Esteemed Gentle Galoots,

Short Version:


My new workbench is done! Here's proof:  


http://tinyurl.com/ChuckTaylorWorkbench

The file names serve as captions.
The bench is 96" long by 25" wide by 34" high, and the top is 5.25" thick. It
weighs about 300 pounds.

The wood is mostly bigleaf maple, with some ash used in the vises. The legs are
3.75" square. The holdfasts came from Phil Koontz. The tail vise innards came
from Woodcraft, and the screw for the leg vise came from a PNTC auction.

The top is laminated, but in a rather unusual way. Definitely not the Paul
Sellers way. It is mostly composed of 4x4 maple. It also contains a full sheet
of maple plywood. Can you see where it is in the first picture? (I didn't think
so.)

Long Version:

For many years I have wanted to build a proper workbench. I don't know how many
times I've read Scott Landis's "The Workbench Book" looking for ideas. I also
devoured Chris Schwarz's two workbench books. I knew that I wanted a stout
bench, and that I wanted a tail vise. My guiding design principle was from Chris
Schwarz:  "Always overbuild your workbench."

The bigleaf maple was cut for me by a friend from a tree that grew on his own
land. It was free to me for the taking, but I did have to drive 150 miles to get
it. That was in 2008. The wood was dripping wet when I got it. After 7 years, it
has probably acclimated to my shop. The ash came from my brother's land near
Alfred, NY.

The maple I got from my friend was mostly 4x4's, with a few 2x4's and 1x4's and
a single 2x6. I didn't have a choice in how the wood was cut. BTW, my friend has
one of those sawmills with two circular blades at right angles, and it is
powered by a Volkswagen engine.

About that time there was a discussion on The Porch about what wood to use for a
workbench. Phil Koontz wrote that you ought to use the wood that comes to you.
So that's what I did. As it turned out, a number of design decisions were driven
by the wood that I had to work with.

The plan was to build the base first, then edge-glue some full-length 4x4's
together on top of the base to make the top. Simple, right? In the meantime, I
painted the ends and stickered the wood in my unheated garage. Over the course
of the next 5 years or so, I built the base. The top short stretchers are 2x4
maple and are dovetailed and pinned to the tops of the legs with dowels. The
bottom short stretchers are 4x4 maple and are joined to the legs with draw-bored
mortise and tenon joints. The long stretchers are 2x4 maple and are joined to
the legs with wedged through dovetailed mortise and tenon joints. The tenons are
bare-faced. I first saw that joint on an episode of The Woodwright's Shop, and
later in Hasluck's "The Handyman's Book" (p. 278), The Workbench Book (p. 100),
and copied from Hasluck in Roy Underhill's "The Woodwright's Guide" (p. 165).
The base is very solid and very Galootish.


Once the base was done, I started looking at the remaining 4x4's for the top.
Unfortunately most of them had developed a lot of bow and twist. No way were
they flat enough for the top of a workbench. I attacked one or two of them with
planes and winding sticks. It was kinda like spitting into the wind. See
pictures 019 and 020.

Next I piled some 4x4's into my truck and drove 2 hours to my brother's shop to
try to straighten them with tailed demons. (I don't own a tailed jointer or
planer and I don't really want to.) My brother and I spent about 3 hours on just
one 4x4 and still got it only sorta close to flat and square. I managed to
finish that one off with planes and winding sticks, but I lost about 3/8" of
thickness in the process, mostly to the tailed demons. And that was the best 4x4
of the bunch.

Time for a change of plans. Plan B was to buy a sheet of 3/4" hardwood plywood,
have it ripped lengthwise by the lumber yard, and laminate it into a plywood
slab 1.5" thick and 2' by 8'. I mounted that onto the top of the base using lag
bolts. The plan was then to crosscut the unruly 4x4's into shorter lengths, each
2 or 3 feet long, dress the shorter lengths square with planes and winding
sticks, and then mount the shorter pieces like bricks on top of the plywood
slab. The idea was that I would lose less wood by squaring off a short length
than by squaring off a full 8' length, and that it would be less effort besides.
And that is how it worked out.

I used the 4x4 that was partially flattened with tailed demons as the first 4x4
behind the dog strip. Because it had lost thickness, it is shimmed up with a
piece of 3/8" Douglas fir plywood. (Ssshh! Don't tell!)

With my method of lamination (developed out of necessity), the top grew in width
4" at a time, starting at the front. After completing the first couple of rows
of 4x4's and the tail vise, I could use the partially completed bench to work on
the components for the rest of the bench. Several of the photos show how that
worked.

The tail vise was based on a hardware kit from Woodcraft, the kind that slides
on a steel plate. So far I love it! It made the rest of the construction much
easier.

The front 4x4 is glued down to the plywood slab. Subsequent rows of 4x4's are
glued only to the 4x4s in front of them and not to the plywood slab. I put
masking tape on the plywood slab under the joints to catch glue squeeze-out and
to keep them from sticking to the plywood slab. My intent was to allow for
seasonal movement of the laminated 4x4's toward the rear, sliding along the
plywood slab. Time will tell how well that works out.

For glue I used Elmer's Glue-All (white glue), purchased in a gallon jug. I like
the open time and have had good luck with it in the past. It also has good shelf
life.

My original design height was 32.5". Because of the addition of the plywood slab
after the base was completed, final height is 34". Final thickness is 5.25":
3.75" of solid bigleaf maple and 1.5" of maple plywood.

Since I built the bench from scratch, I elected to go with square dogs. The dogs
themselves were made from some meranti that I salvaged from a re-planking
project on my 50-year-old wooden boat. I used spring-loaded cabinet door catches
that Ed Minch sent to me a few years ago. He bought a box from Lee Valley and
sent me some that he had left over from building his own workbench. (Thanks
again, Ed!)

My original plan was to use a face vise based on a vintage quick-release Littco
vise that I found in a flea market some years ago. I installed it on the
partially completed bench, but unfortunately it did not work out well. I
replaced it with a leg vise and a crochet.

The face vise might have worked with the 3.75" top that I had originally
planned, but the top is now 5.25" thick, and there was too much vertical racking
to suit me. That plus the fact that I don't like way the Littco quick-release
mechanism works. You have to push in while you turn the handle, and if you don't
get it just right, it pops loose. The leg vise and crochet work much better.

The leg vise does not extend to the floor, but it works just fine. I could
probably have done without the crochet, but as I mentioned, my basic design
principle was to overbuild this bench, so why not add the crochet?

For a finish I have put on one coat of thinned BLO so far. Hopefully that will
make it easier to wipe up spilled glue.

The bottom shelf was made from some recycled tongue-and-groove knotty-pine
paneling.

Since the top is held to the top stretchers with lag screws and the long
stretchers are held in place by wedges, the bench can be disassembled easily for
moving, even if it is pretty heavy.


It took me a little over 7 years from start to finish to build this bench, but
then I work on Galoot Standard Time. I figure that it ought to last me for a
goodly long time.

Thanks for listening.

Cheers,
Chuck Taylor
north of Seattle

Beautiful bench, Chuck! I'm sure it will be a joy to use for many years to come.

Landis' books are classics. I don't think I've read another woodworking author
with such a curious and unassuming voice.

Cheers,
Alex

> On Dec 9, 2015, at 8:05 PM, Chuck Taylor via OldTools  wrote:
> 
> Esteemed Gentle Galoots,
> 
> Short Version:
> 
> 
> My new workbench is done! Here's proof:  
> 
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/ChuckTaylorWorkbench


Beautiful bench and I love the way you handled the twisted stock. Nothing like
being (& hanging out with) - a resourceful Galoot!

Bill