My Version of Christian Becksvoort's Dovetail Bench

[Phil Gaudio]

Kevin: by all means stop by for the tour! That buffer behind the bench is an old Craftsman bench grinder that I recently rebuilt. Doesn't look too bad for a machine made in the early 60's . Phil

Looks like I need to stop by to check it out! What’s that new buffer or grinder next to the tormek? Hope all is well, great seeing about beautiful project by you!

Kevin

[Mike Brady]

Certainly, that is the best-looking bench-on-bench I have seen. Beautiful execution of the design. I have a couple of comments, if you don't mind: I think that vise (which I also own as my main bench vise) is overkill for purpose. BenchCrafted hardware is plenty robust enough for the purpose and has the ability for skewed clamping by virtue of its twin screws and wheels. It also makes the assembly very heavy (despite your claim) and a bother to store when not in use (also a problem with my BenchCrafted unit). It may be that the work you do the most is enhanced by your new setup, and if so, you definitely have a hot setup!

I missed how you mount the new vise to the existing bench.

Finally, did you make everything or was the chop from Lie-Nielsen? I recall mine being a chore to make myself. Enjoy!

[Stephen Rosenthal]

That buffer behind the bench is an old Craftsman bench grinder that I recently rebuilt. Doesn't look too bad for a machine made in the early 60's . Phil

Phil,
That is a beautiful bench top bench. I’m envious and now inspired!

Your grinder rehab is also a thing of beauty. I have 2 Craftsman bench “block” grinders - 115.7566 (1956) 1/3hp (technically the precursor of the block grinder) and 397.19440 (60s) 1/2hp Commercial grade with original Craftsman grinding jig mounted on the left side. They are fantastic grinders, every bit the equal of Baldor, imo. I scour garage and estate sales for them and currently have 2 more in my shop awaiting a bit of TLC. One will be a buffer, the other will house wire wheels.

[Phil Gaudio]

Certainly, that is the best-looking bench-on-bench I have seen. Beautiful execution of the design. I have a couple of comments, if you don't mind: I think that vise (which I also own as my main bench vise) is overkill for purpose. BenchCrafted hardware is plenty robust enough for the purpose and has the ability for skewed clamping by virtue of its twin screws and wheels. It also makes the assembly very heavy (despite your claim) and a bother to store when not in use (also a problem with my BenchCrafted unit). It may be that the work you do the most is enhanced by your new setup, and if so, you definitely have a hot setup!

I missed how you mount the new vise to the existing bench.

Finally, did you make everything or was the chop from Lie-Nielsen? I recall mine being a chore to make myself. Enjoy!

Well, the mission was to reproduce the bench that CB built. He used the LN vise and I already had the LN vise in my shop for a few years, so it was simply a matter of doing the conversion. I guess overkill is in the eye of the beholder: a Rolex and a Casio will both tell you the correct time, yet lots of folks see the value in the Rolex. The prototype I built to dial in the correct height was made of 2 x 12's. from Home Depot and a scrap piece of plywood. This also 'worked", albeit not very conveniently.I could have settled for this arrangement but it was not much to look at and having seen the CB bench I gladly accepted the challenge. Net weight: 45 lbs: if weight is important to you than by all means use a lighter setup. No doubt the LN vise is one of the heaviest options I could have chosen, but as I said, I already owned it so that is what I used. As it turns out, I will be storing this bench on top of the prototype I mentioned above: a bit of serendipity there. As far as securing the bench to the bench, I will be using the same setup that CB is using; Veritas hold downs. The LN vise came with the maple jaws. I had to remove the outboard "wings" on the original which were there for mounting it to ones bench. I had used the smaller LN vise hardware on the full sized joinery bench a number of years ago: those jaws were made by me and it was not a trivial task. Certainly doable, but as I mentioned above, it will add a degree of complexity to the project.

[Phil Gaudio]

Thanks! This was (mostly) a fun project: I highly recommend it!

The buffer: from time to time I fall off the woodworking wagon and am drawn to machine rehab. This Craftsman unit was something my Dad purchased in the 1960's and as steward of this machine I felt it was time to restore it so that I and my sons might enjoy it for another half century or so. Originally I had intended to just replace the bearings and clean it up a bit. However, once I got the whole thing apart on my bench, I thought I'd try to kick it up a notch with some new paint. You can definitely get carried away with this stuff. Here is a pic of the finished unit: makes a great buffer.
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Phil,
That is a beautiful bench top bench. I’m envious and now inspired!

Your grinder rehab is also a thing of beauty. I have 2 Craftsman bench “block” grinders - 115.7566 (1956) 1/3hp (technically the precursor of the block grinder) and 397.19440 (60s) 1/2hp Commercial grade with original Craftsman grinding jig mounted on the left side. They are fantastic grinders, every bit the equal of Baldor, imo. I scour garage and estate sales for them and currently have 2 more in my shop awaiting a bit of TLC. One will be a buffer, the other will house wire wheels.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Phil, I love it, I will take one please. The bench on bench has been on one of my to do lists forever, would make dovetailing and carving much easier.

[Phil Gaudio]

Phil, I love it, I will take one please. The bench on bench has been on one of my to do lists forever, would make dovetailing and carving much easier.

Thanks! Lets see, what would it take for me to part with this. I know:

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