My somewhat Moravian bench

I’ve been working on this for a while. It was built to meet my needs. The top is 6’6” x 2’ x 39” high. The legs are splayed 15* long ways and 10* on the rear legs to the back. The front face is 5” deep and the top is 3 boards. The rear 2 boards are put together with dowels similar to dining table leaves. The leg at the tail vise is vertical with the stretchers angled to the rear leg. The wedges at the tail vise stretcher are folding wedges so they with not interfere with tail vise use. The square dogs are 1 1/2” from the face and the round dogs are 7 1/2” from the face. The dog faces are set up to be in line with each other. The tail vise has 2 dogs for maximum clamping space. The leg vise is angled to match the leg. I’ve been using it for a couple of months and it is settling in to a climate controlled area. It is all hard maple. I’m very pleased with it and that is good because I’m the customer.

You may have trouble convincing people you didn't make the legs after a few beers! Front vise, tail vise, good length, what's not to like? Two handed vise handle?
How is the stability when planing?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by William Fretwell

You may have trouble convincing people you didn't make the legs after a few beers! Front vise, tail vise, good length, what's not to like? Two handed vise handle?
How is the stability when planing?

---

lol The legs are all angled for sure. Lots of marking to keep track. The vise handle works like a crank and a lynchpin. You can shorten up for speed or extend for power. When it gets in your way you just flip the lynch clip and pull it out. I do hate when a vise handle gets in the way. The bench is very steady. I do a lot of planing across the bench and the rear splay does wonders for that. I’ve done a lot of work on saw horses and the best ones have leg splayed both ways.

Looks great Jim and with the compound splay I am sure it is super stable. I think that will prove to be a very useful design. A fun trigonometry puzzle for sure. Well done.

Michael

Laying out and executing the stretchers in your pics four and five gives me heartburn just thinking about it. Otherwise gorgeous, enjoy.

Very nice and functional bench. Love the maple!

Interesting bench. I am building a Moravian bench at the present. My legs are also at 15 degrees and it will be 2 foot wide when finished, and about the same length. I hadn't considered spraying the legs in both directions so it is something I will have to consider. I am at that point now. I love the fact you opted for the tail vise over the traditional wagon wise.

My bench will be more of a bench that I can put in the truck and take it with me than my permeant shop bench so I plan on staying with the wagon vise. MY perinate bench has a shoulder vise as well as a tail vise, but the spraying the legs in both directions is worth thinking about.

Thank you for sharing your bench. I loved it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tom Bussey

Interesting bench. I am building a Moravian bench at the present. My legs are also at 15 degrees and it will be 2 foot wide when finished, and about the same length. I hadn't considered spraying the legs in both directions so it is something I will have to consider. I am at that point now. I love the fact you opted for the tail vise over the traditional wagon wise.

My bench will be more of a bench that I can put in the truck and take it with me than my permeant shop bench so I plan on staying with the wagon vise. MY perinate bench has a shoulder vise as well as a tail vise, but the spraying the legs in both directions is worth thinking about.

Thank you for sharing your bench. I loved it.

---

Thanks Tom. I wanted a tail vise. The issue for me was having the leg interference. I think I worked it out. My bench is still portable, comes apart the same way as typical except with folding wedges at the vertical leg. The top is 24” wide. With the rear legs splayed 10* the top of the leg sits at about 18” from the front and lands at about 24” at the bottom, so no sticking out tripper. The top stretcher runs thru the rear leg the full 24”. You will have leg or stretcher interference with your wagon vise if you want to use it in a vertical orientation going thru to the floor. Hope this helps with your decisions.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tom Bussey

Interesting bench. I am building a Moravian bench at the present. My legs are also at 15 degrees and it will be 2 foot wide when finished, and about the same length. I hadn't considered spraying the legs in both directions so it is something I will have to consider. I am at that point now. I love the fact you opted for the tail vise over the traditional wagon wise.

My bench will be more of a bench that I can put in the truck and take it with me than my permeant shop bench so I plan on staying with the wagon vise. MY perinate bench has a shoulder vise as well as a tail vise, but the spraying the legs in both directions is worth thinking about.

Thank you for sharing your bench. I loved it.

---

Tom,

The legs on my portable Moravian are 21" wide, on the shop Moravian's they are 24" wide. Stability cross planning has not been a problem on either type bench. I expect adding a spray to the back legs would gain little with your 24" wide base and would add more to the complexity of the build than it would be worth.

The plan to use the bench as a job site bench is good, any time I have a project that is not easy to bring to the shop I take the portable bench to the job. Easy to carry the modules, a couple of minutes to put together and just reverse the process when through. When not in use the bench takes up maybe 4 sq feet in a corner of the shop.

ken