I just finished building a new bench a couple of weeks ago. I started rough cutting the lumber June 15th and finished the bench the last week of July. BTW, it was built not so much to replace my SYP bench but as an addition to. The new bench is made of European Beech and is 2485mm long, 625mm wide, and 880mm tall. The top has an asymmetrical split and is 100mm thick. It has a Paramo #52 face vise I've owned since the 70's that has been my goto vise on most of my work benches. The other work holding will be done with holdfasts, stops, and battens. Here is a photo of the completed bench with the old SYP bench in the background:
With the back story established I'll cut to the chase: One of my co-workers helped a little with the rough dimensioning and early glue up of the slab. I offered to help him build a bench whenever, well this week was whenever. He called Monday and asked if I was ready to start his bench. What can the answer be other than "sure". Just a couple of observations, construction grade lumber has more than doubled in price over the last few years, I paid less than 0.40 USD/BF about three years ago for SYP, this week DF cost about 1.00 USD/BF and it is really hard to find good boards even in the 2X12 pile.
The wood is really wet but it will work for starting the base which we did. The four legs are glued, dimensioned except for length, and marked for rough mortice position. The long stretchers are also glued up. I figure a couple or three weeks working when the two of us can find time off together and we will have that sucker knocked out.
Exciting photo of the glued up legs with the stretchers picking out of the lower right corner :-):
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