My Bench

My Bench is in the style of Frank Klaus's Bench, but just smaller. My Dad made it. It took him eight years to build! To read all of this amazing story, look below. I have posted my Dads story, about how he built my bench. At the time that he wrote this, It was his bench. Read on!

Dads Story:

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:

What I learned:

Eight years is a ridiculous amount time to take to get a bench built; but I suspect that I am not the only one (wink wink, nudge nudge). I am glad that I did finish it, and I am glad I waited for the right tools and skills and that I built the bench I wanted. My second bench (for my son) took only 2 weeks!

Note from David: Since he wrote this, he has built another bench, and sold his old one to me. To read more about this, Click Here or Here.