Workbench

I became interested in woodworking after my family and I moved into our current house in Roseville, Minnesota, just north of St. Paul. There was a workbench left behind from a previous owner. I used it to complete a couple projects, but then decided it was time to build a bench more suited for working with hand tools. Following links from various members of the OldTools list (notably Bugbear's) and also reading The Workbench Book I put together a composite design.

The top is based on Scott Murnan's Bench by Borg, except I used a good quality plywood (but from the Borg) rather than MDF for the top layers. It is supported by overlapping 2 x 4's

The stretchers are morticed through the legs and held in place by tusk tenons. A piece of plywood lies across the stretchers for storage.

For a tail vise I used the very ordinary vise that had been on the old workbench (the price was right), except that I added wooden jaws with dogholes. I also added a row of dogholes parallel to the front of the bench

I chose a leg vise for the front after reading The Workbench Book. It was cheap and easy to build, and quite strong.

There are also dogholes in the top of the leg vise. The bench dogs there are simply short lengths of 3/4" dowel with a small piece of plastic hose glued to the end.

As you can see, the bench has had a lot of use in its relatively short life. In addition to woodworking, it gets used for leatherwork (after thoroughly cleaning off the sawdust) and a variety of mundane household tasks. Someday (not soon) I may replace the top with something more traditional using hardwood.

Go to My Woodworking or to my home page