Never dawned on me to make a shorty to fit the space I have. I always just assumed I needed to make a big one, like every other one I’d seen… D’oh!
made a euro style one back in the 1980’s. didn’t make it on the moving truck.
the guy who got my old bench loves it. made of rock maple and oak legs
shoulder and tail vises. no back panel but a tool well running along the back of it
made a small tool chest to go under it. I miss my old bench a lot.
and the price of good hardwood is a lot more now than it used to be.
I would like to make another one one of these days.
I used the plans from Fine Woodworking to make it back then.
How did that tool well work out?
Nope nope nope noppity nope.
That is a bench shaped object, probably made for a school, and not a bench a a period master joiner would ever use.
It fails as a woodworking bench. The board at the back means you can’t work with objects wider than the bench. It also stops you working the jack plane across the board to knock it flat.
It is way too light to be stable when knocking a board flat with a jack plane. It will move cross the floor. When running a No7 jointer along a board on the bench it will walk, and those wedges holding the cross bars in place will walk and become loose.
It might just hold with a No 4 smoother or a card scraper though.
It only looks great to people who don’t do woodworking with all hand tools. My woodworking bench weighs about 300 lbs.
Christopher Schwarz at lost art press has written a lot about this, going back to the historical sources.
I’m a mostly power tools guy. This would be useless for anything I’ve ever made. Add in all the reasons Earl Harding mentions and more.
Still cool, I would like to see all the jigs that go with this master piece. Love watching the woodworking shows and seeing some of the antique tool boxes that have been posted here.
DIBS!
Never dawned on me to make a shorty to fit the space I have. I always just assumed I needed to make a big one, like every other one I’d seen… D’oh!
made a euro style one back in the 1980’s. didn’t make it on the moving truck.
the guy who got my old bench loves it. made of rock maple and oak legs
shoulder and tail vises. no back panel but a tool well running along the back of it
made a small tool chest to go under it. I miss my old bench a lot.
and the price of good hardwood is a lot more now than it used to be.
I would like to make another one one of these days.
I used the plans from Fine Woodworking to make it back then.
How did that tool well work out?
Nope nope nope noppity nope.
That is a bench shaped object, probably made for a school, and not a bench a a period master joiner would ever use.
It fails as a woodworking bench. The board at the back means you can’t work with objects wider than the bench. It also stops you working the jack plane across the board to knock it flat.
It is way too light to be stable when knocking a board flat with a jack plane. It will move cross the floor. When running a No7 jointer along a board on the bench it will walk, and those wedges holding the cross bars in place will walk and become loose.
It might just hold with a No 4 smoother or a card scraper though.
It only looks great to people who don’t do woodworking with all hand tools. My woodworking bench weighs about 300 lbs.
Christopher Schwarz at lost art press has written a lot about this, going back to the historical sources.
I’m a mostly power tools guy. This would be useless for anything I’ve ever made. Add in all the reasons Earl Harding mentions and more.
Still cool, I would like to see all the jigs that go with this master piece. Love watching the woodworking shows and seeing some of the antique tool boxes that have been posted here.