Bosch Workbench Build

dean0866 · 11 Jul 2013

Boxer,
Have you made any further progress?
Well I took the advice on this thread and made the bench top a lot thicker than the Bosch instructions recommend. I glued and screwed 3x 18mm x 600mm x 1850mm chipboard together and added an 18mm thick piece of MDF as the main top to hide the screws and give a flat surface. It’s certainly heavy and seems quite robust although I haven’t mounted it on the legs yet as I have to cut the tenons and connect the front rails first. I just hope the legs can take the weight!

Reggie · 12 Jul 2013

Hey guys, nice to see all this discussion on bench building

I'm about to do one myself but mines an adaptation of one from shopnotes, it uses 1/2 lap joints to make the sides and uses bolts to pull in the long rails tight, although I haven't finalised that yet. I've done a mockup in sketchup which has been useful to visualise the parts for the carcass and leave space for a 9" vice.

I also looked at the paul sellers series and I'm contemplating his lamination technique using pine, anyone got any more thoughts on overall thickness, I was thinking of being cheap and using 7 of 4x2 (44x95) but reading the posts here you all seem to be suggesting thicker, so would 4x3 be more suitable or would I be able to get away with 4x2?

I'm also wondering about the type of pine to use, untreated, treated or PAR, par would mean I don't have to square it up (or at least shouldn't have to if I pick the right wood), anything else is just cheaper but might need working to get it up to scratch.

I'm making the carcass 41" long and 24" deep, I wanted to leave a bit of overhang for clamping on the front edge of the bench, it will be anywhere between 2 3/16" and 4" of overhang, this is my first project so I have no idea of glue strength, will it be strong enough to cope?

Lastly, aprons, are they entirely necessary?

Phil Pascoe · 12 Jul 2013

I would make it thick rather than thin, but that's up to you - you could always face it with ply or mdf afterwards, if needed. I used 6" rails set 3" down on the sides, precisely because I wanted access for clamping, so the legs, front of the top, the inner cheek of the vice and the rails are all in the same plane. I routed a groove down the right leg to take a length of spur shelving support so I can use a shelf bracket if I'm working on a door or anything large and flat.

Reggie · 12 Jul 2013

Hi Phil, I was thinking about putting some dog holes in an apron (if that's even a thing you should do?) so that I could add support for longer stuff in the vice. I came to the same conclusion about facing it with some ply if necessary at a later date.

I was going to make the vice flush with with the front of the bench, just wasn't sure if I really need to go the whole hog and add aprons too, it seems like it could be useful but I'm back to having zero experience to base my assumptions on

Phil Pascoe · 12 Jul 2013

If you use a 6" rail three inches down, to all intents and purposes it is no different from an apron. There's no reason not to bore holes in it - it's good to have the depth and strength on the tenon(s), and it's plenty strong enough to put holes in. If your vice is inboard of the leg, it's deep enough to allow the cutout as well.

This thread's drifting. Take some pics and start another? :idea: