Shaker Inspired Workbench

[Ron Brese]

Myself and Jameel Abraham recently completed this Shaker Inspired Workbench. I am the lucky beneficiary of this work. Jameel has told this story quite well on his blog. For more information and some funny video you can visit there by following the supplied link. I incorporated the BenchCrafted vises into my bench and I have to say the "Effortless Workholding" claim is for real.

Thanks for looking,

Ron Brese

http://oudluthier.blogspot.com/

[Phillip Pattee]

Nice bench! Love the details too. Is that a stealth gloat on the plane?

[Jim Barrett]

Ron,
Great looking bench...enjoyed watching your video showing you work wood with your fantastic planes.

Jim

[Ken Werner]

Wow Ron, that is a beauty for sure. I am sure you will put it to good use.

[Thomas love]

Functional shop furniture, I love it.
Should not the shop have at least one piece of furniture that stays in the shop?
Nice work .

[Ron Brese]

Phillip,

That's a prototype 410 stainless panel plane. I guess it's not a gloat if you built the tool.......well maybe it is!!

Thanks for noticing,

Ron

[Paul Murphy]

Ron, you and Jameel sure do wonderful work.

[Ron Brese]

Thanks Paul, We only had 5 days in the shop during Jameel's visit and we were in the shop late into the evening almost every night. Of course if you watched the video you could probably tell that we were getting a little punch drunk on a couple of those late nights.

Ron

[Leigh Betsch]

Now that I like. Don't imagine that those drawers would hold any planes?

[Jim Koepke]

I like the Buck Rodger's leg vice. I didn't realize that was a shaker kind of design element.

jim

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

That's a beauty Ron! +1 on the leg vise comment. Curioius though, there's no roller guide. Is it hidden like Jim Tolpin's or do you have some other method?

[Tom Godley]

Wow -- That is nice.

That would look great in my kitchen -- will the vice crack nuts??


love the door on the end! ,,,,,, and the plane

[Ron Brese]

Hi All,

The workings for the vise are in the cupboard. If you look closely in the video you will see the roller bracket under the chop on the outside of the bench. The more I looked at that the less I liked the look, especially on this style bench. I modified the arrangement of the wheels in order to house both wheels inside the cupboard. If you visit Jameel's blog you will see a picture that shows the portion of the cupboard that is dedicated to the workings of the leg vise. The cupboard door on the end allows easy access to make adjustments. Separating the workings for the leg vise from the adjacent storage compartment was extra work but I think the convenience of access was worth the effort.

I don't actually plan to store planes in this bench, they will be going into a wall cabinet that will also get the same finished treatments as the base of the bench. The drawer will mostly house chisels, screwdrivers and layout tools. I think separate storage for the planes is practical. I don't want to get a board resting on the dead man support and clamped into the leg vise only to discover that the plane I need is in the cupboard behind the door.

You know Shakers were innovative people and invented a lot of practical devices. They commissioned the building of a water driven turbine in order to increase the horsepower output in the woodworking shop at the Hancock Settlement. I think they would have recognized the practical usage of a wheel operated vise and would have readily adopted these devices. There's a good chance if you attend the WIA conference in October that you will see this bench outfitted with black hand wheels. Not a done deal but we'll see.

I think I can speak for myself and Jameel when I say "Thanks for the nice compliments on the bench",

Ron

[Kevin Adams]

Ron, I've seen the posts on WN and Jameel's blog, and just wanted to compliment you like everyone else on a beautiful bench. What paint did you use (latex or traditional milk) and how did you do the dovetailed drawers...just very carefully?

Thanks for sharing.
Kevin

[Jeff Johnson]

An "Infill Workbench"?