It's deer season here in Northern Kentucky. That means I have to wait in line at the butcher's shop next to camouflaged hunters waiting to get their deer "processed" into deer goetta and deer sausage.

It's also "Meagan Bench" season. Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick recently completed her workbench using laminated veneer lumber, which is on the cover of the November 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking. And yesterday, reader Meagan Kilrain sent me photos of her new workbench.

It has several interesting features that are worth discussing and thinking about. Let's take a look.

Materials
Kilrain (or Meagan II, as we will now call her around the office), used Glulam beams left over from a restaurant remodel for the top, and construction lumber for the base. The legs are 4x6s treated construction lumber left over from summer landscaping. The stretchers are untreated 2x6s. The vise chop is scrap from an Amish sawmill.

The Gluelam is some good stuff. It can come in nice widths already glued up for you – one of Kilrain's was 12" wide.

If you choose to use treated lumber in a bench, I think you need to be cautious. There are some nasty chemicals used to make the wood weather-resistant. I'd make my cuts outside, wear a monkey mask and avoid sanding it.

I might be a little overcautious about treated lumber because of personal experience. I visited a lumber treatment plant once, and it was like a big pressure cooker. They put the lumber and chemicals into a huge tube, seal it up and infuse the wood with the stuff. One of the workers at the plant noted that oftentimes small mammals would wander into the tube while the door was open to check it out. And then they never checked out, if you catch my drift.

The Top
Kilrain put one of the Glulam beams at the front and one at the rear. Between the two beams she made a tool tray. Most people know I'm not fond of tool trays (perhaps because I just make a mess in them), but Kilrain definitely scores points for making the bottom of the tray lift off to make it easy to clean and for clamping access.

This is a feature on Bob Lang's 21st-century Workbench, and he quite likes it.

The Base
The base is super-smart. The bottom stretcher is flush to the front of the legs. But the top stretcher is not. Kilrain makes everything work with a dose of cleverness. The deadman hooks onto the top stretcher. This gives her the ability to clamp things at the front of the bench. And it allows the deadman to slide back and forth while keeping its front flush to the front of the legs and bottom stretcher.

Also, points for the little scallop detail below the front stretcher. More curves ahead.

The Leg Vise and End Vise
Kilrain says this angled leg vise came out of her lack of confidence in mortising the leg. The results are pretty hard to argue with. Instead of making a mortise for the parallel guide, she made a dado in the side of the leg. Then she covered that over with a wooden plate. Instant mortise! And it's easy to tweak the joint for a good fit on the guide.

The vise screw is on the other side of the leg. And the swoopy curves of the vise are nice – plus there's a little cherry flash at the bottom of the oak chop.

The end vise uses the Eastern European hardware you can get at most woodworking stores. Kilrain discovered the same thing I did when I installed this vise for the first time about a decade ago:

"The installation learning curve is straight up the first time around." she wrote. "If I ever do this again, I'll opt for a ready-made end vise."

All in all, it's an excellent bench, especially considering the scavenged materials. It's completely functional and looks good to boot.

— Christopher Schwarz

Making a workbench that is both massive and mobile is no small feat. Most of the approaches I have seen have one of the following complications:

1. The mobile base is outboard of the legs. You trip on them. You need new front teeth.
2. The mobile base has "locking" wheels that fail to "lock" completely.
3. The mobile base has spindly wheels that cannot climb a single layer of sawdust.
4. The mobile base is very complicated or expensive.

This week, reader Phil Donehower of North Carolina sent me photos of the mobile base he installed in the legs of his French-style workbench. I think his idea has real merit and might help spark some neurons in your own noggin.

Here's how it works. The hardware lives in a cavity in the bottom of each leg and is raised and lowered by all-thread rod that runs from the casters up to the benchtop.

Donehower began with four 2" swivel-plate casters and attached them to 1-1/2" x 2" rectangular steel tubing that he cut to the same size as the caster plate. (See here for the tubing: http://www.speedymetals.com/s-202-rectangular-tube.aspx).

He attached the 1/2" x 13tpi all-thread rod to the steel tubing using 1/2"x 13tpi hex nuts and washers. The all-thread runs through a 1/2" steel hanger plate attached to each leg (see http://www.duffcompany.com/catalog/hangers.pdf for details).

To raise and lower the casters he uses a screwdriver to turn the all-thread rod through holes in the benchtop.

In my never-ending effort to meddle, I wonder if instead of a screwdriver you could modify the all-thread to accept a nut driver that is chucked in a cordless drill. That would be fast and easy.

In any case, Donehower said the system works great and cost him only about $40 in materials.

— Christopher Schwarz

I quite like round dog holes in workbenches. They are easier to install than square dogs, plus you can use a wide variety of other bench gizmos in them.

But they can have a dark side. I have the Veritas brass dogs in my bench(es), and  used them for many years without incident – until last week.

I had a dog up a little too high and slammed the iron of a jack plane against it. The good news is that the dog didn't scrape the plane's sole. The bad news is that I have a grinding chore ahead of me to repair the iron.

I've been contemplating making some wooden round dogs, but I've also been contemplating taking a carving class, installing a wooden floor in my shop, replacing the doors on my kitchen cabinets and buying a goat. You know how that goes.

— Christopher Schwarz

I've always been an advocate for low workbenches, especially for planing operations. My workbench is at 34" (and while standing on my horse stall mat it's 33"). And I've become quite fond of Megan's bench, which is at 30" (horse mat included).

But I can tell you that 16" is just too low. Yes, you really can get your weight right over the plane at 16", but then there's the problem of the occasional and inadvertent somersault.

— Christopher Schwarz

This week I'm building the sitting bench for the White Water Shaker community; the bench will be featured in the Winter 2009 issue of Woodworking Magazine. The version I'm building is a very close copy, so it will be 13' long. The version we'll show in the magazine will be 4' long (who really needs a 13'-bench, after all?).

Dealing with long stuff is a challenge, so I thought I'd post a couple movies during the next week that demonstrate some of the tricks to doing it well.

In this short clip, shot and narrated by Megan Fitzpatrick, I'm planing the long edge of what will become one of the bench's narrow aprons.

The trick, I think, is to keep the plane tucked against your body and lean forward. This allows you some forgiveness if you hesitate while you walk forward. If you do hesitate, you can push your arms forward as you recover your step to continue the smooth planing action uninterrupted.

Using this stance, I can plane any distance that I can walk.

If words don't do it for you, check out the clip above. And do note my profound lack of a backside in the film. I'm going to have to save up for some implants or something.

You know, at our Woodworking in America event last week I didn't get to talk to a lot of the toolmakers. In fact, I didn't even get to see some of them. That is what a madhouse it was. So that's why I'm particularly pleased to announce a couple additional toolmakers who are coming to the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event Oct. 16-17 in Indianapolis.

Jameel Abraham from Benchcrafted (and hopefully his brother Fr. John as well) will be there demonstrating their awesome bench hardware, including their cool tail vise and their Glide face vise. They also sell my favorite scraper called (cleverly) the Skraper. It's a carbide-tipped tool that is great for removing glue, paint and even wood.

If you haven't met Jameel, you owe it to yourself to get to know the guy. He's an amazing craftsman (ask to see one of his ouds). And funny (ask him about Harbor Freight).

I'm also going to take the opportunity during the event to twist his arm about writing some stories for us. (Sheesh, I hope Fine Woodworking doesn't read this blog. I blab too much.)

Also, Andrew Lunn from Eccentric Toolworks is coming to the Indianapolis show to demonstrate his saws. I've spilled so many pixels on Andrew already it's hard to add to my long list of superlatives about his saws. Simply put: Try Andrew's saws. They will make a believer out of you. They are beautiful to look at (photos don't do them justice) and they are tuned to an almost ridiculous level.

And, as I mentioned before, Kevin Drake from Glen-Drake Toolworks will be there, plus design guru George Walker and staff from the Marc Adams School of Woodworking.

One more thing to tempt you that I neglected to mention in my first post about this event: Martin J. Donnelly is holding an auction and tool sale nearby at the Ramada Inn East in Indianapolis those same days (Oct. 16-17) It's a 10-minute car ride from the Lie-Nielsen show and well worth seeing. Click here for details on that.

If you need directions or more information on the event, click here.

— Christopher Schwarz

Whenever I try to explain the new Veritas Surface Vise with words, I get only blank stares. Perhaps I don't have the language skills to manage it. Perhaps a short movie will help.

The Surface Vise is – in essence – a quick-release version of the Veritas Wonder Dog. One post guides the rod of the vise and locks the vise to your workbench. The other post contains a speed nut – a clever way to release and engage the threaded part of the rod. Twist the speed nut clockwise, it engages the threads. Twist it anticlockwise and the rod slides freely.

It's a clever way to add a quick-release tail vise to any bench or work surface.

The only quibble I have with the Surface Vise is the same quibble I have with the Wonder Dog: It's a challenge to clamp thin material. The mechanism is ideal for stock that is 3/4" thick or thicker. Once you start clamping thinner stock, you're going to have to come up with a dodge to make it work. One such workaround is to add a secondary jaw to the head of the Surface Vise. This jaw could taper to whatever thickness you wanted. (The head of the vise is bored with clearance holes to make this easy).

However, all in all, it's an amazing piece of work. It is simple to install, works remarkably fast and (unlike some tail vises) never sags. The unit is $75 from Lee Valley Tools.

Woodworker Lévis Thériault of Fredericton, NB, sent these interesting photos of a leg vise he purchased in an antique shop.

The real head-scratcher here is the round post at the bottom of the chop. I haven't seen a parallel guide like this that wasn't threaded. Lévis questioned whether the woodworker perhaps used a block of wood at the bottom of the chop (aka a "pile block").

Could be. Here are two other crackpot theories (remember this is the Internet we're dealing with):

Theory 1: The chop is so thin and the guide is so short that it’s possible this vise was used to grasp only thin materials. That doesn't explain, however, the length of the screw.

Theory 2: Perhaps they used the round post like a holdfast? The post could have been in a hole that was fairly close in size to the post. Then they would jam the post in the hole (with their foot?) when securing the screw to wedge the bottom of the chop. It might be a bit of a pain to un-jam the post perhaps....

If anyone has any additional cockamamie theories, our lines are now open.

We’ve received a number of questions about Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) and the new “Gluebo” workbench that’s featured in the November 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for the article for some of those answers (the issue is mailing to subscribers now, and will be on newsstands the week of Oct. 8), but there are a few items online that may be of interest: go to popularwoodworking.com/nov09, where you’ll find SketchUp drawings of the bench, a video tutorial for drilling dog holes (using Glen Huey’s cheap and simple jig) and an article from Christopher Schwarz on flattening a benchtop.

Getting it Flat
A lot of people have asked about flattening the LVL top, and it really wasn’t much work. Of course, as you’ll find out in the article, LVL is incredibly stable, and we ran each benchtop lamination except the final, completed top through the planer, so the top was darn close to flat already. So, it was less than 15 minutes of work with handplanes to dress it (and, the plane blades survived the experiment). What we’re eager to find out is how long it will stay flat. We suspect this material won’t need much maintenance in the long run; stay tuned to find out if we’re right.

Buying it
The top for Chris’s old-school Roubo bench, out of Southern yellow pine, was about $40; for the LVL benchtop, we spent about $75 (note: price discussion in comments below). But unlike SYP, LVL is widely available across the country at lumberyards that supply the construction industry (we bought ours at McCabe Lumber, simply because it was the closest supplier to our shop). And, because the LVL is almost rock-solid stable, it was a lot less work to mill than SYP, and we used less of it for the bench’s base. So in the end, the monetary costs were comparable, and we saved time (the entire base was built in one afternoon).

And finally, we’ve been asked why, if the material is so stable, did we not just buy a thicker slab instead of ripping the 1-3/4"-thick piece into 2-3/4"-wide strips and laminating them together. Frankly, the face of the LVL isn’t pretty. But when cut and turned on edge, it looks pretty cool – kind of like zebra wood.

— Megan Fitzpatrick

Megan Fitzpatrick's new workbench is on the cover of the November 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking, which will be mailing to subscribers soon (I don't want to be more specific than that). Of course, having a woman woodworker on the cover threw some people in our publishing organization for a loop.

"What? Where's the middle-aged balding guy in a flannel shirt? You're putting a woman on the cover in a down economy? Are you a mole for Fine Woodworking?"

Don't worry. There are tons of middle-age guys featured on the inside of the magazine. I know that's the real reason you buy woodworking magazines.

OK, back on track here. We've just posted a video tour of Megan's new workbench, which is made from laminated veneer lumber (LVL). We're teasing her mercilessly about it. Be sure to count the number of times she flips her hair. And be sure to wait for the satanic cackle at the end.

And please buy the issue!

For many woodworkers, the biggest stumbling block when building a workbench is finding the right raw materials and the proper workbench design. I can say this with authority because my mailbox is jammed daily with questions about workbenches.

I am quite picky about my workbench designs (if you're reading my blog I don't need to say any more on this), and I'm picky about the quality of my raw material. I think you can use almost any species to build a workbench, but I have three favorites: maple, Southern yellow pine and ash.

Next month at our Woodworking in America Conference (Oct. 2-4 in Valley Forge, Pa.), Horizon Evolutions will be offering special "workbench bundles" of Pennsylvania ash that have the right amount of wood (plus 15 percent waste) for three of my favorite workbench designs. There will be bundles for the French-style Roubo workbench, the English/German Holtzapffel workbench and Robert W. Lang's 21st-century Workbench. (You can see drawings of all three benches here.)

The Holtzapffel workbench I built for Woodworking Magazine.

Each bundle contains enough 4/4, 8/4 and (yes!) 12/4 kiln-dried ash so you can make your bench with the fewest laminations possible (without buying a whole tree). The material will be clear and defect free, according to Pete Terbovich at Horizon, but it will not be selected for color.

"So there will be some white sapwood along with some brown heartwood," Terbovich wrote in an e-mail. "The good thing about Pennsylvania Ash is that the heartwood is a very light brown compared to most Ash heartwood, so the color should be attractive."

Here are the prices on the kits: The 21st-century Workbench contains about 130 board feet of ash and is $600. The Holtzapffel Workbench has about 76 board feet and is $425. The Roubo Workbench has about 118 board feet of ash and is $650.

And if you still need a plan for one of these three benches, Horizon will be offering free printouts of our complete plans for these three benches. Plus, many suppliers of workbench hardware will be at Woodworking in America, including Lee Valley Tools, Lie-Nielsen and Benchcrafted. So the conference is a veritable one-stop shopping place for anyone building a workbench.

By the way, admission to the Marketplace is completely free. So even if you aren't registered for the conference, you can visit the Marketplace and buy everything you need for your bench.

Oh, and one more thing: All three of these workbenches – the Roubo, the Holtzapffel and the 21st-century Workbench – will be at the conference, so you'll be able to kick the tires on those designs – plus the designs at the Benchcrafted, Lee Valley and Lie-Nielsen booths.

If you are interested in reserving a workbench kit for yourself, get in touch with Pete Terbovich at Horizon: pterbo@horizonwood.com or 814-772-1651.

If a workbench is in your future, a fact-finding mission to Valley Forge is in order for next month. Read all about the conference here.

— Christopher Schwarz

While I really like it when people send me photos of their workbenches that were inspired by my book "Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use," I really dislike it when their finished results kicks the butt of my Roubo.

Today in the "Take that, Schwarz" category is this specimen from Graham Collins. This Roubo-style workbench is made using beech. It is a massive beast: The legs and top are almost 5" thick.

Collins also made his own vise screws.

"I orignally carved a nut in two halves but is wasn’t up to scratch so I used it as a guide to scrape a new one which came out much better," Collins wrote in an e-mail. "I made the cutter from an old planer blade."

Note the nice through-tenons and through-dovetails, plus the wooden tail vise. I think Roubo would say: "Bon travail!"

Collins is also pleased: "Now that it's finished I must say its absolutely spot-on, and I am over the moon with it," he wrote. "It makes my work a whole lot easier."

— Christopher Schwarz

When we select our instructors for our Woodworking in America conferences we look for craftsmen who have devoted their lives to woodworking and who are willing to share that knowledge with the world at large (believe it or not some people still keep secrets).

We also pick the people from whom our magazine's staff would like to learn woodworking.

As a result, the instructors for our Hand Tools & Techniques conference (Oct. 2-4 in Valley Forge, Pa.) are people at the top of their field, or are rising stars who we think you should meet. Many of these instructors are people I've been dying to meet since I started in the craft. Here are a few of my favorites:

Toshio Odate: Personally, I cannot believe we convinced him to travel to this event and speak. I've spoken with him on the phone (we're publishing a couple articles from him in 2010), but I've never met him in person. If it weren't for Odate, I don't think that Japanese tools would be so popular in the United States. His landmark book, "Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit, and Use," is the gold-standard in the field. His teaching and writing have influenced tens of thousands of woodworkers. And we're asking him to speak on a topic that rarely gets touched upon in the Western media: Japanese planes.

Peter Follansbee: This guy is an infectious disease. He made me fall in love with 17th-century furniture and joinery. His research, furniture and writing (check out his blog) have profoundly influenced the way I look at wood, tools and processes. He's working on a book right now about his work that I think will catapult him into the limelight. Honestly, if you don't know squat about early American furniture, you are missing out on one of the most interesting and lively styles around. Look for me in the front row of his lecture. Also, Follansbee is going to be demonstrating joinery in the Hands-on Bench Rooms. Bring your ax.

Ron Herman: Unless you live in Ohio, you probably haven't heard of Ron Herman. He's a general contractor with Antiquity Builders of Ohio and has been working by hand professionally his entire life. He has forgotten more about saws than I know. In fact he lives and breathes saws and is an evangelist for sharpening and using these tools. I don't want to say too much about him here because we're going to do an entry on him later. But let me just say that he is larger than life, unbelievably skilled and is someone you need to get to know.

Roy Underhill: I got to spend several days with Underhill last year and I can tell you this: He is the real deal. He's not some tarted-up semi-skilled hack who looks good on television. He is a man who has devoted his life to hand craft. He reads Andre Roubo in the original French. He is most likely the best woodworking teacher alive today. And he's nice enough that you'd trust him with your kids. There's a reason we call him St. Roy.

Charles Bender: A short look at Bender's portfolio will make you do one of two things: put down your chisels and take up tiddlywinks, or it will inspire you to try to achieve a small percentage of what he's built. I've never seen such a far-ranging portfolio of work. And the number of authentic pieces Bender has built is staggering. He's now starting to share what he knows in the pages of Popular Woodworking and at his school, The Acanthus Workshop. He's a tireless researcher (ask him about his book collection) and has more than book smarts – he's built just about every piece of furniture imaginable.

I'm going to cover some of the other demonstrators in the coming week, but you can get a short look at their bios on our Woodworking in America web site. If you are on the fence about this conference, let me try to give you a push. These instructors are going to both transform and transfix the attendees (us included).

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Now is the time to register. We're offering $40 off the admission price until Sept. 9. After that, the price goes to $375. Click here for details on the different pricing packages available, including single-day passes.

To celebrate International Workbench Day, I have a great photo (above) and some links to some interesting workbenches across the Atlantic.

These links and photos were sent to me by Kim-Erik Häggblom in Finland, and I spent about an hour last night at these sites browsing through the photos (no luck with the words, however. My Finnish is about as good as my baguettes these days).

The photo is from the Filton airplane company and shows a workbench that could be described as the "Chunnel" bench. It has a top as thick as a French workbench but the aprons of an English bench. Note that this is one case in which I can see the value of a tool tray. If you need to wedge your propeller in place to drawknife it, then a center tool well is probably a good place to do it.

Now let's take a look at a bench from Marttila. Click here to take a look. For those of you who like a big twin-screw vise, this is probably its ultimate iteration. The whole thing is a twin-screw. The bench sort of reminds me of Drew Langsner's chairmaking bench, which features a large twin-screw on the front and is taller than your average bench.

The base is also interesting. I've used benches with the Lee Valley cast base and like them quite a lot. Grizzly sells a bolt-together workbench base that has always intrigued me as well. These benches are in the company's warehouse and are quite sturdy. And if you are a bench traditionalist, you can stop squirming now. Other 19th-century books I have (Demming is one, I believe) show a workbench with a metal base that was highly recommended.

However, that bench is just a warm-up for the really unusual benches from Kuokkala.

If you like tail vises (I mean really like them) then the 4-oppilaan höyläpenkki is the bench for you. It features four tail vises arranged around a square benchtop. This would be great for a school that specializes in teaching planing the faces of boards. You'll have to go to another school to learn how to plane edges, however.

Don't like perfect squares? Try the Kuokkala Tec-Idea ­höyläpenkki. Two people can dovetail and plane at the same time on this six-sided bench.

There are lots of woodworking lift devices out there. I haven't seen the Lisätarvikkeet höyläpenkkeihin. It looks like a hydraulic jack lifts or lowers the top. Then you lock the legs with some friction pads. I'll bet it works (as long as those friction pads are sturdy).

I always find interesting ideas on these international sites. The so-called "Euro-bench" isn't as monolithic or generic as U.S. catalogs suggest.

— Christopher Schwarz

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For woodworkers who don't have a tail vise, wagon vise or other kind of end vise, the Veritas Wonder Dog has always been a great substitute. It drops into a round dog hole and allows you to pinch your work between the Wonder Dog and a second dog.

Now Veritas has developed a new bench-clamping device that is faster, more versatile and has a much longer throw than the venerable Wonder Dog. It's called the Veritas Surface Vise, and Lee Valley officials were showing it off at the Woodworking in America conference last week. I got to toy around with it a bit and take a few photos.

Here's how it works: The device has two posts that drop into dog holes on your benchtop. One post is cleverly split so you can lock it in place in the hole if you want (the locking mechanism works like the device on the Veritas Surface Clamp). The other post has a speed nut perched on top of it. The 19"-long shaft passes through both posts. You release the vise by slightly turning the speed nut – this makes the shaft slide freely. Turn the speed nut the other way, and it engages the threads on the shaft. With the threads engaged you can adjust the rod with the stainless steel handle at the end of the shaft.

In truth, this Veritas Surface Vise needs a video to explain it. All my words above just do not do it justice.

The jaw that clamps the work is removable (it's held in place with a rare-earth magnet) and you can screw accessory jaws to it.

The Veritas Surface Vise should be available soon and will cost $79.

— Christopher Schwarz

Last week Megan Fitzpatrick and I put the finishing touches on her new workbench, which was built using an ancient French design, 19th-century fasteners and modern materials (laminated veneer lumber).

We are pleased with the result.

The bench's base and top are made of LVL and can be knocked down in minutes thanks to its nuts-and-bolts fasteners (the leg vise and sliding board jack are maple). The overall workholding and structure of the bench is ideal for anyone who uses hand tools, power tools or both in their work – thanks to Andre Roubo's 18th-century drawings of workbenches.

Lately as I've been sketching workbenches (and I do sketch a good number of them) I've been incorporating more dramatic curves into the details. These curves are still based on traditional proportions (arcs, ogees etc.), but I've decided I like a good swoop or two on a rectilinear bench. This design is the first one of my curvy benches to see the light of wood.

The complete plans for this workbench will be featured in the November 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking magazine, which will go on sale in early October. We held a little contest for naming the bench, and Megan liked "Gluebo" the best (which was submitted by Joel Moskowitz, who is one clever monkey). And while its name won't make it on the cover of the magazine (we try not to use made-up words) it's what we call the bench when we accidentally run into it.

— Christopher Schwarz

I’ve been talking a lot about laminated veneer lumber (LVL), the raw material we used to build our latest workbench. But what I haven’t talked much about is why we chose this material and the characteristics of the workbench design itself.

The as-yet-unnamed bench is just about finished, and I am organizing my thoughts to write the article about the bench for the November 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking.

In some ways, the story here is about two benches.

We chose to build a workbench out of LVL, which sometimes is called Microlam, for several reasons:

1. It is inexpensive, heavy, stiff, stable and widely available in almost every corner of North America. And if you are willing to put in a special order, you can get it in 4" thicknesses. This would reduce or even eliminate a lot of gluing.

2. I had a lot of questions about it. How hard would it be on the tooling? Would we have to use carbide exclusively? How would hand tools react to the stuff? How easy is the stuff to saw, bore, chisel and rout? Does it warp like solid wood?

3. I get asked all the time about using manufactured materials for making workbenches. I’ve made a few using Baltic birch that came out nicely. I’m not a big fan of MDF and OSB and the way they sag. Commercial cabinet ply is, to be delicate, kinda crappy these days (see my entries on the joys of Chinese-made plywood for more). After eliminating these products, my gut said that LVL might be my best bet for a workbench made from engineered lumber.

About the Bones
So once I got the material selected, the other task was to design the base, the workbench top and the workholding. The base design is something I’ve wanted to build for a long time: A workbench that can be built using only one tooling setup on the table saw and a bunch of hex-head bolts.

In all truth, I cut all the joints and assembled the base in less than a day – it was probably six hours – and we stopped to take photos and get coffee. The base is incredibly sturdy and can be assembled in about 10 minutes with a 3/4" ratchet and box wrench. We painted the base with milk paint to cover up some of the wacky lamination lines we ended up with.

The inspiration for the top came from our local noodle bar, which has tables made using LVL. The stuff looks amazing, even to my eyes, which usually prefer a more traditional look. And the stuff is stiff. We ended up with a top that was 2-1/2" thick. Once it was assembled and bolted down I had Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick stand on top of it and jump on the middle. There was almost no flex. It’s gonna be great for handwork.

Plus, we’re really curious about how much the stuff will move in service. My research suggests it’s going to end up being pretty stable thanks to the vast quantities of glue between each little lamination.

When designing the workholding I wanted it to be a little flashy. I’ve been building a lot of stuff with a lot of straight lines this year and I wanted to break out the curves. So the sliding deadwoman, leg vise, parallel guide and end vise chop all have classic ogee shapes.

And the workholding had to pass my “kitchen test.” It does.

This certainly won’t be the last bench I’ll ever build. I have a list of four or five more types than need to be built to accommodate other kinds of woodworkers (e.g. apartment woodworkers). But this bench is a design that I think a lot of woodworkers will find useful.

— Christopher Schwarz

Trying to explain a "vise garter" to someone using only words is impossible for me. I've tried. I'm not man enough to conquer the garter.

The job of a vise garter is to lock the vise screw and the vise chop together, allowing them to move in and out in tandem. Usually you need to add a garter if you are using a wooden vise screw – metal vise screws have this function built into their casting.

You can use a vise without a garter, but it's not as convenient because you'll sometimes have to manually pull the vise chop away from the workbench after you release the screw's tension on your work.

There are two basic kinds of garters: Interior garters and exterior garters. Both work exactly the same way; the only difference between them is their location. Exterior garters are mounted on the surface of the vise chop. Interior garters are driven into a mortise in the vise chop that intersects with the hole for the vise screw.

So how do they work? Let's look at some photos. The photo below shows the ash wooden vise screw I installed in our new workbench on Monday. This screw is from BigWoodVise and is – in a word – extraordinary. It's perfectly finished and dimensionally accurate. It's worth every penny.

See the two grooves on the shaft? One is right up against the hub, and the other is a little ways down the shaft. The groove next to the hub is for exterior garters. The other groove is for interior garters. So this vise screw will work either way.

We're using an exterior garter for this leg vise (I think they're easier to install), so the first step was to plane down some hard maple so it fit easily into the garter groove. These grooves are about 3/8" wide.

Then I cut the garter stock to size – 3-3/4" x 3-3/4", ripped it in half and bored a 1-5/8" hole through the middle of the two pieces while they were clamped together.

Then I assembled the leg vise. I put the garter around the groove and dropped the screw into the vise chop. Then I screwed the garter to the vise chop. Don't use glue – you want to be able to remove the garter for repairs to the vise someday.

The photo below shows how everything locks together. You can see the 2" hole through the vise chop, the two halves of the garter and the 1-5/8" hole that is created when the garter is screwed down.

I like the diamond shape of this garter. And when we paint it black I think it will look really sweet – though it's not as nice as the garter Lucy wore on our wedding night (just in case she is reading my blog this week).

— Christopher Schwarz

When it comes to woodworking vises, I'm quite fond of the leg vise. Once you buy a vise screw (an inexpensive metal screw runs about $30. We're making this leg vise using the wooden screw from Big Wood Vise), you can build the rest of the vise yourself.

As a result you can size everything about the vise to your needs, including where the handle goes, where the parallel guide is located and how wide the chop is. Unlike quick-release vises, there are a lot fewer metal bars in the way of your work. And the holding power of a leg vise is extraordinary. You can crack walnuts with this thing.

Whenever I show visitors my leg vise, they tend to ask about the "parallel guide" near the floor. Things like: "What the heck is that for?" and "Isn't that a pain to use?"

The parallel guide has a couple important jobs. One, it keeps the chop parallel to the leg. Without a parallel guide the chop can spin and sway. Two, it acts as a pivot point for the chop.

By putting a small rod of metal through one of the holes in the parallel guide it causes the vise's chop to pivot toward the benchtop when the metal bar hits the bench's leg.

To use the parallel guide, you just slide the metal bar into the hole that most closely matches the thickness of the work you want to hold in the chop. Then close the jaw. Yes, you do have to stoop on occasion to remove the metal bar, but it's really not a big deal. Plus, with the metal bar in the hole closest to the chop I can clamp anything between 3/8" thick and 7/8" thick. That covers a good deal of my work.

The only real downside to the leg vise is that it isn't as effective for clamping casework sides for dovetailing – that's the super power of the twin-screw vise. So to clamp wide casework sides with a leg vise you need to clamp one end of the case with the leg vise and the other end with a bar clamp that reaches across your benchtop. It's a bit of a pain, but if you're not building highboys every week, it is a compromise I can live with.

