I built a bench, and want to show it off after two months of hard work on it. While I am an experienced turner and guitar maker, I am new to cabinet making, or "real woodworking" as I like to call it. So I relied heavily on Chris Schwartz, but combined elements from the benches in his book rather than copying one of them. It's 85" x 23", hard maple except for the outer lams on the long stretchers which are cherry. 34" tall. The top is 2-3/4" thick, laminated from 4/4 and 8/4. Legs are about 4x4, laminated from 4/4. The vises are Eclipse copies of Record quick release, and they are quite decent. I attached them with lags, figuring the top is thick enough to hold them, and if they ever needed to be bolted through it would be an easy mod. 10-1/2" vise on the front, 9" on the end. There is a top stretcher on the end frames not showing in the photos. The end frame stretchers are deep mortise/tenon, drawbore pinned and glued. The long stretchers have 1" deep mortise and tenons, each with two 7" 3/8" bolts going to a barrel nut in the stretcher, and the top is just held on with four lag screws through the upper stretcher on the end frames, so it can be taken apart. The front is coplanar; I'm waiting until the need arises before adding holes in the front for hold downs. The finish is boiled linseed oil.
It is heavy and rigid. I have added shelves since taking these photos--one across the bottom side stretchers for holding long clamps, and one across the long stretchers for planes, etc. The bench in the background is one I bought years ago from Garrett-Wade. It will be going to a friend.
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