Nicholson workbench

[ken hatch]

I think a lot of people underestimate how good a bench the Nicholson configuration can be. When I built my Nicholson I decided to use maple and if I had built this bench first I probably would have built an assembly bench in lieu of another woodworking bench. One advantage of having two benches is that you can use one for an assembly bench even though a purpose built bench would most probably work better for that use. But I digress. I've watch people work on vise less benches and it seems one has to spend an inordinate amount of time on work holding, in lieu of woodworking so that doesn't work for me. You'll notice I have a leg vise and tail vise on mine. I also have what I call a hanging deadman that is quite adjustable and convenient. I had intended to add an 8/4 thick shelf between the stretchers just for the additional mass. The shelf wasn't needed and no shelf meant I could store saw benches and the such underneath.

The great thing about the Nicholson configuration is adding a leg vise and letting in a tail vise would be easily accomplished after the fact which is not quite the case with some other forms.

Ron

Ron,

Good looking functional bench. Good on you. BTW, I like the placement of your lightboxes .

ken

[Tom Bussey]

I built a Nicholson bench for my 13 year Grandson for Christmas last year. I played with it and I found out that I still prefer vises. Ron Brese's Bench top is as good a design as anyone's, but I used a shoulder vise screw for the for the wagon vise. It is a whole lot cheaper.

Pine, fir and ash work the best for tops. They absorb the blows from a mallet. Ash is the prefered wood for a baseball bat. The shock doesn't effect the hands. I am sure there are other wood that will do that.

The Nicholson bench I built was 1 1/2 inches thick and surprisingly heavy enough to not slid across the floor but if I was to do it again I would make the top thicker

For the record I prefer a shoulder vise and a tail vise. I see no advantages of a leg vise but a wagon vise is easier to construct. I do have a leg vise but 96 percent of the time I sue a shoulder vise. THe wagon vise screw is a shoulder vise screw.

My benchDSC03414.JPG DSC03415.JPG

[Stew Denton]

Osvaldo,

My main bench is small. It is a plank setup on saw horses. One set of heavy planks screwed together is about 4' long, but heavy, another set is much lighter but about 5' long, finally I have a couple of 2X10s that are about 7' long, but they are not attached to each other. Generally I use either the 4' top or the 5' top, but if I need a bigger longer bench, I go get the 7' planks from the garage, although they may actually be 8' long.

I am not sure of the exact length of the long planks, they are quite hard to get to with the vehicle in the garage, it is cold and dark outside and I want to hit sack instead of getting the car out of the garage and getting the planks to measure them, so the length will remain an unknown for now.

What I do to edge plane a piece of lumber is to clamp an old western cedar 4X4 to the top of the bench, and then clamp the board vertically to be edge planed to the vertical side of 4X4. If the board to be planed is a bit longer than the 4' planks that is a help because then the board can be clamped to the 4X4 at both ends. Normally I clamp both ends of the 4X4 to the plank bench top anyway.

The 4X4 runs lengthwise down the length of the bench, clamped to it with a big C clamp, or two C clamps if I clamp both ends to the top. The 4X4 extends past the bench so I can use a second C clamp from underneath to secure the flat of the board to be edge planed. To keep things from moving while planing, I extend the 4X4 well past the end of the bench and brace the end of it against the brick wall of the house.

If the board to be edge planed is not as wide as the 4X4, I place a 2X4 under the bottom edge of the board to be planed.

This is a very low tech solution for not having a good place to work and no shop. That said, with the 4x4 braced against the house, nothing moves, a very stable way to hold the lumber for edge planing.

If the lumber I am planing is somewhat long, I can plane the one end, and then move the lumber back past the back end of the bench then plane the center of the board, etc.

This is definitely very low tech and cheap, but it works pretty well.

Like the others, I clamp a board, that is thinner than what I am planing, across the width of the planks to act as a planing stop when face planing the lumber. Since the saw horses are wider than some of the plank setups, I can clamp the 4X4 to the horses to extend past the bench and butt up against the brick wall of the house to keep things from moving while planing. Again, the house is obviously heavy enough that with the 4X4 butted against it, and at the same time clamped to the horses, and the planks making up the top clamped to the horses, nothing moves. I do make several trips between the garage and the saw horses carrying clamps, however.

Regards,

Stew

[Ron Brese]

Thanks Ken,

My wife suggested hanging the light boxes over my benches. It was such clean no glare light I then replaced all my ceiling fixtures with similar light boxes.

Ron

[Tom Bender]

Hola Osvaldo

This is my second bench in this style. It is my main bench and works very well for me. It is Hard Maple 3" thick and about the same size as your current one. It weighs about 180 kg. It has an end vise which works really well but is not necessary. I used my first bench (similar) without vises for a long time.

Bench.jpg
Dust swept under is conveniently out of the way

Edges allow for clamping all around and on the overhanging end

Split top allows more clamping

Hard wood is great for chopping, it resists bounce so cutting is faster and more accurate

Hard wood is slippery so more clamping pressure is needed, this is unfortunate

Hard varnish resists glue and stains

Bench Underside.jpg

Top is glued to the aprons and legs. Very solid and no problems with wood movement.

[Tom Bender]

Oops I have attached pics of my vise, not what you asked for.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Guys,

thank you for your precious feedback and encouragement. This is a great place!

I am luck as I found really dry wood. I am a little bit worried about the workability of the wood... let us see then!

If any of you have any additional input I would thank you in advance.