— Christopher Schwarz

For me a design is never done until the finish is on the piece, I've stared at the thing for a long time and I've turned my back on it.

Up until that moment, I'll readily shift gears if need be. I'll order new hardware, rebuild a drawer or change a moulding. So this morning I found myself in SketchUp tinkering with the design of the laminated veneer lumber (LVL) workbench we're building in the shop right now.

First I tweaked the parallel guide for the leg vise. I added an ogee to one end of the guide and decided to attach the guide to the chop with a wedged through-tenon.

Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick wanted a sliding deadman on the bench, which is a great accessory for working on long edges of boards or assemblies. I have a couple common shapes that I use when I make deadmen, which some people call a "sliding board jack."

But for Megan's bench, I wanted to go with something even curvier. Not because she's a woman (honest – if that were the case, I'd be a real dead man) but because I really like to have a few bold curves in a project that has such a strong rectilinear look – I've always admired George Ellis's designs for Gustav Stickley that did this.

I saw a few bold deadmen when I looked over the old workbenches in the tool collection of John Sindelar a few years ago. So I copied some of those shapes and drew what you see here.

I'm not completely sold on the placement of the holes in the deadman. I'll have to work those out in the shop, but I'm fairly close to what I want.

So now I better hurry back into the shop and build it before I change my mind again.

— Christopher Schwarz

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It seems, well, insane that I would want to build another workbench. But it’s your fault. Really.

After my book “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use” came out in 2007, there was one significant criticism from readers that hit home. Why didn’t I discuss knockdown workbenches in any detail?

It was a valid question. So much so that I wrote a free supplementary chapter for the book about knockdown hardware and the strategies for attaching the top to the base that would allow any bench to be broken down.

We are a mobile society, and moving a workbench is a valid concern.

So when Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick wanted to build a workbench, I insisted that it be able to knock down flat, plus it had to fulfill all the high expectations I have for a good workbench. After a couple hours of design work in SketchUp, I think I’ve come up with a bench that can be built quickly and easily -- and be knocked down in about 10 minutes tops.

We’re hard at work on the bench this week, and I have to admit that it has been a cakewalk. It took us some time to laminate the top because we were interrupted by some special events and pesky magazine deadlines. However, with those behind us, things are moving quickly. The top is done. Today we assembled the entire base and started installing the hardware. I’ve never had a bench go together so quickly and easily. We probably have about 15 hours of shop time in the bench at this point.

One of the things that has made this project easy is that we are using laminated veneer lumber and a full suite of power tools.

Confession time: I have been hard at work on a hand-tool book since February 2009 and have hardly used an electric tool. It has been an enlightening journey, but I also have been itching to bust through some stock with the machinery in our shop.

For this bench, I vowed to build the sucker without picking up a plane or a chisel. And I’d kept my vow until today. We were fitting the nut block for the leg vise and it was about .003" too wide. Instead of futzing around with the table saw I dressed the block with a jointer plane.

Megan made a “tsk” noise.

By the end of the workday on Tuesday we had the base entirely bolted together (wow is it stable). But the top stretchers were still a tad too proud of the tops of the legs for my liking. So I broke down again and started planing things with one of the new Stanley No. 4 smoothing planes. I was surprised how easily the adhesive in the LVL planed up. However, we’ll see how long the iron can withstand that sort of abuse.

As Megan and I wrapped up the day we started debating what to name the bench when we publish the plans in the November 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking. Megan suggested the “Cheap & Easy Workbench.” I did not make that up. I countered with the “Franken-Roubo Bench” because of all the bolts. Megan came up with “La Petite Roubo,” to which I wondered “What, no early modern English name?”

We’re at a loss for a name for the bench. If you have one, post it in the comments before midnight Aug. 3. If we pick yours we’ll send you an autographed copy of my book on workbenches and our eternal thanks (which also fits in a No. 10 envelope).

— Christopher Schwarz

The more I work with laminated veneer lumber (LVL), the more I like it. Unlike using standard construction pine, the LVL doesn’t move around on you like solid wood.

As a result, it is easy to machine, doesn’t pinch your sawblade when ripping and keeps its shape after you machine it.

In fact, one of the planks of LVL we brought in had been sitting outside at the lumberyard and looked like it was covered in a brown substance that will go unnamed. Even this weathered plank is stable.

But when you face plane the stuff and cut through its laminations, it can be ugly… or not. Stay with me here.

I got the inspiration for using this material about five years ago when I met David Puls, a Charleston, S.C., artist and woodworker who uses the stuff to build all manner of cool furniture. He cuts it on the bias, however. When I visited his shop he had stacks of LVL he had collected from construction sites, some of it in massive sizes. I got curious.

Take a look at the cool child’s chair he made from LVL. I’d really like to feature his work (and his techniques) in an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking. It would give me an excuse to go back down to Charleston and hang out with my dad and eat here again.

In any case, for this workbench, we’re not cutting the stuff on the bias like Puls. We’re treating it more like solid wood. And when we planed down the legs and stretchers on Monday, the boards looked like they had contracted a skin plague.

We knew this was coming, so Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick set out to create some sample boards to find us a paint job that would look good. We’ve all been a little worried about how the glue lines and voids will look, and I don’t want to fill the gaps with Bondo.

Well surprise, surprise. When Megan painted the LVL with one of the two red latex paints we have on hand, the pigment didn’t stick to the black glue. And I think it looks cool (not everyone agrees with me, however). But when Megan painted the LVL with a green latex, it covered the glue completely and easily in one coat.

That’s just weird.

Megan’s going to continue investigating the cause of this and I’m going to cut the joints in the legs.

— Christopher Schwarz

I have never used the right amount of glue – well that’s the way everyone else sees it.

Whenever Publisher Steve Shanesy comes in while I’m gluing, he’s bound to make a comment that I’ve got too much glue on a surface. My reply has always been: Better too much than too little. I’ve never had any finishing problems relating to glue squeeze-out (a great benefit of handplaning your panels) and I haven’t had any joints fail.

Other glue experts would say I use too little glue. I rarely wet both surfaces of a joint (though I’m trying to change my ways on that). I prefer to apply it fairly liberally on one surface then work quickly to get the two surfaces together, especially when I’m using yellow glue.

On Friday we laminated the pieces for the legs on the new LVL workbench. The photo above shows about how much glue I use to join these two surfaces, which make up about 155 square inches on each face.

I poured out a thick bead from the bottle (no fancy glue bottles here) then used a scrap of thin wood about the size of a credit card to trowel the glue to a thin layer. Then I quickly put the two parts together and got a clamp on the lamination at the center.

In the end I looked for a bead of glue squeeze-out at the seam that looks like water beads arrayed on a spider’s web.

Actually, in the end I’m looking for joints that won’t fail. So far, so good.

In the coming days we’ll cut all the joinery for this bench using one setting on our table saw with a dado stack. Then we’ll start bolting it together.

One promising sign that this is going to be a good bench: The 2-1/2"-thick top came out quite flat, stiff and gap-free. And people in the shop are already starting to work on it.

— Christopher Schwarz

At 1:12 p.m. on Tuesday I had nothing to do, so I hustled Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick into the shop to continue work on the workbench made from laminated veneer lumber (LVL).

Of course, this is the only day in recent memory that Megan has worn a skirt, but she was a good sport about it.

First task: Disposing of the bucket of water/glue/primordial ooze before it came to life and went on a tri-state killing spree. That was my job. The semi-gelatinous blob of semi-sentient polyvinyl acetate landed in our dumpster with a sickening plop.

Then we jointed and planed the four benchtop laminations to glue them into two laminations – these will end up as the two halves of the finished benchtop. The laminations gave us no problems on the jointer, which has a cutterhead that's armed with carbide-insert tooling.

But I was worried about running them through our planer, which has high-speed steel knives. As luck would have it, the knives were already in sad shape and were begging for a fresh edge. Even so, as Senior Editor Robert W. Lang watched me go to work I suspect he went to order us a new set of disposable knives just in case the steel started flying.

At this point, these laminations seem like they were about half glue and half yellow pine, so I was expecting nasty noises from the planer. Surprisingly, the laminations went through with ease. I took lighter cuts than I would with a hardwood just to be safe, however all in all I have been surprised how easy LVL is to work with power tools.

After 36 passes through the planer, all the laminations were ready to glue up. After a fairly straightforward glue-up using 13 Jet parallel-jaw clamps per lamination, we cleaned things up then opened up the planer to get a look at the knives.

Surprisingly, the edges looked really good to my eye. I didn't see any toothing on any of the knives and they still felt sharp enough for more work.

That's a good thing because next, we'll glue up the two laminations into one top.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Last week a reader posted a nice SketchUp drawing of a Roubo workbench that you can download (for free) from Google's 3D Warehouse.

The drawing features the Benchcrafted Wagon Vise and a dovetailed end cap that holds the vise in place. I've had several readers ask me what this construction should look like. Now you can download the plan, take this bench apart and see one good solution.

The leg vise on this plan is a little shorter than the one I built – it looks more like the one Jameel Abraham from Benchcrafted built for his bench – minus the wheels than make the vise float in and out.

All in all, it's a nice drawing that features some sensible modifications – I especially like the way the author modified the sliding deadman to make the assembly more robust. I haven't had any problems with mine, but overbuilt is always better.

Check out the drawing here.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Today we glued up two chunks of what will become Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick’s workbench.

For those of you just tuning in, I haven’t broken my vow of workbench chastity. The bench design isn’t new (it’s actually quite old), but the material we’re using is. The whole thing is going to be made out of LVL – laminated veneer lumber. So this is a story about a new material. Really. And it’s Megan’s bench, not mine.

After slicing into the LVL on the table saw I learned some of the finer points of this engineered material. Because of the laminations, there really aren’t any stresses in the planks. It cuts easily, like nice plywood.

I ripped each LVL 2 x 12 into four 2-3/4"-wide strips. Then I jointed the solid-wood faces of each strip. The nice thing about LVL is that the faces are thick enough to withstand a couple passes on the jointer before you cut through the lams – it’s like thick, old-school veneer.

