FWW New-fangled Workbench

I remember the bench from the links. I think it’s a great project.

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

I’ll get around to it one of these days Jeff. Great job. How is it to use?

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

Thanks, Tom.

It’s a little after-the-fact for a project post but, hey, I was busy using it. Ha!

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Bob, it’s pretty nice. More stable than I thought it would be since it is kinda light. The one issue I’ve had so far is with the face clamps. Since my salvaged door is an extra half inch thicker, the face clamps ride lower in their holes and thus have a slight tendency to pull thin work pieces under and out out of flush with the front rail. This is due to were they are exerting most of the force. I just need to mount a piece on the bottom at the front to give it a little more surface area. That is minor issue though.

I love how I can mount things like my grinder or benchtop drill press to a piece of MDF and just drop it in the bench. The planing beam is a as slick as it looks in the video.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Jeff, that is a really interesting bench. I watched the blogs while you were working on it. It really came out great. I will have to study a little more to really understand how it works but I’ll bet it’s just right.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Yeah! Been looking for this one. Great job, Jeff.

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

Jeff -

Excellent! I have been following your bench blog very carefully. Great work on the blog and bench. Thanks for all the details!

David

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

Great work Jeff! Looks and sounds like it’s super handy to use…

Have you moved yet? New shop?

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

Thanks Doug, David, and Dorje.

Dorje, nope, no move yet. Still haven’t unloaded the condo. There is one more open house push this weekend since there is a big-deal walking tour in our neighborhood and the realtor is hoping for some good traffic. We always have good traffic but it seems folks are just kicking the tires… Thanks for asking.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Great job Jeff. I’ve built the same one. That’s a great idea for the front vise storage on the center beam. I might have to pilfer that one. I’m adding a few things other things to mine and will post it soon.

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

Nice job. I remember the artical.

Seems that when I build something for my shop I always have some after thoughts about what I could have done to improve on the project. Since you’ve mentioned that you’ve been using the bench, any thing come to mind as far as improvements?

-- Nicky

I’ve seen this in FWW and think its the most cleverly design workbench I’ve ever seen. Wish I had room in my shop for one. Nice work on the construction.

-- Bob A in NJ

looks great. Nice work. I am also building the same bench. all I have done is the ends so far. I plan i on finishing it tomorrow. i will post some pics.

-- Jason, Wood Working Has Taken Over My Life. And I Love It.

Nice bench Jeff. A useful design.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Tom Angle – If you have any questions, please feel free to send a PM. Thanks for following the blog.

Carl, I browsed some of your projects and noticed yours off to the side in some of your ‘rustic’ bench pics. I’d love to see posted pics so we could compare notes. JGardner23, I’m interested to see yours as well. Good luck with the finish.

Bob A, what size work do you do typically? I think the design is flexible enough and inexpensive enough that a person could make shorter ones. Even down to say a 36” size. The basic uses that make it a great design would still apply I think.

Nicky, a tool well similar to traditional benches would be really nice. Other than that, I haven’t really thought of anything to change yet other than compensating for the extra thickness a little better (see response to Bob B. at top). I did have an intention to put some kind of hardwood trim around the ends and back edge just to clean it up but that has no functional value-add. If something comes up, I’ll be posting it to the blog though. Do you have any ideas?

Karson, thanks for the nod.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Terrific work Jeff. I too was following your blog on this and it’s just great to see how well it turned out. Should get years of usefulness out of this gem. A project like this really energizes you to get out there and use it for more woodworking. Wonderful job.

-- Better to say nothing and be thought the fool... then to speak and erase all doubt.

Turned out really nice. I love the obvious flexibility of it. I finally watched the video and ‘got’ how the whole thing works. In a way, it’s a full sized version of some of the concepts Hickman’s Workmates use. I’ll be interested to see how the fir holds up over the seasons. Really dig the possibilities it opens up for inserting other things into the well. As always your detail oriented perfectionism pays off. I also really like that it can be as compact as you like it to be. Sometimes I want to tear my shoulder vise off after slamming my hip into it yet one more time. And I don’t even want to talk about trying to move the thing.
You’re inspiring me (and shameing me) into getting back into the garage again.
Thanks man,

Glad to be inspirational! Now, make some dust or turn a pot or something. Good to hear from you my friend.

