Woodworker's bench

[Bill in Oregon]

Guys, I have made do with various tables, sawhorses shaving horses etc. over the years, but time and again I have wished to have an honest-to-gosh woodworkers bench with woodworker's vise, tail vise, holes for dogs, etc. I need all the help I can get when it comes to building stuff.
Out here in Oregon, hardwoods are the exception, not the norm as we are ground zero for the classic softwoods -- Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, western red cedar, spruce, hemlock, etc. So hardwoods are very expensive. I was thinking of using beech for the bench surface, and trying to get away with softwoods for the rest. Who has wisdom to impart on this subject?

[Pitchy]

Well Bill your welcome to my knowledge of a chainsaw as that`s my main carpentry tool.

[1894]

May be getting too late , but when I was younger the big black work stations in high school for science classes were a very hard maple 3/4" X 1 1/2" glued together side by side to make that 1 1/2" X 3' X 6' or 8' table top.
Old doors of oak and such were also common , even a raised panel door you can fill in both sides of the panels with a 5 ply plywood , get 2 and stack them . Tight grain on them old doors . You may find these at the salvage / sell old windows and such type places.

Just tossing ideas out there for ya.

[earlmck]

Well I can't see that there's any down-side to using good old doug fir for the legs and frame. And I've never used anything but the normal softwoods for making benches. Maybe I end up with something bolted down that could have been screwed down if I'd used oak or some such? But I've just screwed my bullet lube-sizer to my old loading bench for years (the top on that is rough-cut 2X10s) without that pulling out and it gets some serious force at times with large, hard bullets.

I guess I'm one notch ahead of Pitchy as a carpenter. I use a chainsaw, sure enough. Use it to cut trees down, get money, and pay a real carpenter to do any serious stuff . Though I did purchase a nice big compound-miter saw that lets me make nice cuts in 4" stuff for my personal rough-style construction (that I might have used a chainsaw for previously).

[Canuck Bob]

The europeans use Beech for their tops. I'm sitting down to Thanksgiving, ours is today, so I'll post a link later to some plans. Doug Fir makes a dandy base material.

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks fellas. Bob, happy Thanksgiving up your way! Don't overdo it trying to scare up those plans. I just bought the Fine Woodworking "best of" issue on workbenches, so have a lot of plan ideas to chew on.

[rbertalotto]

Harbor Freight has a beach top woodworkers bench with four drawers, a vise, bench dogs and a large under shelf for $139........I don't think you could buy the wood for that amount. I bought one and love using it in my gun room





http://www.harborfreight.com/60-inch-wo ... D%3D%0D%0A

[Chris83716]

Look at uline or w.w. grangers web sites or any other industrial supply places web site. They all sell a hardwood top with steel legs "assembly bench". Bolt that sucker together and go. No skill required.

Chris

[Rusty]

+1 on the pre made. Unless you're getting the wood really cheap, you'll have a hard time beating the price.

[soon 2 retire]

Bill,

Here's one I'm thinking of building. It seems to be an innovative design to me and it's made of Douglas fir.


http://content.jettools.com/content/jet ... chplan.pdf


Bob in Friday Harbor

[stretch]

Soon 2 Retire, I like that design! You oughta build it and report back.

Hardwood is heavier and presents a harder work surface,
both of which are advantageous. But the cost!!

The problems I have with most commercial designs are that they
aren't long enough, they aren't heavy enough, and they aren't tall
enough. Weight and length in a workbench make planing and
other heavy work MUCH easier. Bolting one of the lighter ones
to the floor or a wall can help. The latter, of course, restricts
access to all four sides.

-Stretch

[Streetstar]

Look at uline or w.w. grangers web sites or any other industrial supply places web site. They all sell a hardwood top with steel legs "assembly bench". Bolt that sucker together and go. No skill required.

Chris

sometimes part of the fun is making it yourself? (I bought a "bolt together and go" job from Sams though myself )

[Bill in Oregon]

Bob: Many, many thanks for that link. That's a very good looking design that even I might be able to cobble together.
And Friday Harbor, are you kidding me? So lovely.

[soon 2 retire]

Bob: Many, many thanks for that link. That's a very good looking design that even I might be able to cobble together.
And Friday Harbor, are you kidding me? So lovely.

Bill,

I retired last November and moved here from Indiana. I've never been there but Siskiyou Mountains, Rogue River Valley sounds great to me.

Bob in Friday Harbor

[soon 2 retire]

Bill,

I googled "New Fangled Workbench" and found a 9 min. video showing the features of the bench at the Fine Woodworking magazine website. Here's the link:


http://www.finewoodworking.com/Workshop ... x?id=28530



Bob in Friday Harbor

[DixieBoy]

I don't know if this will be of help to you, but years ago a buddy of mine came across two old tractor-trailer rigs. Not the cabs/engines, but just the trailers.

The floors of these things were oak strips, if I remember right, they were 1" x 1 1/2, maybe 2". Long strips, which had been joined together to make the floors for the trailers. My buddy made all kinds of things with this oak. Sometimes these old trailers are sold for almost nothing, or someone has bought one for the hardware, and they've got no use for the wood. In my buddy's case, he got this wood for free.

I'll bet two of those strips, glued up to make a 2x4 thickness would be strong as ... OAK !

Just a thought that might help you do up what you'd like to do, for cheap. - DixieBoy

[Gobblerforge]

I agree that the fun is in the build, not the buy. For some good ideas and plans, go to http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/index.html
I love Roy and you can see lots of shows from here. Then there's Youtube....
Gobbler

[yooper2]

agree that the fun is in the build, not the buy. For some good ideas and plans, go to http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/index.html I love Roy and you can see lots of shows from here. Then there's Youtube....
Gobbler

+1

There's something really nice about working on a bench you made for your needs.
Also, Roy Underhill is one of the nicest people I've ever met and super talented.

Eric

[Grizz]

You can get decent fir. #1 constr grade is strong.

I built a bench of fir once for my Dad. 4x4 legs assembled with mortises just like a trestle table.

The top was 2x4 on edge and bolted together. Whole thing disassembled for transportation
and storage. Very stout. And much stronger than the design in the pdf.

If you really need a hard top surface you could use granite-like surface, the way some table saws do.
This stuff can be mortised for dogs etc. It gives you a very flat work top.

Hey, you can build that !

Grizz