The bad thing about LVL is the seams. Every six feet or so there is a scarf joint where the lams overlap one another. These seams determine the direction you should run the material over the jointer. I jointed one of them in the wrong direction and was rewarded with a big splintery bite at the seam. I’ll never do that again.

The material is fairly consistent. The first plank I sliced up was dimensionally perfect in thickness and width. The second one was not. One end was a little thicker than the other (about 1/16") and the plank had a pronounced crook – but only on one edge. Crazy.

The only other bad thing I have to say about LVL is that because it’s (usually) made from Southern yellow pine, it’s pretty dang splintery. I’m in Detroit tonight for a photo shoot tomorrow and let’s just say I brought some LVL with me for the ride.

We glued up the two slabs with regular Titebond and left them in the clamps overnight. Yellow pine can have a lot of resin, which resists waterborne glues. So Titebond’s resident pointy head (Dale Zimmerman) recommends we leave it clamped for at least five hours. We’ll glue up the remainder of the top on Friday.

How will we flatten it? I’m still working on that. Megan keeps bringing up the fact that Senior Editor Glen D. Huey has a wide-belt sander that can handle a 24" top.

— Christopher Schwarz

I spent most of this weekend on my knees, and it had nothing to do with a lengthy visit to Chicago’s Hopleaf gastropub or the large cooler of Julius Echter wheat beer that a reader brought to us.

Instead, I spent most of the weekend on my knobby knees at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event in Chicago for three reasons. One: To demonstrate how to use winding sticks about a dozen times during two days. (I think some of the attendees were just trying to get a look down my shirt.) Second: To try out a new Lie-Nielsen rip panel saw on a makeshift sawbench cobbled out of a shipping crate. And third: To examine every single speck of the new Benchcrafted leg vise on Jameel Abraham’s traveling workbench.

Let’s start with the vise because lots of people bent over this weekend to see how it works. The beauty of the vise is that it is so smooth and quick. Thanks to two rubber wheels on the vise's parallel guide and a Delrin bushing, the vise glides – nay floats – in and out. It’s about as fast as a quick-release vise. And when you spin the 8" round handwheel the jaw closes tight enough on your work to immobilize it. You don’t have to crank the wheel at all.

Other details: The rubber wheels on the parallel guide run on ball bearings, and the jaw opens to 10" – more than enough.

Jameel of Benchcrafted is planning on putting it into production soon; he already has some orders from this show. He said it should cost a bit less than his wagon vise hardware, which costs $350 and is dang well worth it. Yes I ordered one. No, I haven’t yet told my wife, Lucy (Hi sweetie! Sorry!).

The vise will include everything but the wood and the pin for the parallel guide. Jameel was showing the vise on a new traveling bench, which he was sharing at the show with plane maker Ron Brese of Brese Planes.

Ron’s extremely nice and fairly priced infills (which I’ve written about for the Fine Tool Journal) were sitting out all weekend so you could give them a test drive. They were all set up and ready to go. In addition to his smoothing planes, Ron also was showing a new miter plane he’d built using ebonized walnut as the infill. The plane was doing its thing on a nice miter shooting board. I gave it a test drive and became very worried about my wallet.

Not to be outdone, the Lie-Nielsen folks were showing a bunch of new products, including their drawbore pins (which I review in the next issue of Woodworking Magazine), a new DVD on design from George Walker (more on that later this week) and the production version of the company’s tongue-and-groove plane and panel saws (both of which are now shipping).

The tongue-and-groove plane is sweet. Lie-Nielsen has really nailed the form and fixed the problems with the original Stanley. I ordered one a few weeks ago (my personal attempt to stimulate the economy) and will have a full report this week or next.

The panel saw is also nice. After getting a gander at it last weekend, I was itching to give it a test drive. The Lie-Nielsen folks had the rip-tooth version with them and it worked well. Deneb Puchalski (said Poo-hall-ski) with Lie-Nielsen said the saw I tested had not been taper-ground and it didn’t have its etch, so I’m going to hold off on the details until I get my hands on a production version.

The event was held at the shop of furniture maker and woodworking instructor Jeff Miller. While the shop is fantastic, it is exceeded by its occupant. Jeff’s work is extraordinary. He makes wood do things that wood doesn’t like to do. And his mastery of curved and compound joinery is humbling. Add to all that the fact that Jeff is low-key and as friendly as they come. I spent some time prodding him to write for us. We’ll see what happens.

After spending the weekend on my feet and knees, however, I’m ready to spend an evening on my back. Starting now.

— Christopher Schwarz

When I sat down in a restaurant's booth in early April and waited for my pan-fried noodles, I knew that I had found a new workbench material.

For the last couple years I've been researching alternative materials for building workbenches – materials that are strong, inexpensive and widely available. And for the last six months I've been pestering Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick to build a workbench using LVL – laminated veneer lumber.

You're unlikely to find LVL in a home center, but it is widely available in commercial lumberyards. Contractors use the stuff to cross long spans because it's incredibly stiff, straight and reasonably priced. And it comes in 60' lengths (if you need it that long).  

In the wild, LVL looks like a piece of dimensional stock – the stuff Megan bought today looks like yellow pine 2 x 12s. But as you get closer you can see the edges and ends are laminated. Our 1-3/4"-thick pieces had 16 plies of yellow pine, each with a dark glue layer.

The stuff is pretty cheap, too. A 1-3/4" x 11-7/8" x 24'-long piece of LVL was just $110. (You can also find the stuff in different thicknesses and widths, though it's harder to find.) But how will the stuff fare in a workshop? And will it look decent?

That last concern was Megan's objection to LVL.

Back at the noodle bar, Megan and the other magazine's staff members approached the booth. I pointed to the table.

"This is LVL," I said.

The woodworker who made the restaurant's table ripped the LVL, turned it 90° and laminated it up. They put a nice finish on it and it looked great. Megan's objection to LVL disappeared as soon as she saw the table.

Today we brought the stuff in to build an 8'-long bench for Megan. The bench's design is going to be a blend of the Roubo and the Holtzapffel benches (the Holtz-bo). It will have a leg vise in the face vise position (with a wooden bench screw from BigWoodVise.com). And it's going to have a quick-release vise in the end vise position.

I'm certain the design will work. And after today I think the material will work as well. It came into the shop fairly dry – a couple of the sections were a few points above the norm. It jointed nicely on our powered jointer with a carbide cutterhead. And it ripped beautifully and easily on the table saw.

Next up: The big question. What will the glue do to the high-speed steel knives in our planer? And how will the scarf joints in the lamination fare when they are machined?

By the way, our full investigation into this material will appear in a future article this year in Popular Woodworking.

— Christopher Schwarz

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So if your workbench lost in our "Most Pathetic Workbench" contest, is that a good thing? It's time to let the Internet decide!

We've posted all 121 photos of the entries we received for the contest on Flickr.com. No names were used, as promised. And then, while I was bored one afternoon (hey, it happens) I added snide comments about each bench.

And here's the fun part: You can add your own comments as well. All the photos are on Flickr.com, so if you have an account (they're free) you can add your two cents. Don't agree with who we chose as our prize winners? Let us know. Have something funnier to say about a bench? Put it up there.

I think the great thing about this collection of photos is that after viewing it, I will never ever complain about any of the workbenches I've ever worked on. Here's the other thing I learned: Behind every pathetic workbench is a tenacious (perhaps parsimonious) woodworker.

Start viewing the workbenches by clicking here.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Jesse's Triple-Pallet Dungeon Bench
We had several entrants that were cobbled together from a pallet. But Jesse used three pallets. Also, several staff members liked the crypt-like atmosphere. We had to do some serious Photoshop work to get a good look at the photo.

Your Favorite Neighbor's Workbench
This is just one of Kevin's benches (he has a nicer one on the wall), but this one has the best base. I want to build my next deck with this guy.

It's a Bench. It's a Boat. It's Garbage.
Kyle's bench is a bit lightweight. And that was a good thing. When Hurricane Ike hit, Kyle's shop filled with 6' of water and his bench floated through the disaster. Sadly, his bench succumbed to mold and had to be pitched.

I Guess Cardboard Was Wood at One Time
This bench (sent in by the spouse) is used for working both wood and clay. Phyllis explained that it's quite tidy because it's in their two-bedroom apartment. The boxes are both a work surface and tool storage.

The World is Your Bench
Eric works overseas (follow his blog at adventuresinwoodworking.com), and I'm always amazed at what he does with what he has. My favorite is the "balcony bench." This one probably won't shimmy.

The Highest Number of Pathetic Benches
Travis misunderstood the contest, I think. We were looking for one pathetic bench. He has six of them. The washer-dryer bench. The log-shaped bench hook. The log-shaped planing stop. The garbage-can twin assembly tables. And the thing that looks like a small mammal.

The Self-cleaning Bench
This is the grand-prize winner. What clinched it for me was the vise. Clearly, Roger is in it for the long haul with this bench and needs our help. Some of the staff questioned if this was a real bench. Perhaps it was staged. Roger said he cleaned the bench right before the photo by simply lifting the top and sliding its contents to the garbage. Congratulations Roger. Once you get your prizes, you're on the hook to build a bench.

Next week we'll post a slideshow of the rest of the entrants. Did your spouse enter your bench in our contest? You'll have to wait and see.

— Christopher Schwarz

Because of my unholy obsession with interest in workbenches, people send me photos of the beautiful benches they've built. They're like baby photos, and I keep them all.

Sometimes, these kind souls also send me photos of what they were working on before they built their dream bench. I've seen hollow-core doors on plastic sawhorses. A changing table converted to a workbench. A sorrowful stack of cinderblocks.

There have to be some even more pathetic workbenches out there, and we decided to hold a contest to find the photo of the lamest woodworking bench ever. The "winner" of our contest will receive all the resources he or she needs to design a first-class workbench, including:

1. A copy of our new "The Best of Shops & Workbenches" CD that contains plans for 10 workbenches, plus 11 of our best articles from the last 10 years on setting up shop and plans for 37 jigs and toolboxes. This CD, which arrived in our warehouse last week, is just $15 and contains our best writing on workshop issues. The CD is fully searchable and printable.