Good to hear from you too, Chip. It has inspired some usage for sure. As well as inspired me to whip the chisels and planes into shape.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Jeff. I missed this the first go around. It came out great.

Are you putting it to use?

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

Thanks, John. You bet I’m using it. Every time I’m in the shop. It’s great to have it right behind me as I stand at the TS. I cut, turn around, fit pieces etc. I’ve also used it for small box assembly, cleaning up proud joints, etc. I even sketch while sitting at it. I rigged a light out of a cheap aluminum clamp light and a stick so plenty of bright light where I’m working.

My projects of late have not been such that I can really use the front beam for any edge planing but I use the internal clamps all the time. I should post a follow-up soon… Thanks for asking.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Jeff,
This is so cool. I can’t believe you built this. I have it saved in my favorites. I thought about building it, but I never got around to it. That’s neat. Let me know how it works. I want to build it and I have the plans, just haven’t gotten there yet. My email is tknne@hotmail.com

Hello, Todd. It works great. More stable than I thought it would be considering the materials. (I think the weight of the salvaged door adds to it.) I really like the ability to mount items like my grinder, benchtop drill press, etc. on separate pieces of MDF and drop them into the well and keep them stable. I haven’t had as much opportunity to use the planing beam as I would like yet because I haven’t been in the shop for a few months. (It’s a little chilly here in da Nort’land).

I just recently received some other questions via PM about the construction and will be adding more information to one of the threads soon. That info might be helpful too so I’ll let you know when it’s posted.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Jeff,
Thanks for sharing your work and wisdom, I am in the beginning stages of making this bench and your insights will be very helpful. I have been thinking of making a wedged or tusked mortise for the stretchers for the purpose of being able to knock it down, but have been pondering the wisdom of that approach with the 2x dimension of the stretcher… the bolt on hardware might be a better application. I am also thinking that I will want to add a second stretcher between the back two legs in order to gain greater stability and install a shelf mounted on the two stretchers to hold my plane fleet.
I saw John White posted that he would have changed his design to not have the mdf rest directly on the pipes, though I didn’t catch his reasoning in the post. I am using 3/4 pipe as I like the handles of the clamps better and wonder if you have any wisdom to dispense on accommodating slightly bigger dimension pipes, particularly if there are any issues with the flushness of the front clamps to the bench if they are slightly lower? Thanks, Michael

-- Michael, Seattle, WA

HI Jeff!

A terrific looking bench!

I just went to your projects page, & I’d forgotten about your building this bench.

Things have been moving pretty fast on LJs. It’s hard to keep up with everything.

You must have gotten a lot of good use out of it by now.

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Jeff,

Awesome bench. You inspired me to build it. I looked at the Flickr slide show and I have two questions. What are the upper set of smaller holes above the larger ones images IMG_2225.jpg and IMG 2226.jpg? How can I print the photos in Flickr? It’ll be alot easier to use print outs in the shop than my computer. I’m not bright enough to figure that out myself.

Mark

-- Mark.... Still collecting the right tools to do that very important project for my wife.

Hello, Mark. I’m glad to be an inspiration for someone. That is a nice compliment.

As for the smaller holes you asked about, those are counter bores I had to make for the confirmat screws I used to attach the 2×4 stock to the reclaimed door I used on the top. They are special screws used for particle board. They have a higher number of threads. However, they have a large head and the longest I could find were about 2” I think. Thus, I needed a pretty deep counter bore.

For the pics, I think you should be able to just save them to your hard drive and then import them into any word processing application (e.g. MS Word) and them print them that way. Or, you could probably just print them from whatever picture viewer you use. A third option would be to open them with your web browser and then print that way. If none of these options work, send me a list of the ones you want and I can package them up and send via email.

Thanks again for the high compliment!

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Got it. Thanks so much for explaining the photo part too.

-- Mark.... Still collecting the right tools to do that very important project for my wife.

Thats a real nice workbench.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker