21st Century Workbench

very sweet! the rail joints look fantastic.

-- if the hand is not working it is not a pure hand

wow wow wow that’s one great bench fantastic.well done

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

Great job on a tool you’ll use for the rest of your life!

I’m thinking of building one myself.

Why did you not like working with ash? It’s one of my favorite species, so I’d love to hear your experiences with it. I can highly recommend the LA jack. Do yourself a favor and order the extra irons at different angles. A beautiful thing about bevel up planes is the ability to quickly swap out irons for different conditions.

Again… A fantastic looking bench. Two thumbs up!

-- - Please help keep Lumberjocks an enjoyable escape by refusing to participate in political discussions. Simply spit out the bait and ignore the thread...

Very nice…I particularly like the wedged tenons. Any in progress pics?

-- "Democracy is by far the worst system of government. Except all the others that have been tried." ~ Winston Churchill

The level of perfectionism evident on this site constantly amazes me!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Fantastic bench. well done.

-- To finish something you must first start!

Wow… that’s all I can say..

Rob

-- Happy and safe woodworking, Flcopper169@aol.com

Droooool!! You have a creation you can be proud of. The neat part is that you get to put it to use yourself whenever you are in the shop.

Awesome!

-- Behind the Bark is a lot of Heartwood----Charles, Centennial, CO

Marvellous workbench that I will fetch if your shop is just 2 to 3hrs drive distance from my home.
Great job!

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

spechless….
wow!

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

Absolutely beautiful William! Are you sure you want to work on that? I wouldn’t want even the smallest dent or scratch in it. Again, wonderful job!

-- Brad, Oregon- Wood, it's what's for dinner.

Nice Workbench.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

Incredible. Absolutely incredible. I now have workbench envy! Thanks for sharing.

-- Trent Tidmore, Grapevine, TX

Great workbench….great work. Is that a LeeValley twin screw?

-- Gary, DeKalb Texas

I’m glad I haven’t built my work bench yet cause I’just found the one for me.

-- DocK, WV

Beautiful workmanship. Very jealous.

Looks gorgeous. I think I’d have a hard time working on it for fear of marring it!

-- Goodbye said the fox and now here is my secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Awesome bench! Would love to have one some day…

-- Cov, Loomis, CA, http://www.covingtonwoodworks.com

A work of art … nicely photographed

welcome to lumberjocks

-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever

WOW WOW WOW This could be the most beautiful Bench i have ever seen ….oh my …GOOD JOB …You have set the bar pretty high …..Great Job ….

-- Mike in Bonney Lake " If you are real real real good your whole life, You 'll be buried in a curly maple coffin when you die."

A great bench that would be a credit to any workshop. The idea with the two beam like tops, I think is what makes this bench a winner. I don’t have room in my workshop for such a big bench, but I have built two beams that slide on rails between the walls giving a similar affect to your bench. Having more clamping options has made working much more pleasant and glue-ups a whole lot easier. I’m sure you will never need another bench. Congrats. with some really fine work.

-- Mike, American in Norway

William, you’ve done a fantastic job on this bench. I like the design. This should give you many years of satisfaction and service.

Thanks for posting it.

-- Martin, Kansas

I like this bench so much that I recently posted my as well. It really turn out aces William. What a great design, I just love the tool trays and the knock-down ability of the bench. Enjoy this beauty of a bench for years to come….Blkcherry

Thank you everyone for the kind words and praise. It has been a labor of love, and I am glad that other woodworking enthusiasts can enjoy it. Thanks to Lumberjocks for providing this venue.

Gary, Yes, that is a Lee Valley Veritas twin screw vise in the face vise position. I used a quick release vise (also available at Lee Valley) in the tail vise position.

-- trn2wud

I love that bench. I work out of a 12×16 shed in the back of my house. Do you think I could fit one of those in there? My floor space is limited and my riding lawn mower shares space with the shop. I am in the process of creating more floor space by knocking down a front to back workbench (catchall) that my son built for me. Is there such a thing as a 21st century miniature or kid size? Great bench, I marvel at what I see here on LJs.

-- justjohn49, New Hampshire

Really nice bench, well done.

-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

I just built a bench out of ash, and one thing that I had trouble with is how often you can get a cathedral grain direction change in a board. Especially if you don’t want to burn a lot of wood on picking prime pieces. It can certainly be a challenge, but I find, aside from that, ash planes and works with hand tools quite well.

Very nice. I love the joinery details.

-- Matt, Minneapolis, www.treverkdesign.com

Sweet bench! Can I borrow it for a few years?

-- Les, Wichita, Ks. (I'd rather be covered in saw dust!)

Very nice. Please let us know how it works out. I have a bench on the drawing board and have not made the decision on split top or not.
The LV jack is also great for a shooting board. I have it, the low angle smoothing plane and extra iron. The irons are interchangeable between the two planes.

-- Tony, Sacramento

Kudos to you! I will be gonig to get that book I think now! And the other posters are right… I wouldn’t want to do any work on it… just have it sit there and look impressive!

Don’t know how I missed this one.

That’s a great looking bench!

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

Amazing bench.

This might be my next project…. Along with all my other “next projects”. Thanks for the photos.

-- Derrek L.

You have done very well…........great job.

-- I will just keep doing it till I get it right.

Beautiful bench! I have had thoughts about putting one of these together myself, but I know a move to bigger shop is in the future (building a new house in the next year or two so SWMBO can keep her horses…) so it will wait until then.

With regards to flattening two tops in the same plane, I hadn’t even considered that. It sounds like a job for a router carriage. I know I’ve seen it in a magazine somewhere, but can’t find the exact reference at the moment. Here’s a couple of links from a quick Google (“flatten workbench”) that illustrate the idea:

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=58

http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-tips/techniques/outfitting-woodworking-shop/how-to-flatten-an-uneven-workbench-top/

I would think that would solve that problem, although it seems a bit tedious to do all that routing one inch (or so) at a time. Of course, using a plane takes no time or effort….

-- The beatings will continue until morale improves.