2. An autographed copy of my 2007 book "Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use." This book walks you through the design process for any workbench and helps you pick the workholding you need and discard the features you'll never use. Plus, it includes plans for two nearly vanished workbenches, including my French Roubo-style bench. It's a $30 value.

3. An autographed copy of Robert W. Lang's "Build the 21st Century Workbench" DVD. This hour-long video shows you how Lang designed and built the bench that he now uses in the shop at Woodworking Magazine. The DVD also contains a digital SketchUp model of the bench, slideshows of its construction and additional printable drawings. It's a $20 value.

Here's what you have to do to win. Take a photo of your workbench. It has to obviously be a working bench – don't try to fool us by taking pictures of a card table. E-mail it to me at chris.schwarz@fwmedia.com with the subject line "My Pathetic Workbench" before midnight on Monday, March 23, 2009.

The editors will review all the entries and pick the one that we think is the saddest, most pathetic workbench. We'll announce the "winner" in our March 25 e-mail newsletter (and here on the blog).

We'll also publish a rogues' gallery of the winner and the runners-up (don't worry, no names will be used) plus the judges' comments on your entry.

This could be just the excuse you need to get off your duff and design your dream bench. So fire up the camera and good luck!

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. That "workbench" at the top of this entry? That's Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick's bench at home. It's the kitchen table from her house as a child. Megan, however qualified, is not eligible to win this contest.

When a workbench leaves a workshop, the results can be sad.

I’ve seen perfectly good workbenches transformed into plant stands in a hallway. I’ve seen them as displays for pottery. And I’ve seen a lot of them pressed into service as kitchen islands.

This last use might not be the worst fate for a workbench. At least it still sees the occasional cutting tool, some fiberous plant materials (ginger, carrots) and perhaps even a little blood. Heck, a woodworking vise does a good job of opening jars of pickles and peanut butter.

The saddest examples are usually in retail. I’ve seen several workbenches in clothing stores holding stacks of sweaters, underwear and high-end jeans. This weekend, reader Jonathan Hartford sent me a photo of a French workbench he found at a Crabtree and Evelyn store in Massachusetts.

Its drawer is filled with fragrant soaps. Its bottom shelf holds gift boxes instead of bench planes. (Note the nice detail on the bottom stretcher.) Hartford snapped the photo above and then gave the bench a hip check.

Still solid, he reports.

Perhaps there is hope for this one to go back in the shop someday. I don’t know if you’ll ever get that flowery smell out, however.

— Christopher Schwarz

So I've stared at the image above enough to go cross-eyed. And I'm out of ideas.

Earlier this week, Mike Wenzloff asked me if I knew what these round-looking things were beneath nearly all the benches shown in the La Forge Royale woodworking catalog from the early 20th century.

They show up on all the large benches in this French catalog. The things are drawn to suggest that they are round. And they extend quite a ways below the benchtop. All of them appear to pierce the stretchers below the benchtop.

Wenzloff wondered if they were perhaps a wooden screw that would secure the benchtop to the base. That's the best explanation I could come up with, too. But I wanted to tap the collective wisdom and weirdness of the Internet.

Got any ideas? Post them in the comments below.

To make things easier for you, I've uploaded a high-resolution scan of this particular bench that you can download by clicking on the link below.

LaForgeBench222-223.jpg (1.43 MB)

— Christopher Schwarz

One of the few other people on this earth who understand my sickness affection for workbenches is Rob Giovannetti.

I met Rob at a Gallotapalooza event outside Chicago several years ago, and we've stayed in contact via e-mail. Rob – and I say this in the most affectionate manner possible – has a workbench problem.

He's built eight workbenches (all different styles) and taught two classes about it. You might remember is Rob-O workbench from 2006 that I featured here on the blog.

Rob is about to embark on another bench-building adventure real soon. His next bench I have named the "Manufactured Wood Smurf Bench." Long story. It's going to be cool when it's done, I'm sure.

In the meantime, Rob sent me the following list of the top 10 things he's learned about workbenches. It's an interesting list.

— Christopher Schwarz

1. Benches don't need to made of hardwood. I've made several benches from hard maple, but the ones I've made from Borg Douglas fir worked just as well and were usually easier to make.

2. I have a love/hate relationship with tail vises. I've tried every vise you could think of as an end vise, including none, and I keep coming back to the tail vise. I can't fully explain why this is, but it just is.

3. The shoulder vise is the easiest face vise to use, but the most time consuming and complicated to build. Go figure. If you like to dovetail and hand cut your tenons, I recommend this as the vise of choice. A close second would be a twin-screw.

4. Square dogs aren't worth the effort. This may sound like laziness, but aside from a sense of "tradition," there is no reason for me to have square dogs. Round holes are quicker and easier to make, and they hold just as well. Plus, the 3/4" holes can be used for a wide variety of other purposes.

5. If one row of dogs is good, one is even better. In other words, I've not encountered a single situation where multiple rows of dogs was a benefit; and I have a bench with four rows of 'em.

6. Tool trays are for people who are clutter-aholics. I am one of them. Even with my tools hanging above my bench, I'm much more likely to throw a tool in the tray than put it back where it belongs. I've found more organized people don't use them.

7. A good bench NEEDS a board jack. Whether the base is flush with the front edge of the top or not, a sliding deadman is a must-have accessory.

8. The only reasons I can figure for having endcaps on a bench are either 1) they support a tool tray at the rear of the bench, or 2) they support a vise of some kind on one, or both, ends of the bench. I don't believe an endcap has the rigidity to keep a top from cupping.

9. If I had a dedicated gluing/assembly table, my bench would have no finish on it at all. Even with dogs, wood on wood is the best grip you can get. Even one coat of oil can make a benchtop overly slippery.

10. None of these things apply if you can make masterwork furniture on a sheet of plywood on sawhorses. Some of the best work I've seen has come from the simplest of assembly tables; but if you do a lot of hand tool work, I think the aforementioned points will help make building furniture much easier.

Please note I didn't mention plywood as a bench material. Truth be told, I don't know much about building benches from man-made materials. I do, however, have an idea of building a top from 3" wide ripped Baltic birch and face gluing them together to form a core. Laminate with hardwood veneer or hardboard on the top and bottom, and add equal thickness solid wood skirting around the edges, I think it would be quite suitable for pounding on without much flex.

— Rob Giovannetti

I always encourage people to make their workbenches longer. But in the case of David Brookshaw, I'm just dead wrong on that point.

Brookshaw of Gloucester, England, makes 1/12-scale miniatures of tools and workshop equipment. Have you ever seen the book "Tools Rare and Ingenious" (Taunton Press)? Those are his tools on the dust jacket.

Right now, Brookshaw is building a fully equipped Gentleman's Victorian Workshop, which will be on display at The Kensington Dollshouse Festival on May 15 to 17. He sent us some of the photos of the pieces he's building, and they are extraordinary.

For starters, he built a scale model of the Roubo-style workbench we have in our shop. Brookshaw's version is 6" long and is made from boxwood, which takes fine detail. The vise screw, which features a 1/8"-diameter shaft, is fully functional.

Even the holdfasts work. Brookshaw says a hammer blow will shatter them, but thumb pressure alone makes them work.

You can visit Brookshaw's web site at davidbrookshaw.com to see more photos of his work, including a complete tool chest, a 17th-century Italian brace and two recreations of famous handplanes.

Brookshaw promised to send more photos of his progress in building the shop as it progresses.

— Christopher Schwarz

Brookshaw's fully functional drill press.

Alert reader Bengt Nilsson of Stockholm, Sweden, sent in this great photo of a joiner's bench that was recovered from the Vasa – a Swedish battleship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628.

Nilsson took the photo while touring the Vasa Museum with an American exchange student. He estimates that the bench is about 24" high, 16" deep and 8' long.

It has some interesting features. Check out the location of the crochet and the holes below the open part of the hook. Those holes appear to line up with the holes in the sliding deadman. This set-up makes it easy to rig up a long board to plane its edge.

Also interesting: The angled legs at the rear of the bench. This feature is common on English benches and some French and Canadian benches I've seen. One possible explanation for its appearance here might be that it helped the bench nest against the hull. You often see that explanation for the shape of sea chests.

However, the more likely explanation is that it is for stability. At only 16" wide, the angled legs would help the bench's stability when working across the grain of your work. Also curious: The lack of a rear stretcher.

If you'd like to explore this photo even more, download the high-resolution version below (be sure to check out the planes and other tools in the display case above the bench).

Vasa_Bench_Large.jpg (517.45 KB)

— Christopher Schwarz

When I was researching historic workbenches, I tried like crazy to get my hands on a style of bench vise that (to my knowledge) isn't made in this country anymore.

Featured prominently in the French "La Forge Royale" catalog from the early 20th century, the "Ideale Vise" is a quick-release metal vise that has some interesting characteristics.

First, it doesn't appear to have any screw-thread mechanism – at least from the illustration. And from accounts that I dug up, it appears that you turn the handle one way to release pressure and then turn it the other way to apply pressure.

I've only seen one example of this vise (which might tell me something), and it was disassembled at the time. So I haven't ever been able to give one a try. If anyone out there has used one, I'd like to hear about it. How does it function? Does it apply sufficient pressure? Is it fussy to maintain?

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. A quick comment for those having trouble posting comments. The frustrating blog software we use here has a timer. If you take too long (more than about five minutes) then you get timed out. Whenever you post a comment, enter the captcha code, press submit. When the blog refreshes, scroll down. If you timed out, the blog will ask you for the Captcha code again. Sorry for the trouble….

Sometimes the best innovations are so simple it's a wonder that they aren't everywhere. This week, Mike Siemsen of Chisago City, Minn., sent me an e-mail about his new workbench that opened my head like a can opener.

Siemsen, who runs Mike Siemsen's School of Woodworking, recently completed building a very close copy of Peter Nicholson's workbench featured in the early 19th-century classic: "The Mechanic's Companion, Or, The Elements and Practice of Carpentry," which you can download for free from Google.

