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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
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Nice list Rob. I agree with every rule but rule 2 — if rule 2 excludes wagon vises. If rule 2 includes wagon vises, well, you’re ten for ten. I love the clamping ability of the wagon vise and I hate the sagging and lack of support from a tail vise. There, I said it. 😉
I love shoulder vises but I have a small shop and kept hitting my hip on my last one. So, I built a removable shoulder vise that attaches to my bench via the slot for my wagon vise. I should take a picture of it some time.
Not to be different but a Soviet Admiral once said " Better is the enemy of good enough." My bench is similar to the one Chris made and hauled up to LN for a seminar a couple of years ago, except the top is a sandwich of 3/4 MDF around a 3/4 plywood core with steel legs that have a 1-1/2 in oak facing with numerous 3/4" dog holes. The dog holes in the top are centered on the tail vise with an additional set of dog holes every 18 inches for 2/3 of the bench. It is heavy enough that I call my neighbor and his son to help me move it. It was relatively low cost and very functional for a person like me with a fetish for hand tools.
Hey, Rob.
Okay, I’ll bite. I admit, I have only ever made two benches, but I’ve used my Fortune/Nelson plenty at this point, and I do lots of hand work, so here’s my two cents.
“1. Benches don’t need to made of hardwood.”
I think pine benches would be fine in most ways, but I also think that hardwood has it’s advantages in certain respects. The dog holes are more robust. Also, I’d rather have my tail vise hardware screwed into hard maple than douglas fir as I think it would hold up better.
“2. I have a love/hate relationship with tail vises.”
I love my tail vise. I’m a bit at a loss as to what specifically people hate about them. They can be daunting to build and install, but other that …. are people really upset that they might need a shim now and then after years of use? Other tools need recalibrating, so why resent it in a vise?I’ve tried every vise you could think of as an end vise, including none, and I keep coming back to the tail vise.
“3. The shoulder vise is the easiest face vise to use, but the most time consuming and complicated to build.”
I love my Record 52 ½, does that count as a shoulder vise? Cause it was no big deal to install.
“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.”
It depends on the sort of work you do. Square dogs will not pivot. Sometimes this is a disadvantage and other times an advantage – such as when you are using a panel raising plane or some other molder that is taking a hefty bite and doing so in a way that a panel is undergoing a force that make it spin on the bench is no dogs were in use.
I have some round holes too, for the hold downs.
“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.”
I think two rows are sufficient, and often find instances when planing large panels (e.g., deep cabinet sides or table tops, where having a third point is very valuable. Also, with two, you can set up a planing stop just by dropping a board on the bench.
“6. Tool trays are for people who are clutter-aholics.”
My bench gets cluttered and shaving-ed up no end, even without a tray. The big downside of tray, if you asked me, is that it takes away valuable top space.
Agree about the need for support, like a deadman. I agree about endcaps, though they are pretty. I’ve never had any slipping problem using BLO on my Maple bench, and as you say, it keeps the stray glue from sticking.
Thanks for the fun list.
Village Carpenter, having seen your blog, i can assure you that you don’t need any plan to make the workbench in the photo.
Belive me: you are a good woodworker, you know processes and you have the rigth tools to make this job without any other help.
Anyway here there are some ideas from which you can take inspiration.
Have a good work.
Hi Rob, I built a small 6′ robo style almost 10 years ago, but without the dead man. I use scrap baltic veneer birch plywood from a printing/paper company. I cut 3 1/2" strips of plywood and glue them into pairs, then glued those pairs together, and so on. I use whatever scrap I had around cherry for "END CAPS" (it looked better than exposed plywood), oak for the tail vise, spalted maple for the super structure. The only draw back that I have found is that the veneered plywood is actuaually seperating in spots. I know it is not the areas I have glued, you can see the lines. All in all the bench is heavy and has worked quite well.Hope this helps.
Al Spitzer
Manchester,NH
I was thinking about the laminated plywood idea the other day, after ripping a bunch of maple ply to make some stable 2×4-ish like material.
The conclusion I came to is that it does sound like it would be interesting, but one of my regular work habits is to just screw jigs and fixtures to the bench top when I need to, and I’d be too afraid of splitting the plies, and either ripping up the hardboard, or not getting the screw-down holding power.
Looking forward to the smurf bench.
A shoulder vise, yuck! After working on a bench with one for 20+ years and living with how much it sagged, no thank you! I much prefer the simple end vise and face vise on the Holtzapffel bench I finished last month. I am in bench heaven now! Thank you Chris.
Chris, the photo in this post is the exact bench I would like to build: shoulder vise, tail vise, sliding deadman. Are there plans for it on the internet somewhere?
Bench building is sort of like choosing a mate for marriage.
There are some guidelines, but in the end, it is very personal.
Also, a lot of people who rush in aren’t too happy later with their choice. It is worth taking some time to think over.
Not so much rules as guidelines really!
Follow the code if you will.
Mike
Well Chris you certainly threw down the gauntlet. If this one doesn’t generate at least a couple of dozen response I’ll be really surprised. Strangely enough I’m mostly in agreement with Ron excepting numbers 2 and 5. I built my new bench with no form of either tail vise or wagon vise and frankly don’t see the need for it. If I really want to secure a long narrow workpiece flat on the bench I’ll just use my bench stop and a Wonder Dog. This eliminates any weak corner caused by the tail vise or an open hole in the bench like with a wagon vise.
For #5, I regularly use two rows of dog holes and would not be without them. My bench stop, a la Sam Allen is designed to fit into two dog holes parallel with each other and it extends the full 24" width of the bench. There are other reasons too, but you get the flavor.
All right folks, who is the next batter?
Best regards,
Dave Anderson
Chester, NH