I responded to an ad off of CL the other day about a Woodworker's Bench for sale locally, from the ad I could tell that it was something special and definitely needed an extra look. I shot an e-mail off and set up a time to go take a look.
I went over this morning and looked over the bench, the owner said that he had done some work for an older lady and took it in as payment. He had about a 7' long piece of bowling lane that he was going to build a new bench with so this oldie needed to go, I was just the guy to help with that!
I cannot find anything to date the bench, but was able to come up with a 1908 Popular Mechanics ad:
The bench is in great condition, and only requires a new handle for the face vise which will be a great project for my new lathe! The vises and drawer work well after a quick "lubing" with beeswax. The top is in fairly good shape and has 100 years of patina, I love old tools and this is much prefered to building my own! The only place on the bench that might use some attention is replacing the piece with the bench dogs cut into it, but I don't think it is needed immediately, it appears that this piece is seperate from the rest of the bench.
The bench measures 75" x 25" end to end (not including the vise), the working surface is 16" deep. The face vise opens to 14".
Ok, enough talking and on to some pictures...
(The vise on my outfeed table, seen in the forefront, also might be a 1908 model, also made in the Chicago area).
Close up of the maker's badge.
Shot of the base, which I believe is beech.
Shot of the face vise.
With the vise opened, it is pretty neat how it is loosely assembled which allows for racking.
Bottom of the face vise.
Tail vise.
Tail vise open.
Bottom of tail vise.
View of table, while it is nowhere near smooth, overall it is flat and I am just going to leave it the way it is.
And the price, only $300, which I think was a smoking deal. Heck I couldn't even get the vise hardware for a new bench for that much.
A couple hours ago a nearly identical bench was posted on CL, this gent was claiming the bench to be worth between $2500-3000, but he was looking for offers. I responded saying that I just paid $300 for one and that that was apparently market value, he replied that we were worlds apart.I am happy that I was able to save this from some "hipster" making it a kitchen island in downtown Chicago....
Thanks for looking!
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Originally Posted by Zach England
