Moravian Workbench Build

[Steve Southwood]

Dec 29- Jan 1


I started the long weekend off trying to get the frame put together and standing on its own.


First task, was to get the tenons cut on the long stretchers. All started well, I made short cuts on all three sides to establish my saw kerf.

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While cutting the first side of the very first stretcher, this happened.

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I honestly have no idea how this happened. I did feel the kerf closing up while I was cutting it, so I figure that must have done it. I waxed the sawblade some more and went on. I mixed up some epoxy and filled the cut on the bad one. Taped it up and let it set for the rest of the day.

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With all the tenons lengths cut it was time to cut the angles and clean up the tenon.

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This got me to thinking I was getting close to needing the top. So I shifted gears, so I glued up the top, also I went ahead and glued up the vise back.

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Sadly, with 4 days to work on the bench, this is all I got done.

[Steve Southwood]

Jan 17 & Jan 18

With the mortises done in the legs, it is time to glue them up. While test fitting the joints I dropped one of the dovetail stretchers and this happened.

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Nothing a little glue and couple clamps couldn’t fix.

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With that issue fixed it was time to try and glue up again. Both leg assemblies’ went together pretty well. I did have one that was slightly out of square, so I pulled it back in.

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All in all, still plugging along, just not at the rate of completion that I would like.

[ken hatch]

Steve,

Looking good. The stretcher tenons are a long cut, stuff happens. Good recovery. With the two base units glued up the rest of the build should go quickly.

BTW, what's the wood used for the dovetail stretcher?

You will love the bench once finished, mine are a joy to use.

ken

P.S. Seeing your build had me thinking about another build for a second or two. Ain't going to happen but I did think about it.

[Steve Southwood]

White Oak is what I am using for the stretcher, all of them. The dovetail was left over.

[Steven Mikes]

Steve thanks for the detailed build, following closely! I plan on building one of these benches late this year, will refer back to your build (and Ken's of course). I was thinking of using yellow pine and white oak too, but yellow pine for the base (legs and stretchers) and white oak for the bench top.

[Steve Southwood]

Steve thanks for the detailed build, following closely! I plan on building one of these benches late this year, will refer back to your build (and Ken's of course). I was thinking of using yellow pine and white oak too, but yellow pine for the base (legs and stretchers) and white oak for the bench top.

And you will probably be done before me. I do believe the two woods go together nicely. Yours should be awesome

[Graham Haydon]

Steve, great thread so far. Thanks for being honest with the trials of a build, looking forward to seeing the completed article.

[Steve Southwood]

March 16th- 21st

Now that the legs are all glued up it was time for a test assembly.

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Everything went fairly well, so I made the wedges and cut those mortises. Time to test fit again.

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While everything was going good I sat the top in place.

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The bench was now usable, for the most part. Next up was to cut the vise face out and get the hole drilled. I did cheat and used a drill press and a 2 5/8” bit. I then checked it against the bench to make sure I haven’t botched up anything as of yet.

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Now is the time to make the vise back piece and get it cut and mortised in place. This went fairly easy.

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Time to decide and what parallel guide to use.

[Steve Southwood]

April 2^nd- April 6^th

The parallel guide I decided to go with was the ratcheting type that Will detailed on WK Fine Tools. It actually wasn’t a bad install, and I am happy with the results. First up was making of the ratchet bar.

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Then getting it inset into the parallel guide

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I marked the location of the screw hole and drill it into the vise back. I test fit it all together, just because I wanted to see how it would look.

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I got the locking piece ready and just about welded it up, then thought I could use that for finding the arc of the travel. I dug out some dowel centers and used those to make the layout.

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With the bolts welded in, I could now mark it out and cut the area down to depth.

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I took some 3/8” rod and bent the lifting handle.

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Here is a view with it all in place without the vise.
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[Steve Southwood]

And a view with the vise in place.

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Here’s a couple videos of the ratchet system. Sorry they won't load so a couple pictures of it.

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I need to cut in the vise garter, to make sure the vise moved with the screw. Fairly straight forward, just mortise straight down.

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Now the bench is totally usable. First time I have had one in the shop, pretty exciting.

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Had some scraps left over so I knocked out this bench slave real quick. I really made it to test out my finish regimen.

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[Steve Southwood]

Apr 22- Apr 26

Time to make a tool tray. I started by picking out some straight grain boards and cut them to size. First thing I did was to put the groove in for the bottom panel. The combination plane worked great for this.

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Once that was completed I laid out the dovetails and the filler notch for the groove.

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First time I ever cut dovetails with the filler left in place, but had to try it. I think it turned out well and actually wasn’t that hard. It was like anything, think it through and take it step by step.

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Used my MDF square’s and made the glue up.

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While that was drying, I started on the bottom board. I had already glued it up, I cut mostly quarter sawn pieces out of the 2x12’s. I cut the long portion first, once again with the comb plane. The depth was just about all it wanted, but it did the job.

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I thought pretty hard how to cut the two ends, router with a rabbiting bit? Nah, too simple. I marked it out with good layout lines and made the long cut across the grain.

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[Steve Southwood]

Next I took a wide chisel and starting breaking the waste out from the end.

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Came back with the same chisel and went across the grain and cleaned it up a touch.

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Put a screw in each end and sat it in place. I used to scrap pieces to somewhat lock it under the bench and also added two small short dowels at the back to myself from pushing it off.

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Still having scraps left over, I broke out the T&G plane and made bottom boards for a lower shelf. It still needs more pieces, but I will get those done when more scrap presents itself.

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[ken hatch]

Steve,

The bench looks great. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do my three.

ken

[Steve Southwood]

I uploaded the videos to Vimeo last night. You can see how the ratchet system works a little

https://vimeo.com/339095164

https://vimeo.com/339019850

[Patrick Whitehorn]

Steve,
That is a great looking bench - well done! I am in the midst of building my Paul Sellers-inspired bench and the more I see the Moravian benches, the more I think that I should have built one of those!

Patrick