Finished my Anarchist's Workbench

[Patrick McKenna]

Good job! A nice bunch of SYP, carefully selected. Yellow Pine gets better and better with age. I have made some similar SYP laminations from 2x lumber. A 25 inch counter has only shrunken 5/16 inch, which is less than I expected.

Thanks, Maurice. I look forward to seeing what this does over time. The book says it will get harder, but I'm a little skeptical. Selecting the wood was more labor than I expected. I wasn't able to find any SYP locally, so had to drive three hours to Menards in WV. They had plenty of 10' x 12", and I had to throw around pretty much all of it to find boards I liked. It was a long day of driving and sorting. But it was cheap. $275 vs. a comparable amount of hard maple pushing two grand.

[Christian Hawkshaw]

Out of curiosity does anyone that used SYP for their bench ever have any problems from the pitch causing stickiness over time? I know if its kiln dried with the pitch set that it should be crystalized and no longer fluid, but I'm just wondering because I've had spots on boards that were KD that were not set. Thinking about using it for the base frame for my other bench in place of the metal angle iron frame that's currently there.

No stickiness on my SYP bench. I had to clean the saw blades I used, and there was residue on the jointer and planer blades after processing. If I ever build another bench, I will probably just use soft maple.

[Patrick McKenna]

Added a pair of bench hooks and doe's feet from some cherry scrap I found in the "by the pound" box at the wood store:

[Greg Parrish]

Nice Patrick. I’m going to have to make some doe’s feet for mine soon. I like how yours turned out and like the drill out spot in the corner. Good job.

Added a pair of bench hooks and doe's feet from some cherry scrap I found in the "by the pound" box at the wood store:

[Andrew More]

Nicely done! I sorta lost track of how much time I spent on mine, and I remade the legs 3 times, so there's that, but it's good hear I'm not the only person who took longer than Chris Swartz was suggesting.

[Patrick McKenna]

That's been my main takeaway from this thread. I'd been thinking I was defective.

[Michael Drew]

I read the same book, and have been wanting to build the same bench. I'll build it after I get a real shop....

You did a great job. I can only hope mine comes out as nice.

[Denis Rezendes]

Does the crisscross work well for the leg vise? I'm glad to know something like that is available off the shelf. I'm reading Chris' first workbench book right now where he mentions a crisscross as an option but just in one of the side panels.

[mike stenson]

Does the crisscross work well for the leg vise? I'm glad to know something like that is available off the shelf. I'm reading Chris' first workbench book right now where he mentions a crisscross as an option but just in one of the side panels.

After years of fighting racking with a euro-style front vise, man the leg vise with criss-cross is a joy to work with. Literally just spin the handle and done. The Workbench book's a bit old now, but IIRC Schwarz talks longer about the criss-cross in the AWB book, as well as other places.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Beautiful bench! Well done, Sir!

[Patrick McKenna]

Does the crisscross work well for the leg vise? I'm glad to know something like that is available off the shelf. I'm reading Chris' first workbench book right now where he mentions a crisscross as an option but just in one of the side panels.

It's been working flawlessly for me, no issues at all.

I went with the "solo" option, rather than the "retro" that Chris uses in AWB. I e-mailed Lost Art Press before buying the criss-cross. Meghan there said that they use the retro in the book because the installation is easier. I'm sure both are completely fine, but I stuck with the solo because the design seems more robust. In the retro, the pivot pin is captured in a bracket screwed into the chop and leg. In the solo, the chop and leg are drilled all the way across and the pin slides in. I'm sure both designs are totally fine and will last a lifetime. But as John Bender said, "Screws fall out all the time; the world is an imperfect place". Another consideration is aesthetic. You might not like the look of the pin ends on either side of the leg and chop.

I can't compare installations, because I've only done the solo, but I didn't find drilling for the pin difficult. I think the installation concern is that if you drill inaccurately, the arm will be pivoting on a non-level/straight pin. Which would definitely impair the function. I don't know how much room for error you have, but I'm guessing not much: the arm is long.

Even though the chop is 8" wide, it's got the criss-cross mortise in the middle, so you're actually just drilling two 3" sections, one on each side of the mortise. When I did it, I marked out the entry and exit points very carefully on the outsides of the chop and the insides of the mortise. I used a drill press with a very long bit so I could do the whole thing from one side. I really took my time making sure the table was completely plumb to the bit and that the chop was plumb with the table, which took a couple of paper shims. I also went slow with the drill and backed it out every 1/4" or so to clear chips and keep it cool. I drilled the first section from the left edge of the chop and verified the bit exited into the mortise cavity exactly where I'd marked. I took it off the DP to test fit the pin into that first hole. I made sure it slid in smoothly, and pushed it all the way in to make sure it lined up exactly with the mark on the other side of the mortise. The fit was very snug, so getting it back out was no joke. Back to the DP and raised the table so the long bit passed through the hole and just touched the mark on the other side of the mortise. I drilled through that and confirmed the bit exited right on the mark on the other side of the chop. Same process for the leg, which is easier because it's narrower.

