Workbench

Great job Robert. Have you used the bench yet? I bet it works great, and makes a nice addition to your workshop. How much did it cost roughly?

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Robert! This is just awesome! The blog series has been great. I had always considered doing a bench in spruce. Spruce is more abundant than quack grass in my neck of the woods. This is really nice and demonstrates that any wood in the hands of a skilled woodworker, will suffice. Thanks!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Very solid looking workbench. That thing should last a couple life times. jockmike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

Nice bench! I used SYP for the base of mine also.

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

Bill, the total cost of lumber for the base and top was about $90. The rest of the cost will of course vary with the clamping hardware you use. My two sets of vise hardware were about $150, with an additional $80 for the maple for the chops. Considering costs for glue, finish, dowels for pegs, and bench dogs, my total cost was a little under $400.

The bench is indeed solid as a rock—no movement at all. Even if I wear the top out, the base should still be there to receive its replacement. Vise hardware and chops should be reusable. Only time will tell about the durability and stability.

-- Robert from Raymond, MS. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is therefore not a practice, but a habit." - Aristotle

Gravedigger,
That is a beautiful workbench! It’s so nice, I probably would put it in my livingroom and never use it. Great work.

-- Tom, Surfside Beach, SC - Romans 8:28

Great addition your shop. Looking forward to seeing some of the projects you produce with it.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Great work, nice workbench

-- Pedro Rodrigues da Costa, Sintra, Portugal

Nice work! Now I’ve got bench envy.

-- John, Auckland New Zealand - http://www.farmgeek.co.nz

Nice work bench Robert. Just a great example of your woodworking skills shown.

-- Carpe Lignum - Seize The Wood,

Beautiful! will be enjoyed by generations to come…

-- The Gnarly Wood Shoppe

Love it!

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

Great looking bench! Please let me know how the 38” height works out for you.

-- Chris

Beautifully done and a great blog on the process. Nice job all around.

Thanks for sharing.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Nice work. I have plans to build a work bench and replace a plywood assembly station I built 12 years ago. I appreciate the detail in your blog.

Thanks for posting this. I need (want) a bench in my shop and I was considering building it like this. I didn’t know if I was being foolish or not…now I know my answer. However, dimensional lumber in California isn’t as nice as this.

-- Steffen

I agree with that Steffan. I was just looking at Home Depot, and their lumber looked like the scraps left over from building houses. All broken, twisted, etc – and that was the new stuff!

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

<chuckle> Steffen, Bill, don’t let the pictures fool you. A good photographer always picks the best angle for a shot. A more careful inspection of my blog photos will reveal a good number of knots and other defects in the lumber used. Also, you don’t see the amount of culled lumber that ended up as joist braces in the loft above the shop. The key was in buying more than I needed, and then laying out the cuts to take best advantage of the wood (placing a knot in the middle rather than at a joint area, for instance).

Home Depot & Lowe’s are always a crapshoot. If possible, find a local lumber yard that will accommodate little guys like us. The quality is often better, and the prices not much worse. Also, you may find a local California lumber species that works as well, but is more plentiful in your area than SYP (which is locally produced here in Mississippi).

-- Robert from Raymond, MS. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is therefore not a practice, but a habit." - Aristotle

Great looking bench. It looks like you could park a truck on top. I’d like to build a better bench than the one I have at some point. This design is really nice. Thanks for sharing.

Robert,

This is a great bench and I’m taking some inspiration from it for the bench I’m working on if that’s ok. My blog is Here

How do you like the vise hardware? I’m looking at these also.

-- Matt - Syracuse, NY

By all means. I’ve been following your progress. The short white oak should be nice and stable when glued up. I didn’t envy you that job, though. 7’ pieces were bad enough!

-- Robert from Raymond, MS. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is therefore not a practice, but a habit." - Aristotle

Must be pleasure work on it.

-- Jiri

This is just what I have been looking for. I need a bench Soooo Bad.

-- Eric, www.themorningwoodshow.com

Solid looking bench.

-- Bud, NY, http://tpww.libsyn.com/

Great looking bench.

-- jeanmarc manosque france

Beautiful looking bench you put together . Whats the dimensions of it ?

Robert, this bench is beautiful. I would be interested in how it is holding up for you. I notice that it was built a little over a year ago. Have you noticed much wood movement? How is the softer spruce holding up opposed to something like a traditional maple bench-top? I constructed mine a little under a year ago with home depot construction grade lumber and a solid core door for the top. Although I live in Las Vegas, NV which is extremely dry, the door has begun sagging in the middle and is no longer flat… Unlike a conventional solid top I can’t exactly plane it down to a flat surface again. The base of my bench appears to be holding up well even under heavy hand planing despite it’s butt joint/lag bolt construction.(It was my first big project and get’s the job done… it’s time to move on)

-- Looking for free wood working plans? Visit us at www.AwlFreePlans.com

Mark, the base is absolutely rock-solid. There HAS been some sag in the top, and I re-surfaced it back in the spring. I haven’t noticed any more since then, and things I’ve read seem to indicate that this is fairly common. Christopher Schwarz even wrote a blog post on how to resurface your sagging bench. If you think about it, the very nature of top construction makes this likely. I’m hoping that the process will get slower and slower as time goes on.

The top has its fair share of dings and gouges, but these don’t really affect the overall functionality of the bench. I’m sure that a maple or beech benchtop would be more durable than the spruce, but the cost is SO high for maple down here in Mississippi. Whenever I eventually replace the top, I’ll probably use southern yellow pine. That should make for a harder top that’s still cost-effective.

-- Robert from Raymond, MS. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is therefore not a practice, but a habit." - Aristotle