Workbench #1: Getting Started

My son and I are finally getting started on our workbench. I have been dreaming of one forever it seems. I originally wanted to collect enough dogwood for the top. But, after a while and a lot of effort I gave up on that.
Then last year I ran into a guy at the lumber yard that said he had a band saw that he milled lumber with for some local guys. I explained how I liked to do some woodworking and that I would be interested in some walnut or maple. We exchanged numbers and not to long after that he gave me a call.

I ended up with about 200 ft of walnut and 600 ft of pecan that need to be dried. So, while my new buddy Anthony was cutting I got busy figuring how and where to dry this wood. I have read plenty about woodworking and all that goes with it including drying lumber. The problem was that it is a whole lot easier to read about it than it is to actually do it. I decided to build a platform out of some old material from a deck job I had just finished. It is basically an 8×8 deck a foot of the ground with no floor boards. So, that is where all that wood has been sitting for the past year.

Last week I decided to get started. I already knew I wanted to build The Essential Workbench out of FWW with a few changes. I did a lot of research and settled on this one partly because I like the way it looks. The main reason is probably because I feel confident that I can build this one. One of the changes I plan to make is I am going to install a pattern makers vise on it. I don’t know that I really will need it but, I plan on only building a workbench once.

-- Clay Ortiz, North Georgia