I did make the biggest (visible) mistake of the whole project around the pin, though. It wound up right on top of cutout on the side of the chop. I'm not worried about it structurally at all, but it looks stupid. I would advise laying everything out on the chop, including the pin location, before cutting anything. I'd have started that cut at least 1/2" lower down if I did it again.

On the subject of screws, the vise flange is attached to the face of the chop via bolts that thread into holes you tap into the chop. My plan was to replace those bolts with a pair that would be just shy of the inside face of the chop, then counterbore the inside face of the chop so the bolts would sit below the surface. My hardware store didn't have nuts that fit, so I went with the tapped holes. I figure if those ever come loose, it's just as easy to retrofit the nuts and bolts approach then. I would like to replace them with slot-heads, though. The allen head looks a little odd here.

[Patrick McKenna]

Beautiful bench! Well done, Sir!

Thanks, Ken. The overwhelming lesson to me here was just get off your ass and make one. It's a big project and super scary to start, but the result is a beautiful tool that will literally last for generations. It's completely worth it. I know there are a ton of people in the, "I always wanted to build a real workbench..." camp. Just go do it. When you're done, your only regret will be not having made one sooner.

[Scott Winners]

I know there are a ton of people in the, "I always wanted to build a real workbench..." camp. Just go do it. When you're done, your only regret will be not having made one sooner.

I fully agree with this sentiment. The last workbench I built was very near the top of my skillset. It has served me well. My next bench will be near the top of my "new and improved" skillset five years later. If you are nailing two boards together on a saw horse in your driveway, you have a workbench and it is a sawhorse. Consider a second saw horse, a solid core door, and a couple F clamps.

On my current Doug Fir benchtop with the Crucible holdfasts I ended up taking a screaming electronic router, a quarter inch chamfer bit with guide bearing, and cutting a nominal 3/16 chamfer on on the holdfast holes, top and bottom, after the first big splinter came loose. In Chris' book he built with SYP and doesn't, that I recall, advocate for chamfers on the holdfast holes. For future readers out west using Doug Fir, I am ecstatic with my Doug Fir bench, but I did chamfer all my holdfast holes after the first big splinter broke loose. I have not had a second splinter break loose since chamfering. 1/8 might be enough.

Also, for future readers, be advised the 1" diameter of the crucible hold fasts is a nominal size. I have a 1" spade bit floating around the shop labeled "CHF." In this context CHF does not stand for Congestive Heart Failure. Last time I measured the bit it was 0.96 something. At my place I want the tightest possible hole for my holdfasts so I can use the lightest possible mallet and "waller out" the holdfast holes as slowly as possible. I have no idea if my holdfast pair is on the small or big side of regular production, but I cannot tell them apart by shaft diameter. I have no problem dedicating a special drill bit for ductile iron holdfasts, they are awesome.

Nice bench Patrick. See if you can break it. If you don't like it, drive it over here and I will take it off your hands no questions asked.

[mike stenson]

I chamfered my dog holes in my oak bench also, for the same reason. Not an issue in the sugar maple one.

[Charlie Blink]

I recently completed an anarchist bench as well, one of the best things I ever did. Most everything Chris said in his book holds true. From how you use the bench, I often cussed the interference on my old bench trying to clamp something down, to the methods of construction and how well the hardware works. He will be presenting at a conference at Colonial Williamsburg this winter on work benches that I'm sure will be interesting to hear. There is an old bench in the millers shop at Williamsburg built much the same way as the anarchist bench that I'm sure provided a lot of inspiration. I can attest to the durability of the SYP as my old bench legs and rails are quite hard and have held up well for the last 20 years. I can also attest to the hardness after having chopped the mortises in this bench. I glued a leg together wrong and had to fill and chop a new mortise for one of the rails.
I did wander from his instruction on gluing up the bench top. I glued it up in groups of 6 boards but instead of gluing up three beams and then gluing them together I just kept adding to the width of the top until they were all glued together. This eliminated the need to true and glue the beams together. My parallel clamps and pipe clamps were sufficient to clamp 6 2x together. I think this method works better to clamp up any minor variations in the 2x lumber and get tight joints.