first serious workbench....thoughts?

[Jared McMahon]

Unless you have a pretty darn good idea what sorts of woodworking you'll be doing, I wouldn't sweat the details of your first bench too much. Scandinavian/Klausz is fine, Roubo is fine, etc. You also can't go too far wrong with vises and hardware from any of the main vendors (Lee Valley, Lie-Nielsen, Benchcrafted).

If a Scandinavian bench puts a twinkle in your eye, definitely check out any articles and videos you can find about/by Frank Klausz, he gets a ton of mileage out of his.

[John Sanford]

Unless you are committed to an "authentic" Scandi bench, I wouldn't focus on using beech. Go for whatever closed grain, strong, stout light colored hardwood you can get a good price on. In the US and Canada, especially east of the Mississippi, that usually means Hard or Soft Maple. The Scandinavians use beech because it's the best mix of value and performance for them, not because it's "the best bench wood."

[Chris Hachet]

I can get fantastic beech for about two bucks a board foot....not married to the idea of it...but hard maple around here runs about five...all else being equal....

[John Sanford]

I can get fantastic beech for about two bucks a board foot....not married to the idea of it...but hard maple around here runs about five...all else being equal....

Sounds like somebody is going to have a beech bench! Congrats.

[Chris Hachet]

I have a rather plain jane bench now that was built with fir 4 by 4 s for legs, and the rest of the lumber is strait grained 2 by 4 material that came from the shipping pallet of a 15 ton TRANE rooftop unit that I set on the roof of a local seafood restaurant.

I am about eighty percent hand tool...I still use a table saw, a band saw, a hollow chisel Morticer, and a drill press.

Mostly concerned about vise configuration...