Cheap weekend workbench

Up until now, I’ve been using the table of my radial arm saw as my workbench for the most part. It had decent surface area and lots of clamping surface, but no vise and it wobbled like crazy. Given that I also usually use my tablesaw and a bit of hardboard as an assembly table, this didn’t bother me over much.

However, sometimes things come about in weird ways. I’ve been working on a jewelry box for a friend (almost done, I swear!) and finally got around to cutting the hinge mortises (which I almost did without error). Now, I have a decent set of chisels, and I keep them nice and sharp, but thus far they’ve only been used for squaring up mortises in cedar outdoor work and things like that, nothing that required much in the way of precision or anything. I decided rather than make a router jig (I was feeling lazy), I’d see if I could just pare away the mortise instead. Its a silly little task, but I think I had more fun doing that than pretty much anything else I’ve done in woodworking. There’s a nice sense of fulfillment in doing something without fences, jigs and edge guides, not to mention electricity and noise.

Those simple little mortises made me decide I needed to make a workbench so I could get into doing more handtool work, which wasn’t really possible with my current setup. I needed something cheap, and preferably quick to build, since I figured someday once I got my shop better built and organized, I’d replace it with a lovely handmade maple bench anyways. The Fine Woodworking “GSIW” bench seemed to fit the bill, and I could get everything except the vise at Home Depot, which is always a plus for projects conceived on a weekend.

That was Saturday morning. And here I am Sunday night with a workbench. Its not pretty, but its solid (moreso than expected, moving it into place was a pain), and it certainly will do the job.

The frame is construction lumber, held together with truss rods. The top is just two sheets of MDF glued and screwed together. The only hardware is the maple jaws on the vise, where I just didn’t feel I could skimp.

Unlike most of my projects, I didn’t make all the many mistakes! However, I did almost destroy the top before I ever got to use it, once by having inadequate pilot holes for the lag bolts that mount the vise, and once because somebody at Home Depot tossed a 3” lag screw in with the 2.5” ones and it nearly poked through the top. Both problems nothing a little injected clue and some plywood and clamps couldn’t solve. =)

I do hope someday I can compete with the gorgeous benches found on this site, but I’ve gotta say, having a workbench is really an eye opening experience. In honor of it, I decided to do something completely beyond my ability and handcut some dovetails into some crappy poplar I had lying around for grins. Afterall, I had a cheap japanese backsaw (I bought it for its flush cutting blade, but the backsaw has come in handy), and a set of chisels. I figured I could use a hobby knife instead of a marking gauge.

So, the last couple pictures are the result of my experiment. They certainly aren’t wonderful, since I had no idea what I was doing. But I have to say, I’m hooked on this whole handtool thing. I managed to cut a nice looking (well, except the gaps), strong, and square joint with no noise, dust, or any of the usual power tool thing. Now I just need to collect enough hand tools that I can make a serious project instead of joining a couple 1×4s. =)

Now I just need to think of something to make by hand that isn’t overwhelming, but that’s a problem for another day.

-- Dylan Vanderhoof - General hobbiest and reluctant penmaker. http://llarian.etsy.com