Another dang low bench post

[Pedro Reyes]

I had some free construction lumber, and no construction projects. So I made a stool a few other mundane things, still had plenty left taking space in the shop. So I decided to laminate some and make myself one of them low benches.

Pretty was not on the list, in fact I purposely picked the awkward 4 legs on one end and a vertical flat surface ala 'Ron Herman saw bench' on the other end, figured this would make it ugly enough to never have anyone want to repurpose it for an outdoors seating bench.

The vertical flat leg side was going to be joined with giant dovetails.

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The other side would have 4 splayed legs and a "V" shaped ripping notch.

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The mortises are 1-1/2", a large sweep brace came in handy for sure.

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The tenons were marked and it is surprisingly easy to get an acceptably round just with chisel work, particularly on such a large diameter.

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on the small stool seen in the second picture I went with conical, self wedging tenons, for this bench I tried straight cylinder with shoulders, just to change it up.

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Some scrap walnut wedges were hammered as far as they would go.

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(continued...)

[Pedro Reyes]

Some BLO and you could say the bench is mostly finished, usable.

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But I am sharing to see if anyone has pointers. The bench has two cutouts one dovetail shaped for a side stop, the other has a 10 degree slope on one end to wedge a board vertically. There is a square hole for a stop I am yet to build. The notches are opposite each other because in the future I might add a shavehorse attachment that will pivot inside those cutouts, the square hole would capture the ramp.

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Other than that, I might add more holdfast holes as I use it and determine optimal spots, 3/4" on this thickness seems to work very well with Gramercy holdasts as well as a number of Veritas attachments.

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In the future maybe a wooden screw "twin screw" face vise (basically two threaded pegs that go into one of the side edges of the "benchtop" and hurricane nuts), but not sure it will be needed.

last view of the ripping notch.

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Details, the bench is 73 inches long (not 72 because I like prime numbers and someone may or may have been born in 1973), 11 inches wide (not 12, see prime number comment) it is as high as the bottom of my knee when my leg is bent at 90, which is roughly 18" (sorry prime numbers, wish I was tall enough for that number to be 19"). I am told this height is optimal for seating as well as sawing using your knee as a clamp.

Any shared experiences appreciated

/p

[Cameron Wood]

Nice, & good pics. I like the four legs.

I've been thinking of making a shave horse. I made one many many years ago & used it a fair amount- I think it still exists as yard art.

A second bench at the same height can be good to hold up larger workpieces.

I made these a while back, but they haven't gotten much active use- just have stuff stacked on them.

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[Pedro Reyes]

Nice, & good pics. I like the four legs.

I've been thinking of making a shave horse. I made one many many years ago & used it a fair amount- I think it still exists as yard art.

A second bench at the same height can be good to hold up larger workpieces.

I made these a while back, but they haven't gotten much active use- just have stuff stacked on them.

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Thanks

yard art! love it.

Your benches are gorgeous, if I made something like that I fear my wife would use it somewhere, then when a guest compliments her on it she would say "take it, we have two"... is it the picture or is one of the legs splayed on the near bench?

Shave horse, that was part of the inspiration of this bench, while I am not a chair builder I have found myself using a drawknife in several situations, clamping on a face vise is cumbersome at best and completely impractical at worst.

on the second picture the "bench top" is supported as as sit on it, on a small 4 legged stool, also built to that "height of your bent leg" (~18"), so the low bench and that stool complement each other for longer boards.


/p

[Jimmy Harris]

Nice!

I've thought about making one myself, but with my bad back, I can't really bend over for long periods of time. So I generally try to saw standing up. But I do like the concept.

I've been told that the optimum height is the top of your knee cap. So that'll change from person to person, and probably even shoe to shoe. Though really, it's probably best to just experiment and find out what you like. Like for workbenches, I'm kind of tall, but I actually prefer a fairly short workbench. It makes planing easier on me, and it's easier to raise the work higher than your bench top (Moxon vise or auxiliary bench) than it is to lower your work below it.

Being a taller person who's spent his life working in factories, I can attest that following a "standard height" for tools probably isn't a good idea for most people. The reason I have back problems is because every industrial machine maker out there makes machines for people who are around 5'6"-5'8" tall. And I'm not NBA tall or anything like that. I'm just 6'2". But hunching down 6", 40 hours a week has taken it's toll on my health.

As for the shave horse, I just use a tall stool and my "leg" vise. It works really well for me. But the trick is, I have my "leg" vise in the far corner of my bench, and not on the actual leg (hence the quotation marks). That really opens up a whole new world of possibilities with that vise. It's like a face vise AND an end vise, all in one. I honestly don't know why everyone doesn't do that. I guess it's just not traditional.

[Jim Koepke]

Nice work on the bench Pedro.

I've been told that the optimum height is the top of your knee cap.

My "optimum height" for a saw bench was to make a bench an inch or two taller than optimum. Then different pieces of wood were placed on top as if they were going to be sawn. After this various pieces of scrap were set on the floor to stand on to find what was the most comfortable for resting my knee on the various sizes of wood to be sawn. When the most comfortable height was found, that was used to mark around the base of the legs to be sawn off.

jtk

[Cameron Wood]

Thanks

yard art! love it.

Your benches are gorgeous, if I made something like that I fear my wife would use it somewhere, then when a guest compliments her on it she would say "take it, we have two"... is it the picture or is one of the legs splayed on the near bench?

Shave horse, that was part of the inspiration of this bench, while I am not a chair builder I have found myself using a drawknife in several situations, clamping on a face vise is cumbersome at best and completely impractical at worst.

on the second picture the "bench top" is supported as as sit on it, on a small 4 legged stool, also built to that "height of your bent leg" (~18"), so the low bench and that stool complement each other for longer boards.


/p

Thanks. The legs are all splayed, but one doesn't look it in the pic. The design is from antique, copied I think at Colonial Williamsburg, & an article in FWW. My wife uses other benches I've made for real estate staging, & was bummed when I contributed a table that she's used to one of my remodel projects.

I like making stuff from construction lumber. Here's a couple that are in the queue- the second one from amazingly tight grain 4x12.


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[Jimmy Harris]

That's what I did for my workbench stool. I started off with a chair and stacked scrap wood boards on it until I found the perfect height for working on my bench from a seated position. I know they sell adjustable stools for fairly cheap, but I had a bunch of scraps of 2x10 and 2x12 pine and fir that I needed to either throw away or do something with. Plus, I had an idea for a different looking chair design I wanted to try. I could have made it fancier with better proportions, but didn't want to spend too much time on a scap wood experiment that was never going to leave the shop. It's kind of ugly, but unique. Just like me.
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