Workbench

Some 20 years ago, we had just built a home in Kingston, Washington and I needed a workbench. I had planned on building one but the local Ernst Hardware store got in a batch of European style benches. They were a knockoff of the Hoffman & Hammer compact bench, but also had 3 drawers & a storage cabinet. The vise & drawer hardware wasn't bad & they were made with Mai Pradoo (Burma Padauk) which is a nice looking, medium hardwood.

Ernst offered them at $400 but there were few takers. I kept researching bench designs and pricing wood. Meanwhile, Ernst cut their price several times. When it got down to $169, I bought. It was easy to assemble & made a good light duty bench. I put it together without glue so it would be easy to dis-assemble & move.

Life went on & I was quite happy with my new bench until one day I heard a crash from the garage. Shortly, my dear wife entered the house and told me I needed to go buy another bench! Our killer Audi hit the bench pretty hard, smashing the drawers, cabinet door and face frame. So off I went to Ernst.

There were 2 benches left & they were marked down to $99! I put the new bench together, then, after a few weeks, started to take apart the old bench, thinking to use the wood for other projects. I found the main structure was mostly undamaged, so I rebuilt it. It wasn't as pretty as the new one now & had a bit of racking, still it was useful.

The problem with such inexpensive benches was, I tended to disrespect them. In addition to woodwork, I used them for car & tractor repair, even dis-assembling & overhauling 2 tractor & 3 Mercedes engines on them. They got pretty beat up as a result.

I hadn't glued my benches during assembly & they developed racking problems as bolts loosened, requiring re-tightening every few months.

We moved twice since I got the benches and both times they weren't dis-assembled, just moved in one piece. So I decided to re-assemble them with glued joints this time.

Our new home in Stayton required some big, Fir beams and I saved all the large cut-offs along with some 4X4 & 4X6 pieces. Since I was going to tear down anyway, why not improve the bench while I was at it? One of the beams approximated the size of my bench top. Also, I had been admiring a vise I'd seen. It used a hand crank to quickly move the jaws. Only the astronomical price held me back. I found a crank on e-Bay & so I began to re-build the bench into a Hermaphrodite Roubo.

I'm quite happy with the results. I got rid of the annoying tool tray, raised the benchtop height to match my Delta radial arm saw & added the beam to the back of the bench with two 4X4 legs dovetailed in for support. The bench top has twice the area now (24" X 55") & I incorporated a reversable planeing stop down the middle. I put the hand crank on the front vise. The extra mass, glued joints and 2 additional legs make the bench extremely rigid and solid.

I liked the results so well, I decided to make the remaining beams into a larger bench. The result so far is a massive 24" X 84" Roubo style bench with 4" X 6" legs dovetailed into the top. I tied the two beams together with 2" X 4" scraps. I didn't bother fitting either cross piece with dovetails or through mortises, just bolted & glued it into place. My son was disappointed with me for taking this short cut. I don't agree. Its crude, but effective and doesn't detract much from the overall appearance. The bench is also the same height as my Delta RAS, & has a reversible plane stop down the middle. I'm going to have a local artisan make 2 hold fasts & I will drill the bench top for them. I had intended to tie the legs together with stringers and through mortise joints, but the bench is so stable already, they may not be needed. I will use the bench with hold fasts for a while but may add a good vise later.