Moravian Workbench Finished

[ken hatch]

I've finished the short rows and the dogs and I are headed to the barn.

There is some minor cleanup to do, pencil lines, glue squeeze out, and I need to add the "Crubber" to the vise chop so it holds better. It will be tough to get to hold any better than it does now but I will add it anyway. Once the final clean up is finished I'll put some Tung oil on the base but may leave the slab dry until the bench finds a home.

It should be a good bench, from what work I've done on it it is rock solid, the vise is a dream, and it is a good working size.

benchFinishedWithToolTrayA.jpg

benchFinishedWithToolTrayC.jpg

benchFinishedWithToolTrayB.jpg

As always, click 'em to big 'em.

BTW, today has been a tough working day, I'm not sure what the temp is but it is high and the RH is even higher. It has been a work for 10, rest and drink water for 20 all day.


ken

[Stew Denton]

Good job Ken! Done!

Sounds like it's now usable, but you are now going to make it Pretty!

Thanks for the pictures and the build reports. They are much appreciated and enjoyed.

Regards,

Stew

[David Eisenhauer]

Very nice indeed Ken. What is the width of the slab? And yes, the" crubber" will make it grab even better

[ken hatch]

Very nice indeed Ken. What is the width of the slab? And yes, the" crubber" will make it grab even better

David,

The slab is 366mm ~14.5". Basically 8 8/4 sticks glued up. Without the crubber the holding power of this vise is incredible. Once it grabs something just a small pull on the johnson bar and it is locked and will not move. I'll put the grubber on the chop but it isn't needed other than I guess even that small pull will not be needed.

ken

[ken hatch]

Good job Ken! Done!

Sounds like it's now usable, but you are now going to make it Pretty!

Thanks for the pictures and the build reports. They are much appreciated and enjoyed.

Regards,

Stew

Thanks Stew, it has been a good build, a few mistakes along the way but nothing major and bottom line it will make a good working bench.

ken

[Phil Mueller]

I was in my basement shop yesterday evening and swore I heard Mama Cass humming “The Good Times Are Coming”. I figured either my wife was watching the Woodstock movie upstairs or Ken has finished his bench. Congrats!

[Christopher Charles]

Looks great Ken. Thanks for posting and hope it cools down for you while you contemplate your next project.

Best,
C

[ken hatch]

I was in my basement shop yesterday evening and swore I heard Mama Cass humming “The Good Times Are Coming”. I figured either my wife was watching the Woodstock movie upstairs or Ken has finished his bench. Congrats!

Phil,

She was hitting the high notes . Thanks,

ken

[ken hatch]

Looks great Ken. Thanks for posting and hope it cools down for you while you contemplate your next project.

Best,
C

Thanks Chris,

From the little bit of work I've done on the bench, mostly flatting the slab, it should be a great user. The vise is the best I've ever used. I find myself going out in the middle of the night just to watch it spin and then snug up on a piece of wood. Brings a huge grin every time and the bench is rock solid with both long and cross grain planing. It will make someone a very good shop bench that is easy to move when needed and while it isn't a piece of furniture it, to my eye, ain't too bad looking.

I'm thinking about another small (6 to 7 foot slab) shop sized Moravian bench, this time with a Red Oak base and either Soft Maple or Ash slab. Mostly because I've never used those woods in a bench build. But before I do that I'll retrofit a BC Classic with crisscross to my main bench. That sucker works well enough to make me give up my wood screw vises. It's funny how small changes make big differences, I hated BC vises with a wheel, the Classic with a Johnson bar is the best thing ever. Go figure.

ken

[Tony Shea]

That bench looks amazing. I really need to make a permanent top to my Roubo bench and potentially upgrade to the BC vises. I originally made the base out of hard maple and stuck with doug fir 4x4's for the top to save some money. Luckily when I made the base I used 6x4 legs with 2" thick stretchers so the base is going to last a lifetime. But the 4x4's just require a little too much maintenance for my taste and solid feeling of thick hard maple bench tops has me really wanting to upgrade. I also installed a face vice on the tail vise spot of the bench and have never really been happy with that due to the racking and the round dogs. Long story short, your bench really motivates me to bite the bullet and get to work on upgrading my bench. Great work and thanks so much for posting your work. This forum really needs more of that.

[ken hatch]

That bench looks amazing. I really need to make a permanent top to my Roubo bench and potentially upgrade to the BC vises. I originally made the base out of hard maple and stuck with doug fir 4x4's for the top to save some money. Luckily when I made the base I used 6x4 legs with 2" thick stretchers so the base is going to last a lifetime. But the 4x4's just require a little too much maintenance for my taste and solid feeling of thick hard maple bench tops has me really wanting to upgrade. I also installed a face vice on the tail vise spot of the bench and have never really been happy with that due to the racking and the round dogs. Long story short, your bench really motivates me to bite the bullet and get to work on upgrading my bench. Great work and thanks so much for posting your work. This forum really needs more of that.

Thanks Tony.

Sometimes it is easier to start over vs. upgrading. I figure it takes somewhere north of three benches built to finally build one that doesn't drive you to barking at the moon. Of course YMMV .

ken