Workbench by Alan Turner

A few months ago Alan said he was looking for someone to help him build two workbenches. I jumped at the chance.

We built the benches our of birch with olivewood tail vises. The dividers are East Indian Rosewood; the stretchers are a generic South American wood sometimes called Bloodwood. The bottoms of the tool trays are Baltic Birch ply, 12mm.

The pictures are of my bench which is a little over six feet long. Alan's bench is similar but about a foot longer. The tail vise hardware is from Atlas in Canada. Same people named in the Landis Workbench book. The shoulder vise is a Record. The legs are Tom Noden's Adjust-A-Bench. Rock solid and very handy.

My "work" was mostly helping with the heavy lifting. Alan did the woodworking - beautifully as usual.

I learned a lot along the way. Working with Alan as great. I know he hopes to open a WW school in the near future and offer a workbench-making class. If you need a bench, or just want a terrific experience, jump on it.

I'd be happy to answer any questions if I can.
Ron - who now has to bring his ww skills up to the level of his bench.

Ron,
Thanks for the pictures. I've got to say that olive wood is one of my absolute favorites - very fascinating stuff. Those pieces for the vises are extraordinary.

Ron,

That is a great looking bench. You guys did a wonderful job!

That's a beautiful bench, Ron. And yes, Alan does extraordinary work...you couldn't have asked for a better way to observe and learn than to work alongside of him.

That is a great bench....Alan is a great crafstman and it looks as the two of you worked well together....This general style is my favorite... The traditional Tage Frid bench dosen't offer enough surface area for larger work.

Ron was a student of mine in my evening class on handtools and furniture joinery with handtools. The planks that these two benchs came from were liftable by one guy, but not easy to handle, esp. in my smallish shop. After the glue up, they were not liftable by one guy.
Ron was a huge help, and a pleasure to work with. The benches came out well, and we will both use them to good advantage.
Mine is already in the new shop, and is "teacher's bench." In general, the new shop is not yet ready to drive in public as it needs a roof before I can get serious about the teaching studio. Bids are starting to come in. Maybe by this Fall, or slightly after, I will have a post on its opening.

Terrific Job guys..........

Alan, I wish I were closer -- I"d enroll in a minute!!

Tell me more about the back 2/3 of the surface....Is it "thinner" that the massive front side that house the dogholes.... and banded with thicker stock?

Beautiful work Ron. I've never seen olive wood used like that. Is it a hard, dense wood?

Very nice! That olive wood is just gorgeous!!! When I get to building my hardwood benchtop, I hope to work in some nice accents. Now I may have to track down some olive wood. :p

Erin

Roy,
The entire benchtop finished at 2 3/4" thick. I do not care for the thicker front edge as impedes easy clamping. The back rail is attached to the end caps via captured 1/2" bolts, and via the two dividers, which are 1 1/2" (or so) thick Rosewood, which are dovetailed into both the benchtop and the back rail, which makes the back rail pretty structural. By inserting a block the thickness of the depth of the tool tray, one can clamp directly to the tool tray area without fear of collapsing anything.

No Shells? No Block Front? My Goodness!

hi ron and alan

wow... really nice bench. I have tried my hand at making them and they are not as easy as one would think. you guys did a really great job.. looks real flat.

If I lived closer I would take one of alan's classes
regards
lou

Where did y'all get the Atlas tail vise? I did a quick google and came up short of a retailer.....

http://www.atlas-machinery.com/tvh.htm
is the link. The search on google was "atlas tail vise". I would not use them again. It is a Record lead screw, at 8 TPI, which is way to fine/slow, and it has a metal handle, which I will remove in favor on a shop made one. The guides are heavy, and the milling just OK, but on balance, I would go elsewhere. I am trying to source one now as I need to build ten more benches, for the studio's student benches. More to come as the events develop.

Dennis,
The Olivewood is very dense and hard. Just the few pieces used in the vise added significant weight to the bench. It planes to a very smooth finish and looks soooo good.

Lou,
One of the hidden (or not so hidden if you look in the garage) advantages of working with Alan was his wood stash. In addition to the Olivewood that he just happened to have, the Birch for the benches was very old, 12/4. It moved very little after it was milled. Alan's bench required some planing after it was completed; mine required just a little.

Ron

Awesome bench and even better way to build it. I envy you working next to Alan as well. When the school is open I'm there.
John

Beautiful. I love contrast and birch is one of my favorite woods with it's mixture of light sapwood and dark heartwood. The olivewood makes a nice accent.

Maybe Alan could videotape a workbench project? I'd buy it.

Wow, Ron...That's beautiful! :) You are a fortunate fellow, indeed. I'm sure that will be a treasured centerpiece in your shop. I *know* it would be in mine!:) Dang it Alan, sure I couldn't talk you into moving to Wisconsin? I know a beautiful little valley up here. Quiet, scenic and downright inspirational for a man of your talents. :) Yeah, it's pretty close to where we live, but that's just shear coincidence!:D :cool:

Ron and Alan,

More questions:

The front section that contains the dogholes..... is that roughly 6" wide with dogholes cut out with dado blade (tilted using jig???)---and the use the router to create the "pockets"? What width on the dado blade (if you used this method)?

THen it looks like you capped the open side of the dogholes with 1 1/2" wide olive wood?? (same as in the tail vise section....??

Again - looks great and very serviceable......!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Roy Wall

Ron and Alan,

More questions:

The front section that contains the dogholes..... is that roughly 6" wide with dogholes cut out with dado blade (tilted using jig???)---and the use the router to create the "pockets"? What width on the dado blade (if you used this method)?

THen it looks like you capped the open side of the dogholes with 1 1/2" wide olive wood?? (same as in the tail vise section....??

Again - looks great and very serviceable......!!!

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Roy - The front section is about 4 1/2" wide or so. It is the same width as the tail vise, without the front strip. Get all of your hardware before you begin a bench! The hardware determines these sizes.

The dog holes are cut with the TS for most of the stock removal, but sized with a special purpose jig for pattern routing. I made the jig becuase I have 10 more student benches to build, and will also plan to teach a bench class, if there is interest.

The holes are offset 2 degrees so that the dogs are pointing towards each other just a bit. Some of that 2 degrees is used up by the looseness of the dogs in the holes. This cut is done with a 2 degree wedge behind the stock on the TS sled. Could have done it with a dado, but I just take a number of single width passes as that is quicker than changing blades. The final sizing is with the router. The front strip, on both the bench and the vise, is 1".

John - Wisconsin is a beautiful state, but this is my home. Sorry about that, but you could come out to Philadelphia. It is a terrific destination city. Independence Hall, the new Consitution Cneter, etc.