OTT ... or not?

[RogerP]

The maker says he is too scared to use it in case he marks it!

http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/dedicated-dovetailing-bench-19617#post27637

 

[skronk]

The maker says he is too scared to use it in case he marks it!

http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/dedicated-dovetailing-bench-19617#post27637

And who could blame him ????? Beautiful.

 

[Rhossydd]

Lovely bit of craftsmanship, but I'm not convinced by the choice of timber. It all looks a little gawdy and seems an inappropriate use of valuable tropical hardwood. I would have been more impressed if it had been made in local Maple or similar.

 

[Ed Bray]

Lovely bit of craftsmanship, but I'm not convinced by the choice of timber. It all looks a little gawdy and seems an inappropriate use of valuable tropical hardwood. I would have been more impressed if it had been made in local Maple or similar.

Nice job.

Do they have a lot of Maple in Ireland?

 

[mseries]

Little point having a tool if it isn't used to do anything for you

 

[Rhossydd]

Do they have a lot of Maple in Ireland?

Probably more Maple than Goncalo Alves or Marblewood.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Lovely bit of craftsmanship, but I'm not convinced by the choice of timber. It all looks a little gawdy and seems an inappropriate use of valuable tropical hardwood. I would have been more impressed if it had been made in local Maple or similar.

Nice job.

Do they have a lot of Maple in Ireland?

Probably more maple than goncalo ales and marblewood.

 

[rafezetter]

Lovely bit of craftsmanship, but I'm not convinced by the choice of timber. It all looks a little gawdy and seems an inappropriate use of valuable tropical hardwood. I would have been more impressed if it had been made in local Maple or similar.

It's a lovely bench, if as you say a bit OTT but if you think that's bad I saw a guy in US has made an entire workbench out of purpleheart he found in the loft of an old barn...PURPLEHEART!! I sat there aghast when I saw it...

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

The ironic thing about it is the dovetails in the drawers, which are about as ugly as I've seen. Somehow I think he is under a misapprehension about their purpose and construction. I've actually no problem with building OOT work benches etc, if that's your thing. I do not subscribe to the ever more common statement of 'totally hand made using no machinery' in the same way Queen used to state on their records, 'no synthesisers used making this album'. It gets to sound a bit pompous and does not actually prove anything. Especially when the bench is fitted with an extremely expensive and highly machined vice mechanism. Who cares if the bench is handmade, or a planer thicknesses was used to dimension the stock? I would prefer him to have used the wood for something more appropriate. Which would have been more laudable in fact.

Mike.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Rhossydd - sorry, I didn't see your post before putting in an identical one.

 

[Rhossydd]

Especially when the bench is fitted with an extremely expensive and highly machined vice mechanism.

What puzzles me about these is how impractical they are. Solid threaded rods sticking out from the bench all the time, it's going to hurt walking into those one day. Why doesn't the rod thread into the bench with the handle always on the end ? just like a normal vice.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

The chap's made a rod for his own back, now. He'll have to build a matching dedicated mortice-and-tennoning bench, a matching planing-up bench, a bench for stacking up those jobs he needs to get around to but somehow never quite does, a bench for opening paint tins, and a bench for losing his pencils and tape-measure amongst the shavings and offcuts.

 

[Rhossydd]

The chap's made a rod for his own back, now. He'll have to build.......

A bit unfair. You'll note that it's described as a dovetail AND joinery bench, so covers M&Ts too.
Dovetailing and tenoning are some of the activities that a standard bench is too low for comfort. There's a tradition of making supplemental benches that sit on a standard bench to bring the height up to a more comfortable working height and I'd guess that in production environments you'd have dedicated higher level benches too.

 

[novocaine]

if you can't use it for what it is intended for then it isn't what you built. it's very nice looking and a jolly lovely ornament but it isn't a woodwork bench. think I'll stick with my pine bench I can hammer stuff in to.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

The chap's made a rod for his own back, now. He'll have to build.......

A bit unfair. You'll note that it's described as a dovetail AND joinery bench, so covers M&Ts too.
Dovetailing and tenoning are some of the activities that a standard bench is too low for comfort. There's a tradition of making supplemental benches that sit on a standard bench to bring the height up to a more comfortable working height and I'd guess that in production environments you'd have dedicated higher level benches too.

My comment was only really "unfair" if you take it literally or seriously. Just for the avoidance of any doubt, the comment was not intended seriously - and certainly not literally, as I hope the ridiculousness of some of my example 'dedicated benches' made clear to most people.

I'm aware of the various ways of adding to or modifying benches to make specific duties easier or more comfortable. Clamp-on Moxon vices are quite fashionable at the moment, but they've been around for many years. Bob Wearing shows a design for a 'dovetailing vice' in several of his books written in the 1980s, for example (and of course Moxon did in his book, too!), and I think these can be excellent ways to supplement the workholding capabilities of even a very basic bench. I suspect that production cutting of dovetails by hand, or even by hand-held router, is very rare these days, having been superceded by machine dovetailers and other machine joining methods from Victorian times.

Straightforward comment, now. What people choose to do with their spare time is entirely a matter for them, provided it's legal. If the chap wants to make a fancy dedicated bench that's a matter for him; good luck to him. Personally, I wouldn't, because to me a bench is a means to an end, not the end in itself, conequently my benches tend to be rather more work-a-day and versatile. But that's just my way; it's not the law of the land.

To answer the question in the thread title, is it OTT? To me, it is OTT; but that's only my personal opinion, and others are free to differ.

 

[Rhossydd]

but it isn't a woodwork bench.

and isn't meant to be. Did you read the title ? it's only meant for dovetailing and joinery

 

[novocaine]

are dovetails and joinery not woodwork? are they something special that I don't know about? to me, if you are working with wood then that's woodwork.

 

[Rhossydd]

are they something special that I don't know about?

Er yes, that's why people build special benches for that task if they need to. Similarly you don't mount a woodturning lathe on a standard workbench either.

 

[whiskywill]

My comment was only really "unfair" if you take it literally or seriously. Just for the avoidance of any doubt, the comment was not intended seriously - and certainly not literally, as I hope the ridiculousness of some of my example 'dedicated benches' made clear to most people.

I thought you were serious and have spent the past few hours Googling for information on these special benches and ordering wood on spec. Now what do I make with a pile of Rosewood? :shock:

 

[n0legs]

Not .
If I had the space and the need for one I would do the same.
Dedicated workstations is where it's at brethren.