Show us your Bench

[Leigh Betsch]

Greg , What kind of wood?
And Dave those plane pics are killers, I've got to make a big jointer some day.

[Greg Millen]

Greg , What kind of wood?

Leigh, the top is Australian Jarrah, there is Karri, Spotted Gum and Tasmanian Oak in the frame along with some Sydney Bluegum

I've put a small list below so you can compare the relative hardness of the timbers.

Janka hardness:

4500 Lignum Vitae
2340 Mesquite
2473 Spotted Gum
2030 Karri
2023 Sydney Bluegum
1910 Jarrah
1860 Purpleheart
1350 Tasmanian Oak
1725 African Padauk
1300 American Beech
1136 Cocobolo
1010 North American Walnut
1000 Teak
830 African Mahogany

The bench top weighs 250kg (551 lbs), altogether it will weigh 545kg (1200 lbs). DIM 24" x 5" x 8' 6", top is 36" off the floor

[Darnell Hagen]

So far, my favourite project.
White beech, steamed beech, ebony, sugar maple drawer sides, baltic birch plywood drawer bottoms.

My bench features 18" wide bookmatched raised front panels, 17" wide bookmatched raised end panels, and a 15 9/16" wide single board top, all from one plank. 12 drawers, handcut dovetails, bookmatched curly beech fronts. NOS Record pop-up planing stop. Veritas Tucker vise with handcarved recess and modified Veritas Twin Screw vise, custom handles from the same curly board as the drawer fronts. Handcarved letters. Ebony wedges, plugs, dovetail guides, vise knob. Steam bent lamination coffee cup holder, homemade beech cam action hold downs.

460 lbs empty, 600+ lbs with tools

Main work done weekends May-September 2009, completed March 2010.

The behind the scenes blog starts here, Sawmill thread is here.









Over the last few months I've been making custom boxes and trays for my tools. I really like french fit drawers, but the I decided that was too permanent for my ever changing tool arsenal. These are flexible, fun to make, and keep me practising my hand cut joinery.

[Will Blick]

Charlie, amazing bench....can you show us the lift mechanism, and how a power drill can raise / lower it? I assume it can be done by hand also?

[David Weaver]

Leigh, the top is Australian Jarrah, there is Karri, Spotted Gum and Tasmanian Oak in the frame along with some Sydney Bluegum

I've put a small list below so you can compare the relative hardness of the timbers.

Janka hardness:

4500 Lignum Vitae
2340 Mesquite
2473 Spotted Gum
2030 Karri
2023 Sydney Bluegum
1910 Jarrah
1860 Purpleheart
1350 Tasmanian Oak
1725 African Padauk
1300 American Beech
1136 Cocobolo
1010 North American Walnut
1000 Teak
830 African Mahogany

The bench top weighs 250kg (551 lbs), altogether it will weigh 545kg (1200 lbs). DIM 24" x 5" x 8' 6", top is 36" off the floor

That's a goofy list. Cocobolo is harder than everything on it other than lignum vitae. Other than that, the numbers look OK, but it just stares you in the face when you see a list that says it's softer than beech.

[Mark Woodmark]

Combination work bench and outfeed table. Aluminum extrusion all bolted together (dont know how to weld). Swivel type leveling feet. Baltic birch sub-top. HDPE plastic top. Wilton wood vise and round brass bench dogs. Shelf is OSB for now, eventually want to replace it with clear Lexan

[Chris Griggs]

Rick T, Really like this bench , one of my favorites.

I second this statement. Love Rick T's bench. Well made, but not overly unnecessarily complex; looks superbly functional. It's like a beefed up version of Chris Schwarz's English Nicholson Bench. You've built the exact bench that I've been envisioning building for myself some day. Awesome!

[Leigh Betsch]

Greg, all that heavy kangaroo wood no wonder Australia drifted down under! Looks like on heck of a bench you have going.

Darnell, sure like those boxes and trays. Gives me some more ideas!

[Greg Millen]

That's a goofy list. Cocobolo is harder than everything on it other than lignum vitae. Other than that, the numbers look OK, but it just stares you in the face when you see a list that says it's softer than beech.

The list is 'goofy' because one item is in question? The list was simply an indicator of where the woods I used sit relative to some woods those in the US may be familiar with. The data was drawn from Wikipedia (I know, I know) as it was convenient. Cocobolo is listed as 1136 on a number of sites, not just Wiki. There is a site that claims it to be 2200, another at 3345, which is correct? I am not aware of an official source for this data - is there one?

Anyway, it was only intended as a rough guide, not an academic paper.

[Charlie Smith]

Dave I was just looking at that bench from American Woodworker! I am pretty sure I will do something like that.

[Tom McMahon]

My latest bench 36 by 123.

[Leigh Betsch]

Tom what's that 4ft timber sticking out the front do for ya. Looks like it's suspended somehow, How you do dat?

[Leigh Betsch]

Ok Tom I see How you do dat. But Why you do dat?

[Tom McMahon]

It's called a cooper's jointer. It's a long plane mounted upside down. You move the board over the plane instead of the plane over the board.

[george wilson]

French box makers are shown in Diderot using a cooper's type plane,but mounted horizontally on 4 legs,to plane short lengths of wood just as we do on a modern jointer. I've thought it would be nice to make 1,but it serves no real practical application for me,and space is limited in my shop.