woodwork bench progress -- Pics

[John Gregory]

My wife and I are building a woodworking bench. The base is pretty much done. Built mostly of red oak we had around. Full Extension draw slides, plywood carcases. It will set on a 2X4 base with a piece of 3/4" ply on top of the base.

The next step will be the top. The core will be a solid core door, and then capped with maple flooring and banded with hard maple. A Record side vise and a Veritas twin screw end vise will be used.

John & Kris

[Jim Becker]

Very nice bench, John. Do be careful with the idea of capping the door with the maple flooring...wood movement will be an issue. Maple moves about 1/4" to 3/8" in "width" seasonally on a 30" wide top!

[Tyler Howell]

Nice team effort you have there. looking forward to more.

Are you using the engineered flooring or the ~ 3/4" stuff??

[Wes Newman]

John,
That is going to be one nice looking bench.
Nice tip on using flooring for the bench top.

[John Gregory]

You bring up a very good point Jim. I will have to think about that.

[Alan Turner]

John,
I am not sure of your design, but you might want to leave enough room between the bottom of the top and the top of the bottom for things such as dogs protruding through, and clamping.
Nice piece of cabinetry, BTW.
Alan

[Ted Shrader]

John -

That is certainly one fine looking piece of shop furniture. Building it together makes it all that much better.

Regards,
Ted

[Russell Svenningsen]

NIce-looking bench! I'm sure it will get put to good use.

I have the Veritas twin-screw vise on the bench I built. A tremendous tool! I highly recommend it! Nothing moves, ever. I made the jaws from solid cross-laminated ash. It's one tough customer.

The Record vise is next. I'm putting it on another bench I'm getting ready to build.

Good luck! Can't wait to see pics when it's all done.

Best,
Russell

[John Gregory]

Alan,
There will be two larges blocks of wood between the base and the top. about 5-6 " high. I will size these so that the height of the woodbench is level with my TS and outfeed table.

[Mark Singer]

Really Nice bench!!

[Mark Stutz]

John,
Several years ago there was a description in "some mag" (CRS ya know!) that described topping 2 or 3 layers of MDF with strips of Maple .5 or .75" thick. They were sawn from a flat sawn board and turned upright, essentially giving a quartersawn maple top. They advised attaching it to the substrate with construction adhesive to allow for movement.

Mark