| Project by TechRedneck | posted 480 days ago | 4276 views | 53 times favorited | 33 comments |  |
 |
I have a nice shop of power tools. I like them all, however I have discovered the power and joy of hand tools. Use of hand tools is taking my skill and quality up a notch.
To do things right with hand tools you need a good solid bench. A lot of the floor space in the shop is already taken up. Some time ago I built a 4×4’ torsion box assembly table. It is very heavy and stable, however not that great with vices and not adequate for hand tools.
After a lot of thought, I decided to build the “business” end of a traditional woodworking bench and just bolt it to my assembly table. In the pictures you can see how I used the combination wood/bolt threaded hardware and bolted the back of the new bench to the old and used traditional dovetailed front legs and mortise and tenon cross beam. All the joints were friction fit and then thru bolted for easy breakdown or tightening.
The table is 5’ long and a little over 1’ wide. The whole table fit in the planer after glue up. Once assembled I finished it off with a hand plane and drilled the 3/4” holes with a hand brace and bit.
I then added a Veritas large single screw for the leg vise and glued up two 6” cherry boards for a 2” thick leg. The end vise is a Groz Quick release. The top is 3” thick Ash and the legs are 4” of Ash. It was finished with a couple coats of BLO with the first coat thinned 50/50.
The height is a little more than a traditional bench which should come to the knuckle of your little finger. However I use the power tools to get most of the stock prepped and then use hand tools to finish and fit. The assembly table serves as an out-feed table for the jointer and planer. The bolts on the back of the hand tool bench allowed me to bring it level with the table and shims under the legs compensated for the slight slope in the floor.
Overall it is very solid and stable.
-- Mike.... West Virginia. "Man is a tool using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.". T Carlyle
| Pin It |
33 comments so far
waho6o9
home | projects | blog
2900 posts in 745 days
#1 posted 480 days ago
Fantastic addition. I like the way it turned out.
Smitty_Cabinetshop
home | projects | blog
6385 posts in 786 days
#2 posted 480 days ago
This is a very nice nod to the Roubo AND to handtool woodworking. Excellent project, congrats!
-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive
ShaneA
home | projects | blog
3963 posts in 766 days
#3 posted 480 days ago
Excellent addition to the shop. Congrats on a really nice build.
Northwest29
home | projects | blog
229 posts in 658 days
#4 posted 480 days ago
Now there is a really great idea and well executed as well. May have to adapt something like that to my bench. Thanks for the share.
Ron
-- Ron, Eugene, OR, "Curiosity is a terrible thing to waste."
a1Jim
home | projects | blog
87102 posts in 1745 days
#5 posted 480 days ago
A beautiful bench nice work.
-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/
Warren
home | projects | blog
81 posts in 503 days
#6 posted 480 days ago
thats awesome looks ideal for small shop solutions :)
-- Warren, Cambridge,OH.
CL810
home | projects | blog
535 posts in 1156 days
#7 posted 480 days ago
Very clever and functional – Well Done!
-- "It's amazing how much can go wrong when you think you know what you're doing."
Cory
home | projects | blog
704 posts in 1587 days
#8 posted 480 days ago
This is an excellent idea! Thanks for sharing this. Gotta add this to my list of projects to copy!
-- The secret to getting ahead is getting started.
chrisstef
home | projects | blog
5246 posts in 1174 days
#9 posted 480 days ago
brilliant!
-- "there aren’t many hand tools as awe-inspiring as the #8 jointer. I mean, it just reeks of cast iron heft and hubris" - Smitty
Woodenwizard
home | projects | blog
846 posts in 1223 days
#10 posted 480 days ago
This is a great Idea! exactly what I could use. Hope you don’t mind but I may steel your idea. Thanks!
-- John, Colorado's (Wooden Wizard)
TechRedneck
home | projects | blog
636 posts in 1025 days
#11 posted 480 days ago
Thanks for all the nice comments. I owe a lot to my fellow LJ’s and will be happy to answer questions if anybody decides to try something similar in their shop.
-- Mike.... West Virginia. "Man is a tool using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.". T Carlyle
doordude
home | projects | blog
862 posts in 1151 days
#12 posted 480 days ago
nice bench on a bench. hoe do you like the veritas saw? i was thinking of buying one.
TechRedneck
home | projects | blog
636 posts in 1025 days
#13 posted 480 days ago
Doordude
Saws have to feel good in your hand. I tried a few and found the veritas felt just right. The price is good when compared to other premium saws. I’ve only had it for several weeks but have no complaints. It cuts fast and straight, can’t ask for more.
-- Mike.... West Virginia. "Man is a tool using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.". T Carlyle
bluekingfisher
home | projects | blog
808 posts in 1148 days
#14 posted 480 days ago
That’s a real nice addition to your assembly table. You now have the best of both worlds, plenty of space for power tool working and with your new addition you have a bench for hand tools when you want those quite, stress free times for ww while in the shop.
-- No one plans to fail, they just, just fail to plan
michelletwo
home | projects | blog
1767 posts in 1184 days
#15 posted 480 days ago
I luv handtools, so I find your solution quite clever.
-- We call the destruction of replaceable human made items vandalism, while the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources is called development.
View all comments »
showing 1 through 15 of 33 comments
Have your say...