[Editor's Note - This was originally published on a different host in August 2007]
The Saga Begins.
I’m still using the bench I made shortly after I moved into the current house. It’s made from 2×4 and 2×6 lumber with 2 layers of plywood for a top. I retrofitted a wagon vice to it some time ago when I fell off the slope and rolled downhill to Neanderthal status.
It has served pretty well, but the top is not flat. It never was flat in fact.
The orginal bench
This is how it all started. This is an older photo that omits the large collection of hand tools that now live under the bench.
Panel clamped in the face vice
This seemed like a good idea at the time, but the bench racks back to front too easily. This would also split the laminations with a laminated top.
Wagon vice
The retrofitted wagon vice. This was an afterthought and it has really grown on me.
And thus started my quest for the perfect bench.
A great many words have been written about benches. Scott Landis has a wonderful book about benches called “The Workbench Book”.
Before I read that book I had the idea that the classic workbench is what is called a Scandinavian style workbench. All hardwood and lovely with intricate vises and something you could eat your dinner off. Then I read “The Workbench Book”. And I saw a mix of modern and old style benches. Thinking about the perfect bench again I thought I needed 2 perfect benches. One bench to be used for
hand tools and one bench to be used for power tools. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but it seemed that the requirements of each bench were different because of the differences in the tools.
So my pair of perfect benches became a Frank Klaus or possibly shaker style bench and a modern bench with a Lee Valley twin screw tail vise and a regular face vise for holding panels under assault from my screaming routers.
But something still didn’t sit right in my mind. I didn’t really understand just why I was thinking that way. As an engineer I hate the feeling that something will or won’t work without a real reason why. The question nagged at me for months and months with the result I was reluctant to commit to anything.
Of course all this time I’m growing ridged eyebrows and a protruding jaw line and my speech became more grunt like and guttural as I become more and more Neanderthal. And I also discovered the Gramercy Tools Holdfasts which introduced a whole new slew of ways to fix work pieces to the bench which raised yet more questions.
Then I realized that every picture of a bench is use with power tools had access all around, and all the hand tool benches in traditional settings were up against the wall. This was a major revelation to me. And it makes absolute sense as to why.
Traditional benches are used to work solid wood planks from right to left. You never go round the back of the bench. But with power tools, say routing a dado in sheet goods for a carcass you do tend to go all round the bench. It was exactly how I was working with hand tools and power tools.
The difference between the benches I had perceived as fundamental came down more to use. Do you work all around the bench or do you work with bench up against a wall?
The question of holding work was still in my mind. I thought about it more and realized I tend to use clamps to hold jigs and the work piece when using power tools and I used dogs and a wagon vise with hand tools.
So I came back to one perfect bench. The Frank Klaus bench idea now went the way of the dodo in my mind. Too fussy and I had gone off the idea of a tool tray after one mammoth session with a hand plane left me up to my knees in shavings. I joined the collection of people who think tool trays are nothing more than debris catchers. Maybe the Shakers were on to something with those nice, neat & tidy benches of theirs?
I again became very attracted to 2 styles of bench I had seen in “The Workbench Book.” The Dominy Bench and the Roubo Bench. The Shaker style benches were out because I needed clearance between the top and the cabinets for the holdfasts to work. Again I wasn’t sure why I liked these benches.
Then Chris Schwarz of Popular Woodworking published his 10 rules for workbenches. This led me to Woodworking Magazine and his blog.
After reading his blog and all the back issues of Woodworking Magazine I had my answers. The workbench really is nothing more than a clamping surface. I understood why I had been attracted to the Roubo and the Dominy with their massive tops and flush legs.
But would the attraction actually work in practice. I don’t know. The Roubo and the Dominy (and recently the Holtzapffel) benches are all broadly the same. The differences are in crotchets for hand plane work, leg vises and twin screw face vises and tail vises.
Time to experiment.
To be continued…..