I’m building a new workbench, and while I’ve had several benches this is my first attempt at building one ground up.
Started with some wide 16/4 cherry timbers that were shot thru with drying checks that I had to cut around. The guy I bought them from said his father had them milled 7 years ago and they’ve been sitting around ever since. He seemed honest enough, and they proved to be bone dry. In the end I paid $2/bdft for it and although it was a pain to cut out the splits & checks, it was still a good deal.
In the interest of full disclosure, I ripped the big heavy timbers with a worm drive circular saw to make the pieces more manageable, and spared no electrons in milling it all.
So far the top is done except for final smoothing and leveling of the tail vise. I’m on an iPhone so I’ll do my best to post pics of work so far. I hate trying to post pics here from my phone.