A new Workbench

[Jervisekken]

My workbench for the last 10-12 years has been an old beaten-up thing that I bought for £ 15 from a farmer. It's served me well, but is now going to be firewood.
I've been wanting to build the Essential workbench ever since it appeared in Fine Woodworking magazine in 2003.
I like most features, but I chose to change the twin-screw Veritas end vise for a traditional L-shaped one.
The main things is that it is flat, it is extremely sturdy (that top is 50-60 kg) and it is large: 60 cm x 180 cm.
And the most wonderful thing is to get rid of that :evil: :twisted: tooltray!!!
Here it is almost finished:

Here is a simple jig I made to rout the holes for the bench stops:

The end vise:

Complicated thing that end vise:

Mounted a front vise:

and made a wooden jaw and covered most of the metal:

Made some nice stops:

And at last, a full width shaving and a glass smooth surface that no sandpaper in the world can ever improve

Not an expert on posting photos. Maybe they are better here: http://picasaweb.google.no/gsmolan/Woodworking#

 

[OPJ]

That looks solid enough and very nicely done.

What will you be doing with the space underneath? Storage? Drawers?

 

[Krysstel]

Wonderful Geir.
Beautiful piece of engineering on the end vise and clever bench dogs.
Don't quite agree with what you say about sand paper, but that's just me
Can anyone quess the wood ?

Mark

 

[Jervisekken]

Space underneath. Yes, I think I'll put in two of those cabinets with drawers that appeared in FWW in 2004. But I'll leave it for some time. I'm not sure if drawers would interfere with sitting at the bench. The bench is quite high, perfect for chiseling sitting-down for example.

Sandpaper. OK, Mark. Just bring your 12 000 grit and I'm willing to discuss it.

The wood is a crazy wood so go in guessing. And it's the same species for top and stand exept the stops which is ash.

 

[Mekkemikkel]

Congratulations! This looks great!!

Lots of inspiration. I think i need to do some serious thinking and planning before I start to build my bench.

But probably going to use the same wood... 8)

 

[Boz62]

Very nice, I like that .

Boz

 

[devonwoody]

It looks great, especially in the sauna.

 

[head clansman]

hi geir

it look very nice, pity the pics weren't a little bigger so we could see a little more detail . hc 8)


ps added . sorry didnt notice the link till now nic pics . :lol:

 

[Mekkemikkel]

Hi Geir! Enjoying your new bench?

If I may ask, how thick is your top?

 

[Jervisekken]

Yes Mikkel, of course I'm enjoying it. Turned a proper handle for the end vise today, and are making some other jigs and fixtures also.

My top is 65 mm thick. It is laminated from 50-70 mm wide strips of birch. I first glued together three 20-25 cm wide planks and reflattened them on the jointer. I didn't bother with thicknessing which I should have. Then these three planks were glued together and the top finally flattened with a large handplane (which wasn't too difficult really).