By
Bob Key
I started on my bench after I read The Workbench Book by Scott Landis
about 8 years ago. It appeared that the one by Ian Kirby would
be the easiest to build, but after meeting Mr. Kirby and looking
at his methods, I decided that his philosophy of woodworking
was just too persnickety for me. I wanted a bench that could
hold the work firmly in place whilst being plied with various
hand toolery.
So I went whole hog with a bench similar to the one built by
Frank Klaus. It has the old-fashioned wooden tail vise with
the single screw and the old-fashioned shoulder vice that,
because it has no parts to get in the way, allows easy clamping
of drawer sides for sawing, etc. This style bench, of course,
would be the hardest to build.
I started by acquiring the vice hardware, which for this style, is
the cheapest of all vice hardware. I think that at the time
it came to about $50 altogether (it's a little more now).
Having the hardware in hand, I could proceed with full-sized drawings.
I ended up with a design about halfway in size between Frank's
and Tage Frid's smaller version as featured in The Small
Workshop collection of Fine Woodworking articles.
The first thing built was the base. I used 8/4 maple with through-wedged
mortise and tenon joints. This was the largest thing that
I had built up to then and was really more like timber frame
construction. Chopping those mortises out was the work of
a month's spare time, and really satisfying exercise. Doing
it on the Workmate made the anticipation of completing my
`real' bench that much more intense. When the base was done
I was surprised at how strong it was. Had it been carved
from a block of steel it would have seemed no stronger.
Next came the top. I used various scrap and some specially purchased
bits of maple, mahogany and cherry. This was my first glue-up
of serious proportions and I made a complete hash of my
first attempt. I was trying to do the edge jointing with
a Record 07 (that was, unknown to me, seriously out of flat)
and I could never get the surfaces to match. After a bunch
of screwing around, I decided to rely on the strength of
my clamps to force the joints together. The result was so
disgusting that I put the whole project aside for 2 years.
During this hiatus, I thought about what I had done wrong and considered
going right from the table saw to glue-up (which would have
yielded better results) but couldn't bring myself to do
it. I ended up making a contraption for my router that gave
serviceable results, but not as good as I had hoped.
Now came the time to flatten the top. I started out with the
Record 07 again and again ended up with a hideous mess.
It looked like someone had been hacking at it with a machete.
I really learned to loathe that stupid plane.
Another 3 years passed while the idea of a nice woodworking bench
started to look like an expensive pipe dream.
I decided that a belt sander was the answer to my problem reasoning
that a fine grit would prevent gouging. It didn't. Now I
had a surface that looked like it had been hacked with a
machete and dragged behind a truck down a concrete freeway.
Time for another 2 years doing the Workmate Watusi. I thought
about taking the top to a cabinet shop, but I was too embarrassed.
They were sure to ask what I had done to create such a unique
surface, perhaps even report me for ripping off some example
of the local public `art' (it really did look bad). I thought
about ripping the thing up for table legs or something that
might be of use.
It should be obvious at this point that I am a self-taught
woodworker. I never attended an industrial arts class. I
had no skilled woodworkers around that I could learn from.
I read a lot, but that is one-way learning; I needed advise
and feedback.
Then I discovered the Oldtools Group. The first thing I learned
was that I had never used a decent hand tool. A Stanley
#8 jointer plane from MofA changed that. After the iron
was scary sharp, the job of flattening the benchtop was
the work of an evening. The rest of the bench went together
in less than a month. Good tools and confidence gained from
using them has increased my woodworking output and fun by
an order of magnitude.
In the last few months I have built: