Need suggestions for an alternate way of attaching workbench legs

[Jeff Skory]

Me again with another workbench question. Based on my feedback to my previous post regarding leg vises I have decided to build a Schwarz-Roubo bench using a fifth leg so that I can angle the leg vise.

My question however regards attaching the leg to the top. The method outlined in the book uses mortise and tenon. I am thinking that I might be moving within the next 5-10 years and of course I would like to be able to take the workbench with me.

However, my workshop is in the basement and I know the bench would never make it up the steps. Reworking the base so that the top is screwed on would probably not work well in combination with a leg vise.

So any ideas for alternative construction?

And in lieu of that, when I eventually move should I
A) leave the bench behind and build another one
B) chop the legs off halfway and rebuild them at the new house

[Jim Koepke]

Why not attach the legs mortice and tenon style so the bench can be taken apart when you move?

jim

[Jeff Skory]

Why not attach the legs mortice and tenon style so the bench can be taken apart when you move?

jim

In other words just don't glue the tenons in or put any dowels through it?

[Jeff Skory]

Jim, you're right. I wasn't thinking straight. Having the heavy bench top sitting on top of those tenons is going to be way more holding power than the screws that are used for some bases.

[Sean Kinn]

You could always use the mortise and tenons in combination with a bed-bolt like setup to hold it tight in lieu of glue.

[Jim Koepke]

Also think of removable pins and wedges.

jim

[Jon van der Linden]

Since you're looking at Roubo, you might want to consider large dovetails for the leg/top joint like you see in Roubo. I believe that your book has copies of Roubo's illustrations. One of the illustrations shows the leg: it is a twin tenon with the tenon at the front of the bench being a through dovetail. The weight of the top should be enough to keep it from lifting.

[Dave Matson]

St. Roy has an two part episode on the woodwright's shop about this entitled "the french workbench" where he details how to make the "rising dovetail" joint used in attaching the legs to the bench. It might be available online to watch but the PBS site appears to be down for me at the moment :P

There are plans for a knock-down Holtzapffel Bench at the woodworking magazine blog:
http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com...Workbench.aspx

[harry strasil]

Sliding dovetails in the outside edges, similar to a mortise and tenon but exposed and flush with the outside edge.

[Wilbur Pan]

Chris Schwarz's article on making the Roubo calls for drawbored mortise and tenon joints to attach the top to the base, but without glue:

I drawbored the top to the base without glue. If I ever need to remove the top, I can drill out the pegs to dismantle the assembly.

[Todd Trebuna]

I built the simple bench featured on Fine woodworking. I used 3/8 inch threaded steel rod with 2x4 strechers. The stretchers have a Dado cut for the threaded rod to ride in. 4x4 on the ends. Very solid. Appears to be heavy enough and you can tighten the nuts on the end of the rod to compress everything together. It's definitely not my dream bench, but it will certainly do for my first woodworking bench. ( I have a 2x4 workbench that I built years ago, that is pretty beat up).

scroll down and click workbench

link to free plan

[Daniel Kennedy]

Jeff,
I asked myself many of the same questions as I was building my bench. I decided to do through mortises. I did not glue them, the weight of the bench and the base make it extremely rigid. I used 1/2"X12"bolts and mortise and tennon to hold the base together. In theory I could take the top off of my bench and then disassemble the legs and stretchers. After all the work I put into this bench If I ever have to leave, there is no way I am leaving my bench behind.

[mike holden]

Jeff,
One of the traditional methods of attaching the top was simply to lay the top onto two large tapered pins. Look kind of like 50mm artillery bullets on the base, and matching mortice in the top.
It is a method that has worked for years (centuries) so I would not hesitate to use it.
Mike

[David Keller NC]

Jeff - What Mike H's suggesting is a good method, and a related way is to use lag screws (the way I did it on my most recent bench).

Making this work effectively requires a modification to the Roubo design. In Schwarz' plans, the Roubo has a stretcher between each pair of legs 12" or so above the floor, but no stretcher at the top of the legs, as it's M&T to a solid benchtop and so that stretcher would be unnecessary.

However, for a rapid take-apart bench, one makes the pairs of legs at each end of the bench into a "ladder" assembly, where there's a stretcher between the pairs of legs 12" above the floor, and one stretcher at the very top of the legs. One then either through-bolts the top to that top stretcher with counter-sunk bolts through the benchtop, or either blind lag-screws from underneath, or the dowel pins as Mike H suggests.

This is a lot easier to visualize than it is to explain in words. If you've Chris' bench book, have you downloaded the free "extra" chapter on knock-down benches? It's worth having and you can get it at the Woodworking Magazine blog.

It is, by the way, not necessary to have a fifth leg to make an angled leg vise - one simply angles the legs as well as the leg vise chop. Angling one pair of legs does make the construction more complex, but it gets an extra leg out of your way when you're using the bench.

Finally, you might consider giving up the angled leg vise altogether and including a sliding board jack with an auxillary leg-type vise built into it. With that set-up, you can clamp a board of just about any width to your bench for dovetailing.

[Richard Francis]

Here is a current and working link

http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/s...son_video.html

Also, Scott Landis shows the double tenon joint in his chapter on Roubo