Siemsen developed the workbench with the input of period woodworker Dean Jansa. (Remember this marking gauge he built for Popular Woodworking? Let's all encourage Dean to write more.) The bench developed by Siemsen and Jansa looks a lot like Nicholson's – with one small upgrade that is amazingly useful.

The bench has a small gap between its two top boards. Look through the gap and you can see the transverse bearers that support the top. This gap allows you to do some really cool things with your planes and saws. By dropping a batten into the gap and onto the transverse bearers you can plane across the grain of a board (called traversing). Wedge the board against the planing stop plus a batten in the gap and you can work diagonally. You also can use the batten as a bench hook for sawing. And you can use the gap to store tools.

Is there precedence for this? Yes. George Ellis's Planing Board (which I describe here) uses wedges in the same manner. And a Nicholson-style workbench shown in Audel's "Carpenters Guide" shows a bench with a loose top. You could easily see how the gap could have been exploited….

In any case, it works. Check it out here and on his blog.

— Christopher Schwarz

Here you can see how you can use a batten in the gap to work across the grain.

Here the batten is used with the planing stop to work in a more diagonal fashion.

Here it's a bench hook for sawing.

And here the gap is used for tool storage. Next week we'll show how it makes julienne fries.

These last couple weeks I’ve gotten to break in my new Benchcrafted wagon vise while building a dry sink for the next issue of Woodworking Magazine.

The dry sink is enormous (it looked so small on paper). And every surface has passed under a handplane. The wide stock was prepped entirely by hand. The narrower stuff I processed first with a powered jointer and planer – and then handplanes.

I’ve been planing narrow and wide stock on edge, and the faces of wide panels. I’ve been planing with the grain, diagonally and across the grain with a fore plane, jointer plane and smoothing plane. I’ve been planing joinery with a plow plane and a fillister plane. And I’ve been planing mouldings with hollows and rounds and a beading plane.

As a result, I’ve been planing what seems like acres of pine. I’ve filled up the garbage can at the end of my bench twice with shavings.

So I feel confident in saying that the Benchcrafted vise has gotten a good workout with a lot of the tools you’ll find in a shop that blends both power and hand tools. And with each workholding challenge I presented to the Benchcrafted, it swatted them all down with ease.

The vise’s sliding block moves quickly along its threads, so you’re not spinning the wheel endlessly. And you can engage it with both subtlety and enormous force. The vise holds its position when you clamp a panel and want to plane across the grain but don’t want to bow the work – a delicate balancing act that would cause my old hillbilly wagon vise to slip.

And when I wanted to use the vise to really clamp something hard – such as a drawer side – it made the workpiece feel like it was physically attached to the benchtop. Totally solid. It also was robust enough to disassemble joints when used like a spreader clamp (this operation would pull my old vise apart).

So I’m sure you’re thinking: “Great, but is it worth $350?”

For me, absolutely. I spent about $250 to build my bench out of yellow pine, and so the $350 Benchcrafted vise means I still have a bench that works better than any other I’ve worked on in my life for less than half of the scratch I would pay for a high-quality commercial workbench.

Is it better than a traditional tail vise? So far, I think it is. We’ll see if the Benchcrafted sags in use like a tail vise does – only time will tell that. But what I like about the Benchcrafted vise compared to a tail vise is that I don’t have the large “no work” zone you get with a tail vise. You cannot pound or lean on a tail vise or it will quickly sag.

How does it compare to adding a quick-release vise with a big wooden chop? I think it’s a draw. I like having the full support of the Benchcrafted wagon vise, but I also really like the quick-release function of a steel vise. If you don’t have the money for a Benchcrafted vise, a quick-release vise in the end vise position of your workbench is the next best thing.

Some will balk at the price. Fine. This vise isn’t for you. Me? I’m sick of the low-quality vise hardware that has passed through our shop during the last decade. It used to be easy to buy fantastic vises from England and America. But now you are rolling the dice when buying new vises. I’ve seen decent new vises from the emerging economies, but I’ve also seen some stuff that went right back into the box and back to the seller. Junk.

There are no regrets with the Benchcrafted. It is impeccably made, overbuilt like something from the USSR’s space program and flawless in use.

And that’s good enough for me.

— Christopher Schwarz

I really need to start keeping a list of all the things I use my sawbenches for. Sure, I saw stuff on them. And I stand on them while go-go dancing in the shop to amuse visitors. Those things are obvious. What's not so obvious is how often they get me out of weird jams with my handplanes.

On Monday as I was planing down the face frame of this dry sink, the sawbench was the obvious choice to lend a hand. I wedged it between my bench and the dry sink, and voila. The job was done.

I also plane down table aprons in the same fashion with a sawbench (this particular sawbench was made by craftsman John Wilson; all mine seem to end up in the shops of friends). Frequently, I'll assemble cabinets or glue up panels on them as well.

If you've come up with other good uses for the shop appliance, post them here. Your suggestion might convince another woodworker that they should build a pair.

— Christopher Schwarz

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks has just released a DVD that is based on the theories, research and building that I did for the book "Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use." The DVD – titled "The Workbench" – shows how I use (and adapt) three different workbenches to work on the faces, edges and ends of boards.

Shot during a week in Maine, this DVD demonstrates how to accomplish basic (and some advanced) workholding with a traditional European-style workbench, a David Charlesworth-style workbench and my own Holtzapffel-style workbench.

I also show how to use basic appliances, such as a bench slave, shooting board and a wide planing stop, to extend the capabilities of your existing workbench.

And if you are in the throes of designing or purchasing your workbench, this DVD points out the important design details to consider, including the size of the bench, its workholding and the structure of its top and undercarriage.

This DVD is (I hope) a distillation of my 144-page book on the topic. I think you'll find the DVD especially useful if you haven't read the book or would like to see its principles put into action on a variety of workbenches.

In addition to the 40 minutes of video, the DVD contains a glossary of workbench terms and articles you can print out on shooting boards, holdfasts and bench hooks.

As usual, all of my DVD proceeds are donated to charity. My proceeds from this $25 DVD will benefit the endowment fund of the Early American Industries Association, a very hand-tool friendly non-profit organization.

The DVD is now in stock and can be ordered directly from Lie-Nielsen.

— Christopher Schwarz

When I first built my Roubo-style workbench, I wanted to see if I could work without an end vise. So for the first year or so I used my planing stop, holdfasts, battens and geometry to steady my work as I planed it.

But I got tired of the whack-whack, shuffle-shuffle necessary whenever I needed to plane across the grain of panels (called traversing) or plane diagonally on any size board.

So I started futzing around with wagon vises, which I first spotted in an early 20th-century French tool catalog. My first attempt was rather "agricultural" – let's call it the "Early Cletus Period." I built one using a veneer press screw, some wooden runners, chewing gum and a fancy French-style escutcheon plate.

I soon left the Cletacious period and designed an evolved wagon vise that used a bigger acme vise screw, which is on the English-style workbench in my book on workbenches.

But today I am walking fully upright, leaving my sloping forehead ways behind me. My Roubo workbench is now outfitted with the ultimate wagon vise by Benchcrafted.

In the interest of full disclosure, I paid full price for this vise and spent my own money – Le Roubo is my workbench. (The prospect of my company moving all my stuff out of the office is probably one of the reasons I've never been downsized. It would take weeks.)

The Benchcrafted is a nice piece of work. After installing dozens of poorly made vises (and a few good ones), I was impressed to see how well cast and machined every component was as I took it out of its box.

The vise's installation instructions are thorough, well-illustrated and to-the-point. Benchcrafted also includes full-size templates that make laying out all your cuts and holes a snap.

For me, installing the Benchcrafted was a retrofit. So it was a little more involved than if you were installing this vise on a new bench under construction. The vise requires a cavernous cavity on the underside of your benchtop to house all its finely machined guts. So I spent some serious time hogging out waste with a router and a mortise chisel.

Then you need a beefy end cap on your bench to hold the vise screw. My cap is about 3" thick and is lag-bolted to the benchtop. A new bench could easily incorporate dovetails into the design or some sort of breadboard construction.

With the cavity and end cap complete, the rest of the job was precision boring and fitting. Use a drill press to install the vise screw. The templates and the hardware are made to tolerances that are too tight to hit with a brace and bit.

And use a router to install the runners. The runners guide the sliding dog. If the runners are out of line, the vise will bind up. Precision is paramount.

Then it's just a matter of fitting the sliding wooden dog and lining the interior faces of the jaws with leather (I used some scraps I found at Michael's craft store and yellow glue).

How does it work? Like a dream. The dog moves quickly and smoothly back and forth. And the wheel on the end doesn't interfere with the soles of my planes (like on the Cletacious vise). It is, without a doubt, completely worth the $350.

And though my co-workers laugh when I say it, I think this is the last end vise for the Roubo.

— Christopher Schwarz

This week my pesky highly rewarding day job has been interfering with the installation of my new Benchcrafted wagon vise. Our February 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking is riddled with typos (or it is written in Pig Latin). So Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick and I have been cleaning up our poor verbiage this week while the real work has sat dormant in the shop.

Here’s a quick update: On Monday I did nothing in the shop. On Tuesday I got my Ashley Iles 1/2" mortising chisel off the rack and hacked out the rest of the cavity on the underside. This was the biggest “mortise” I’ve ever chopped: 3" deep, 4" wide and 4" long. Then I used a jigsaw to remove the rest of the waste topside, which lengthened the slot for the vise’s sliding dog block.

Finally, I took my chisel plane (Yea! Another use for the chisel plane!) and trued up the slot. The chisel plane worked brilliantly. I pressed its sole against the existing slot and it trimmed the newly cut areas flush.

Today I worked on the bench’s new end cap. This was boring. A lot of boring. About 12 holes that all had to be spot-on to accommodate the Benchcrafted vise, plus the four enormous lag bolts that attach the end cap. Luckily, it was a snap.

Right as I was about to leave work today, I installed the vise screw and bolted it to the end cap. Then I turned the bench over to start the installation of the last metal bits. I couldn’t help it. I gave the wagon wheel a spin. Whizzzz. The vise moved like a water moccasin through the bog.

