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I did not think I had room in my shop for a "real" woodworking bench. Then I spotted LJ Trev_Batstone's wee little woodworking bench and realized, of course, that I could make one to fit the space available. This bench is just a little over 2' x 4', but it will clamp just about any workpiece I plan to plane, chisel or saw. Made from 2×4s, 2×6s and some old wormy oak I had lying around the shop, the only real expense was for the end vise hardware (Large Front Vise from Lee Valley) and a little extra oak for the vise jaws. To make the top I laminated strips of oak onto fir 2×4s, glued them up, flattened the whole thing with a No.7 hand plane, and then filled the holes and pores in the oak by sanding with a mixture of oak saw dust, BLO, and varnish. I kept the leg vise and side vise (which runs the entire length of the bench) as simple as possible, building them with a few ¾" nuts, some ¾" threaded rod, and washers. The vises work by means of ¾" nuts inserted into mortises in the handles and the rear jaws. The end vise and leg vise jaws are faced with maple but the front jaw of the leg vise is faced with jatoba. I built several bench dogs using a ¾" birch dowel and music wire, which is made from spring steel. (Bench dog in photo enlarged to show texture.)

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Comments

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1,833 Posts
Great job on your workbench! Looks like it will serve you for yrs to cvome. I love the pic of your bench dog! I'll have to see if mine will do that LOL. Congrats!
 

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108 Posts
Fantastic.
Has given me food for thought as I also have limited space in my workshop and no access to vice hardware.
 

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52 Posts
Great looking bench and bench dog. Great job on those vises. i may be able to afford them now.
 

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1,266 Posts
You hit the nail right on the head, custom fit for your own space it better than nothing at all. I took the plan of a 8' foot bench and made it 6' and have never look back since. Most projects can be handle easily on smaller bench and the best thing is you can't accumulate as big a mess on the smaller bench…lol. Nice work thanks for sharing and posting….BC
 

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18,702 Posts
thats a great looking bench. I may copy parts of your leg vise design if I ever get to that project.
 

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Great job on this bench. I love the way you organized the shelf below, so clean and ready to work.
 

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169 Posts
nice bench
 

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Great job. Beautiful end result. I particularly like your bench brush. Should do a FANTASTIC job of sweeping away dust and shavings :)

Woof.
 

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70 Posts
Don..this is a beautiful bench for sure. You said that my bench inspired you to build yours, but I think we're taking turns inspiring each other. I really like yours, the two-handle vise is a good thing, I am also going to put a shelf under my bench as well.. I was actually looking at the bench last weekend and said to myself "I can put a shelf down there". Thanks for sharing your new bench, Don, and I know that it will get lots and lots of good use. I don't know how I ever got along without mine. Happy Woodworking!
 

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Thanks for the comments Trev. Let's keep inspring eachother. - David
 

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one question on the leg vice, does that diameter of foot wheel work well for you? Im thinking about expanding my bench and was courious
 

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Hi Dan - The leg vise is somewhat slow to adjust. But, I adjust the foot wheel first before applying clamping pressure so the small wheel works fine.
 

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Ya I really like this bench as well. We can all use more space but I find when we tailor our projects to our inviorment their just as rewarding. There is nothing like working with great tools. nice work!
 

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19,753 Posts
I would call this bench real, real handy and very well made,great job.
 

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Wow! That is a great bench. My bench is very functional, but not so beautiful. I think I have a place in my shop that one of these will go perfectly!
 

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Very nice workbench! Thanks for posting. Edge, face, and edge, all bases covered. Most excellent.
 

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Very well done! I'm in the same boat. Not a lot of space but need a bench badly.
 
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