I'm new to the creek, and to hand tool woodworking, so I figured I'd use my first post to introduce myself and post pictures and video of my newly built bench.
A little about me:
I recently moved to Texas, I'm originally form Georgia, got married, and am now starting to settle down, a little. My first love in life is the outdoors, hunting, fishing, camping, etc., however where i currently live, in the middle of the DFW metroplex, hinders me from doing most of things I like to do. So i took up hand tool woodworking! Where i live i have a 10X10 ft shed that i have now converted into a woodshop. Not having much space, i've forgone trying to fit any power tools, besides a cordless drill, into the shop. My father in law has a fully stocked wood shop about an hour away that i can use whenever i need to dimension a lot of boards, but i mostly do it myself with what i have, which isnt much, yet. I've borrowed a few planes and bought a few chisels and marking tools. every month i get about $100 to put toward this hobby, so my collection of tools will slowly grow.
The first thing i built was what every hand tool shops needs, a bench. I built the bench-top out of 2x10s ripped in half and the legs and base are made of 2x6s . It measures 72 inches long, 22 in wide, ~4 inches thick, and ~35 inches high. I didnt really have a plan when i made it, but i had watched youtubers build similar style ones. I was able to build the whole thing in one weekend. The legs are mortised into the base and the top is held in place by 1.5 inch dowels in the tops of the legs. I made it so that id be able to easily disassemble it when i move. I eventually plan on adding a wagon vise as well. I plan on using this bench for a couple years till we move somewhere with more room. By then i'll have more skills, time, and money to make an even better bench.
Below is a poor quality video of me and my wife flattening the top (this was both of ours first time using a plane), pics of the bench fully assembled, and me and the bench in my shop with my newly built mallet. We started flattening the bench with a 5&1/2 and finished it with a #7 and BLO. Enjoy
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