread.

Welcome to the Creek. Where on this planet do you call home?

It looks like Robert Trotter hasn't posted here in well over a year. Hopefully he still checks in here.

My thought on spruce is it is very light and a bit splinter prone for bench material. Though some people do like soft woods for their benches.

If the extra amount isn't too much, my choice would be the maple.

jtk