I belted out an uncharacteristic “Yee-haw” and headed home.

— Christopher Schwarz

This weekend I'm installing the Benchcrafted.com wagon vise hardware on my Roubo-style workbench. But before I could pull my old prototype wagon vise hardware off the bench, I had one more task for it to perform: Making the new end cap for the new wagon vise.

The new end cap on my benchtop has to be beefier than my original end cap, so I had to glue up some 8/4 maple into a slab about 3" thick. I planed it all flat using my old wagon vise, glued up the slab and then decommissioned the vise.

The new Benchcrafted wagon vise requires you to cut a curved cavity on the underside of the bench to accommodate the vise's guts. I hogged out most of the waste with a plunge router and a long straight bit. Then I cut off some of the excess waste with my tenon saw and shaped the cavity's curve with an outcannel gouge used bevel-down.

Of course, the new vise's guide rails are going to have to go right where I have a big void in one board thanks to a waney edge. I'm going to have to cut out the wane and patch it with some solid yellow pine for two reasons: One, it will make for a neater job all-in-all. And two, after seeing dozens of people climb underneath my bench at the Woodworking in America conference, I now know that there is no such thing as a secondary surface on this bench.

— Christopher Schwarz

Barring some tryptophan- or ale-induced trypanosomiasis, I'm going to start modifying my Roubo workbench this weekend to add some new vise hardware.

I'm replacing the metal leg-vise screw with a beautiful wooden-vise screw from Joe Comunale at BigWoodVise.com. And I'm replacing my hillbilly-style wagon vise with the stunningly machined wagon vise hardware from Jameel Abraham at Benchcrafted.com.

Both of these gentlemen are putting their hardware on sale temporarily. So if you're on the fence, get off. The Benchcrafted.com sale is for one day only: Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. The terms of the sale will be announced that day. So check the site that day for details.

I paid full retail for the Benchcrafted hardware, and I'd do it again. The stuff is beautiful. Even my co-workers (who had no idea what it was for) oohed and ahhed when I pulled it out of the box like some prize-winning poultry.

The sale at BigWoodVise.com runs until Dec. 31, 2008 (so you can conceal these charges on two credit card statements).

The vise screw for the Roubo leg vise is on sale for $130 (and that price includes shipping). The regular price is $165. That's a good deal.

— Christopher Schwarz

My puny 8'-long English workbench is starting to feel like an apartment-sized dinette set. Why? Check out this 12'-long version of that same bench design that boatbuilder Bob Easton constructed using Douglas fir.

Easton's design is interesting because he incorporated a third leg into the middle section of the bench because he was concerned that the whole thing might flex under heavy planing. He built the third leg just a little short to ensure that the whole thing wouldn't become a teeter-totter.

After using the bench, Bob reports that the third leg probably isn't necessary. The bench doesn't seem to flex at all in the middle. However, it looks cool and is good insurance in case Bob ever decided to rebuild a V-8 engine on there.

The other interesting alteration from the original plan published in my "Workbenches" book is that Bob used a traditional face vise in the end vise position. I built a wagon vise there on my version of the bench. I'm Chris Schwarz and I approve of this alteration.

Using a vise like this in the end-vise position saves you lots of construction time. The wagon vise took as long for me to build as the rest of the English workbench (no lie).

Bob has been blogging about his bench and you can follow his progress using this link. Or you can skip to the final and glorious result here.

— Christopher Schwarz


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Ever since we published plans for the Holtzapffel Cabinetmaker's Workbench in Issue 8 of Woodworking Magazine, readers have requested information on how to build the bench so it could be easily knocked down and moved.

The version I built and published plans for in Issue 8 used old-world bench-building principles where the legs were tenoned into the top and the base parts were permanently drawbored. But when Kelly Mehler and I taught a class in constructing the bench last month, we decided to modify the plans to make the whole thing break down for easy transport. The students hailed from all over the country (Missouri, Alaska, Michigan), and so a portable version was necessary.

By the way, if you missed my daily blog posts about this class, you can find them over at the Popular Woodworking editor's blog by clicking below.

Day 1: Sticks
Day 2: Glue
Day 3: Grit
Day 4: Gruntwork
Day 5: Grease
Day 6: Guessing
Day 7: Gone


This weekend my blisters from the class began to fade, and so I cleaned up the construction drawing and cutting list a bit – you can download them for free below.

Here's how the knockdown construction works in a nutshell: The workbench's base is made up of two end assemblies, which are permanently glued and drawbored, plus two long stretchers.

Compared to the original design, the only changes to the end assemblies are that the legs don't have tenons on the top and you need to add a 3"-wide top stretcher to each end assembly. These top stretchers will help you attach the base to the benchtop.

The base's long stretchers are significantly different. The long stretchers have short tenons and are attached to the end assemblies with 1/2" x 8"-long hex-head cap screws, washers and nuts. All in all, the base's joinery works a lot like a traditional bed.

The assembled joint that shows the cap screws in place and the plywood template.

The disassembled joint that shows the short tenon on the long stretcher.

To install the cap screws, drill 5/8"-diameter holes through the legs. Then rout out slots for the nuts and washers in the long stretchers using a plywood pattern, a 1/2" spiral bit and a guide bushing (see the photo for what this looks like). With the slots routed, install the cap screws, washers and nuts. Snug everything up with a socket set and box wrench.

With the base assembled, attach the workbench's top to the base with 3/8" x 5"-long lag screws through the top stretchers in the end assemblies. We used four lag screws per bench. The screws at the front of the bench were in 3/8"-diameter holes. The screws at the rear of the bench were in 1/2"-diameter holes, which allows for wood movement.

Everything else about this bench is identical to the plans found in Issue 8.

Holtzapffel_KD_Bench.pdf (52.91 KB)

— Christopher Schwarz

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks continues to turn back the clock (a good thing in the world of hand-tool woodworking). The Warren, Maine, manufacturer plans to offer a version of the 18th-century French-style workbench made popular in Andre Roubo's "L'Art du Menuisier."

The company has just completed work on its first Roubo bench (shown above) for a customer. The bench is quite similar to the version I built for Woodworking Magazine, with a few exceptions. The two ends of the base are a bit different – there's extra stretchers in there to attach the top, plus cross-bolts that allow the bench to be knocked down. Also, there is a twin-screw vise in the end-vise position at the request of the customer.

All the important functional details are spot-on. There's a wooden planing stop mortised into the top. There's a crochet and a leg vise – you don't have to have both bench accessories to plane things on edge, but they are both convenient and useful. Also, Lie-Nielsen has added a sliding deadman. This is an accessory not shown in Roubo, but is very handy for securing wide panels and doors.

The bench is maple, and Thomas Lie-Nielsen reports that it weighs 400 pounds. The top is 4" thick, 24" wide and 8' long. When the bench is put into regular production, the legs will be 4" x 4".

The bench will be more expensive than the two styles now offered by Lie-Nielsen, a European bench starting at $2,000, and a David Charlesworth-style bench for $1,500. Thomas says that building the Roubo involves additional labor and material.

If you're interested in ordering one, you'll need to wait a bit. The company has temporarily suspended taking orders for benches until it can reduce the waiting list, which Thomas says is now at about nine months.

But if you've seen these benches at shows or in other shops, you know that the quality justifies the wait.

— Christopher Schwarz

I always liked the look of my yellow pine Roubo-style workbench. That is, until last week.

That's when I got a look at Jameel Abraham's version of a Roubo workbench in ash, which puts most workbenches that I've seen to shame. Honestly, it should come as no surprise that Jameel would go over the top. He's a luthier and builds stunning ouds. What's an oud? It's a proto-lute. Check this link.

So anyway, back to the bench. Jameel took the basic Roubo form and added a sliding leg vise, something Roubo also did in a later volume. He called that form a German bench. Then Jameel added a wagon vise using custom machined hardware that is similar to David Powell's tail vise shown in "The Workbench Book."

Jameel documented the construction of his bench with photos, text, drawings and even some movies on his blog. All in all, it's a great read and a great resource for anyone seeking to build a fine bench.

Here are links to the blog listings in the correct time order for your convenience:

• Introduction
• Rails and leg mortises
• Leg details and vises
• Vise chops
• Leg vise action
• Tail vise details
• Leg vise rollers
• Leg vise breakthrough
• Building the top
• Tail vise construction
• Attaching the top, leg vises
• Fin

Congratulations to Jameel on this impressive bench. We should all aspire to do such excellent work.

— Christopher Schwarz

Anyone who builds furniture while in a wheelchair is up against serious challenges. Not only are the machines and workbenches too high off the floor, getting the wheelchair close enough to the workbench to actually work is a serious problem.

All the workbenches I built for "Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use," are unsuitable for the wheelchair user. The bench's bases won't let a wheelchair user get anywhere near the working surface.

Several wheelchair users have approached me about designing a bench for wheelchair users, but I wasn't sure where to begin. Sjoberg makes this version that is adjustable in height, which is very similar to Jeff Noden's Adjust-a-bench – at least in basic form.

Reader Larry Arnold, a wheelchair user, designed and built this workbench, which is quite stout, passes my kitchen door test and is handsome to boot. Here are some of the statistics:

The base is made using ¼" steel tubing. The legs are 3" square; the other steel rails are 2" x 3". The base weighs 106 lbs.

The top is 2-1/4" thick, 24" wide and 66" long. The top is 29" off the floor and made from Douglas fir. Both the vises are Lee Valley face vises, which Arnold said he chose because they have a low profile under the bench, allowing him clearance to roll under there.

He also has a deadman he bolts to the top, which will allow him to clamp long boards, doors and the like.

"I built it all myself with no help, except for the top which I took to a cabinet shop to run through their wide belt sander," he says. "I have full access under the bench with no restrictions except for the vertical legs. It's going to be so much better than what I have been using, wish I would have built one sooner. I know it's not what you would build for yourself,  but for me in my situation I can't think of much I could add to make it work better for me."

And here's the best news about the bench: Arnold is going to put it into service to build two Shaker-style tables from Issue 2.

Congratulations to Arnold on his new bench.

— Christopher Schwarz