A woodworking bench

I decided to finally build a woodworking bench. I wanted a big, heavy bench that was adequate for hand tool work. I decided on a traditional English jointers bench, with a split top and a tool well. This style has recently been popularized by Paul Sellars, my number one woodworking hero. I modified the dimensions to suit my needs. I also modified the design slightly by using hardware to fasten the front apron, whereas Paul uses a knock-down system with a dado and wedge system that makes it (more) portable. Mine is still portable, just less so. I also left off the back apron because I use my bench against a wall. It's made completely of construction-grade lumber. The top is Spruce. I built it almost entirely with hand tools. I say almost because I rough-cut some of the lumber for the bench-top laminations with my miter saw to speed things up and then cut the final dimensions by hand. Overall this was a HUGE project for a first-time, handtool-only woodworking project. But that was the whole fun of it, now wasn't it? It took me a few months to complete as time allowed, mostly late at night after the babies were in bed. I'm new to this, so many of the operations I performed to complete it, it was my first time ever doing them, like cutting the mortise and tenons. So it's not perfect, but surely passable, and totally functional. The trickiest part for me was 4-squaring such large components. This was really fun! I LOVED this project, and I'd love to build another one, especially now that I have a proper bench to work from.

Here are some stats:

72" Long

30" Wide

36" High

Top Thickness 3"

Weight: 300 lbs.

(2016) Cost Approximate:

Lumber - $160

Vise - $140

Hardware- $10

(click the images for larger view )

Obviously, I ran the sheet goods for the French cleat system through my table saw but the fixtures/shelves for it and the saw till were all made by hand.
On to the bench build....

First I laminated 2x4x8s to form the benchtop slabs. I didn't photograph the glue-up of those, because I was just trying to get it right at that point. Here is what I ended up with.

Then I started hand planing the benchtops down to remove the rounded edges of the 2x4's. This was extremely challenging working from sawhorses because everything wanted to move around, so I placed them against the wall. I actually flattened the top and bottom for one of them. I later realized it wasn't necessary to do this to the bottoms because they would later be bolted to the stretchers of the leg assemblies and therefore only needed to be "pretty much flat". I also flattened the top of the benchtops after it was assembled. By the way, all this hand-planing makes a LOT of shavings. Between the tops and the leg assemblies, I think I made about three extra-large contractor bags of shavings. If I did this over, I would run the 2x's through the table saw first to remove the rounded edges.

I continued hand-planing and using winding sticks to check for twist. I then 4-squared them as best I could with my amateur skills. This took four or five evenings to complete with a couple of weeks in between. This was probably good because it allowed them to stabilize as I removed material and relieved stresses in the wood. Wow was it a workout - no need to hit the gym on those days!

Working these huge slabs as I said was quite labor-intensive so at some point when I got tired of that, I started laminating material for the leg assemblies. Here are three in the clamps at the same time.

All of them after glue-up

I then started working the leg assemblies with the planes instead of the other top slab because I felt defeated by those huge pieces. The smaller ones were more fun. I again removed all of the rounded edges from the 2x stock and four-squared them as best I could. The good part about this was now I had some big heavy benchtops to work on top of.

I made a couple of practice mortises for the leg assemblies, they were huge! And hard to make. I got better each time, and they didn't need to be perfect, so I then began building a leg assembly for real. I chopped the mortises and then cut the huge tenons to fit inside.

After getting both assembled, I draw-bored all the mortise and tenon joints by drilling offset holes through the joints and then driving an oak peg through them, making them super tight. There is no hardware in the leg assemblies at all, they are held together with the only joinery.

I then mounted stretchers to the tops of the leg assemblies, to bolt through into the bottom of the slabs. I didn't photograph that at the time, so here is a recent photo.

Rather than laminate smaller lumber to make the large aprons, I bought two 2x12s and trued them up with my hand plane. Again, I ended up only installing one on the front.

Here is some of the hardware I used, but I never used the large bolts on the right. I ended up using only bolts like the ones on the left with large washers to join the tops to the legs and the apron to the front edge of the benchtop.