Hi all,
First post - forgive the length.
My wife got me a vintage carpenter's workbench (she's a great woman). My best guess is early 1900's based on design and weathering, but who really knows - I could be way off. It was pulled out of a barn where its been sitting for the last few decades. At some point in its life the right 30 inches were sawed off.. The stretchers and bench top were all severed. Later in its life it was reassembled with support wood, so the right side - especially right front, right of the leg, sags a bit. Haven't been able to figure out the purpose behind the decision to cut it. It has a small left front vise and a right front tail vise. The entire right side of the bench sags about an inch starting at the cut and makes the tail vise less than useful. 1" bench dog holes line up with the tail vise but are basically useless since the tail vise sits so much lower than the bench top.
Stability is also an issue as I think decades of shrinkage have loosened up just about every joint. On a scale of 1-10 lets call it a 2.5. The whole thing weighs about 400 pounds and the majority of the bench is in great shape after conditioning the wood, but planing on it - especially trying to do any surfacing or thicknessing - is an exercise in patience. A couple pairs of pipe clamps are holding things together but the thing still sways like a hula girl.
Until this point in my life my workshop has been my driveway and a card table in the living room. My wife (a great woman) has now given me a dedicated workshop that used to be our mother-in-law suite. I essentially have my own studio building in our backyard to transform.
So I'm looking at a few options. Should I:
Option A: Tighten up the joints and do what subtle restorations I can to reinforce structure, and then build/buy/acquire a sturdy bench with a leg vise and tail vise. Use the vintage one for layout, glue up, etc. I do have room for two benches in my new room, though it wouldn't be very roomy. Also, the Navy would probably be less than thrilled come moving day.
Option B: Same as option A except build a low bench dedicated to planing and sawing. Use the high bench with a moxon vise for joinery.
Option C: Complete disassembly on the vintage bench. Remove the mid-life support wood. Go total restore on all the joints, cut out the front vise to install new leg vise, cut out the tail vise in order to build a new structure to support the bench top in one level plane. Restore and level the bench top. Use a new wagon vise as the centerpiece to make this bench really live again. Drill new holdfast holes, install a planing stop, the whole 9 yards. Total retrofit.
Is option C sacrilege? Should I honor the old bench by giving her a nice cozy corner to relax with some light work or would she rather have a major overhaul so she can really get some work done, again?
Looking forward to your opinions. Thanks!
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