Work Bench "blogject"

wow great job. that looks like a nice and sturdy bench that will be serving you for years to come. great job.

Nice bench. Even more, I love the look of the Hack Berry top. I’ve never heard of Hack Berry before, but what you’ve got there is gorgeous.

-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.

That looks like a good way to do it! What’s the height on it?

I like your “blogject” format!

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

GREAT bench, with a wonderful choice of woods. I like what you did creating your own MT joints-
You also posted an excellent step by step guide. Thanks for posting- good luck with the bench.

-- Bill - - Ad-Marketing Guy, Ramsey NJ

Dorje, it is 34” (30” wide X 72” long). I am 6’3” and for hand planing I can put more down pressure. But at that height I can still pull a chair up next to it and work on small stuff.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

Daren,

You have built a gorgeous bench. The top is beautiful. I have never seen hackberry that large before. Here if they get around 12 to 18 inches in diameter that is an old tree.

Well done. You should get years of service from this bench.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Great looking bench! Also some great accessories!

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

That’s a beaut, Daren. I’ll wager no one on Planet Earth has one like that with a Hackberry top. Smart move on the fashioned mortises too.

My bench was on of the first things I made when I resumed woodworking as an adult and bugle-headed screws were the height of fine woodworking for me at the time. Someday I hope to make a bench as nice as yours.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

Fan-damn-tastic bench. Or should I say, that’s bencherific, baby! Great execution, gives me ideas for mods to mine. Thanks for the pics.

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

Wow that’s real sharp looking. Love the attachments as well. Great project Daren!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Beautiful job!!! I favourited it.

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

Daren, I’m always impressed. That’s a fine lookin’ bench, man!! I really like your choice of woods, very nice.

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

That is a sensational bench. I especially like the movable bench hook! I gotta make me one—maybe two: one right-handed and one left-handed.

OldSteve

Daren: I expected a great looking bench. I see you picture with those nice big boards and I figured you had some wood stashed away. The hackberry wood is great looking. Is it very dense and hard?

Nice looking, Great job.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

” I figured you had some wood stashed away.” I have a small stash I guess you could say Karson.

”The hackberry wood is great looking. Is it very dense and hard?” There is some method to my madness here. It is medium density/hardness hardwood. I know you know wood from reading some of your posts, so from the little picture I’m sure you can see that bright yellow stack of osage. In the picture there is also black locust, honeylocust, hard maple, ash, just to name a few…all of those for example are harder than hackberry. It was a choice on my part to make the base out of a good hard wood (white oak) and the top something a little softer than those other species I rattled off. Dings/dents/scratches/spills… are inevitable I reckoned with a card scraper I could fix them pretty quick on hackberry. Same years from now too when I may have to do some resurfacing/flattening, the hackberry should be easy to do that to. So the short answer, no it is not the hardest wood I could have built it from, but I did it for some reasons be they right or wrong. (and one I did not mention, even though hackberry is pretty it has a low market value here at my sawmill…so yea, I am cheap too. But that was down the list a ways on why I used it)

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

Daren, thanks for the post. Very nice job on the bench. I have always considered hackberry a junk tree, good only for firewood, but you have converted my thinking. Keep the photos coming as you build some nice projects on your new bench.

I was not 100% sure what I was doing, but I went for it anyway and it seemed to work out. I made a twin screw all wood vice today. The 1 1/2” screws are sweet gum heartwood I turned/cut. The rest is honey locust.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

This looks great. I can’t believe you were able to make your own vise. Very impressive.

I hated the vice I made. I will admit I was building it as a woodworking project, I wanted to make a twin screw vice. Shoulda just done that and put it on a shelf some place, it looked stupid on my bench so I cut it down. I like this better.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

Too cool – could you do a blog on how you cut the wooden screws? Or – at least explain it? Thanks!

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Great idea on the Osage for dogs. It’s good to be the friendly neighborhood sawyer eh? Nice work and what a beautiful bench.

-- Check out my blog and podcast "The Renaissance Woodworker" at www.rogersfinewoodworking.com/blog