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This is the new bench I've been building for the last couple of weeks. I have to say that I've never had one of these and quite frankly, never understood what their attraction was. Then one day it dawned on me that I had spent my career building big things with power tools and that these were for building smaller things with hand tools. Then it all made sense and I decided I would build one.

My thought process for this sort of thing is a little different than some. I don't ask myself " How are these things made?" and go looking at examples or scouting for plans. My process starts with "What does it have to do?" and then plans the most interesting way to accomplish those goals. That and I love reinventing the wheel.

To make a long story a little shorter, I ended up with a rather different bench.

This may be a bench for you if:

1) You want a solid bench that's easy to build with simple tools

2) You want a heavy rigid bench but don't want to break the bank buying hardwood and hardware.

3) You enjoy having something a little different.

This is not the bench for you if you see building your bench as an opportunity to learn / practice fine joinery and at the end of the journey have a beautiful hardwood masterpiece as the centerpiece of your shop. I have nothing but admiration for those who view it this way…. but this isn't the bench for you.

In my mind a good bench of this type was to hold work in vertical and horizontal positions that would allow work to be done on both the faces and the edges. It had to be heavy and it had to be rigid. If possible it should look nice in the bargain. Above all it had to have a very powerful grip. If I failed in that , I would truly fail…. I don't think I did.

This is getting long and as I sense a construction blog coming on I will cut to the photos and save the long explanations for the said treatise.

The photos show:

1) Planing a surface with the board held in one of the "8 Degree Vertical" wedge wagon vices.

2) Planing an edge with the portable Deadman and the "8 Degree Vertical" wedge leg vice.

3) Planing a surface held in the two wagon vices.

4) Pretty shot of the wagons.

5) The plywood "guts" of the half-tops.

6) The plywood "guts"of the legs.

By now you will have seen that this bench is really plywood and only the trim is hardwood. That wood incidentally is arbutus (madrone) and it is used for the front, back and end boards and vices as well as the cosmetic top. The legs have been shamelessly veneered to look like solid walnut.

I have done a fair bit of pretty-ing up here but the main structure of this bench can almost be said to be buildable with a skilsaw and a hammer.

The structural joints are all interlaid layers of plywood that, when all assembled, resemble and have the strength of perfectly fitted finger joints but in any one layer they are all just butt joined.

That's enough. I have far to much to tell about this bench and it's vices to bore you with here. Those who are interested can follow the blog and get bored to sleep for several nights at their own risk.
Suffice to say that I think this concept will be of value to some of you and I hope that this won't be the last "V8" I see here.

I have a sketchup of this but as our resident SU savant (Rance) is reworking it for me I think I'll wait. You would only be frustrated by my poor job on it.

EDIT: Rance's excellent Sketchup is posted in the last blog entry here.

A full construction blog on this bench starts here.

Thanks for looking in and please ask questions, comment or criticize.

Paul

Gallery

Comments

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Wow Paul this is one cool and creative bench ,cool job.
 

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Wow Paul, for you "woodies" this would have to be a godsend, another fabulous shared project along with the know how to.

:: )))

Pete
 

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Paul,

That is a beautifully done workbench. There are no apologies required for this not being "fine joinery"! It is, in my humble opinion. Anyone, I'm sure, would be proud to call this bench theirs! Well done, sir!

Cheers!
 

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Great concept, I'm thinking you dont need to move the pins very often is that right?

I'm also amazed that this bench's core is plywood. Way to think outside the box.
 

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Fantastic build!!!

I will ply you (pun intended) with questions as they come to me as I read your future build blog…...
 

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Paul, truly a marvel of engineering and a thing of beauty! What a great design and execution. Of course, the logo is just grand. I think we will see many of these design features and techniques reapplied by others; but of course, you will always be credited with being first. Perhaps this will become known as the Miller 8 deg Wedge Bench.

Thank you for sharing your imagination and design so freely with us!
 

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Wow!
Futuristic when we use the simple machines. Nowadays all we can see are machine while this one is back to the future. LOL.
Thanks for posting.
 

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NICE!!!

Lee
 

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Love the rolling leg vise. I'm sure that comes in handy. Nice work!
 

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I like that it is unique I like the way it looks but it is not my dream bench but i would not kick it out of the shop I would prefer a screw vise myself I think that is really why its not for me but what is important is it meets your needs and it will do that. I give you 5 stars for originality and 5 stars FOR FIT AND FINISH It looks really well made it makes me think i could have got by with a soft wood bench but that would not be my dream bench. My wood guy has owned his shop over 40 years and he tells me today's woodworker waits almost 20 years before he thinks he needs a bench. I hope this is not what we pass along to the young guys. I know i never saw the need for a great bench but i did get really tired of a cheep store bought bench. One that would not do the clamping your talking about. As always your ideas are unique and your execution is top shelf. If this bench doesn't inspire a guy on the fence to build a bench he should not be a woodworker. Great work.
 

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Can you imagine 200 years from now, a young man that has been eyeballing this bench for years at his uncle's house. Now being passed down, he now has the pleasure of picking it up for his own lifetime of use. You've built a legacy Paul.

I have already been inspired by this behemoth. The lap/finger-jointed plywood looks like a possible alternative for constructing the woodgears Bandmill I have the plans for. Time will tell.
 

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You are my woodworking hero I think. :)

(if it's alright, I'm going to PM you with some more boat building questions)
 

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I really like that bench. That's a great job.
 

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Paul, Here you go again! LOL

That is one Super Work Bench!

It has ALL of the features one could ask for… and then some!

There is ONLY one thing wrong with it… (not really)
... It's SO NICE I would be afraid of messing it up with glue, stain, screw holes, etc. etc. like I do now…
... I would be treating that bench like a wonderful piece of Furniture!

BUT, if you can design, build, and use it, I'm sure that I could learn to do it (use it)... LOL

Thank you very much for sharing another astounding Super Project!

After your last masterpiece, I thought it would be a little while before we saw ANOTHER one!

NOT TRUE… while you were performing your last feat, you were quietly working on THIS Super Bench!

I applaud you standing as high as I can stand!

You, Paul, are THE MAN!

Thank you again!
 

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Thanks everyone,
Mauricio, Moving the pins is really quite easy. The setup time, even if it wan't as easy as it is, would still be a small part of any job it would be used for. No system is perfect, each one trades something off for something else.
jaysonic It's a place to put tools you are using that doesn't interfere with the clear surface of the bench.

Joe, Tone it down will ya. I can't afford to buy a bigger hat. :)
 

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When you can make a super bench mostly from plywood and make it look this good, doing so seems an eminently sensible decision.
 

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I can certainly appreciate your method of construction because I built mine the same way.
Our benches are different, but both are built almost entirely from plywood.
Biggest surprise for me was that it took almost a gallon of glue.
Looking forward to seeing how yours was built in detail.
Very nice looking bench.
 

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Nice
 
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