I'm in the early stages of building a Moravian/Roubo hybrid workbench. It has the angled legs of a Moravian bench but like a Roubo it's chunky and doesn't knock down. It will have an angled leg vise in the front position.
What I'm wondering is whether there's any reason not to put all the stretchers all the way at the bottom of the legs, resting on the floor.
Pros:
- Maximizes storage space under the bench (leaving room for holdfasts, of course).
- Allows leg vise parallel guide to be mounted as low as possible for greater clamping pressure. I'm thinking of using Will Myers' ratcheting parallel guide, so no bending over necessary.
- No need to sweep under the bench if there's a shelf or cabinet on top of the stretchers.
Possible Cons:
- Could get in the way of where I want to put my feet when working at the bench.
- Could be a pain to clean under if stuff does manage to get under it.
- Thought of another one: Wouldn't be able to get a car jack under it to aid moving it around! This sounds funny but I'm a bit concerned about being able to move a 400 lb bench.
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