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I'm sincerely impressed by the elegant and well-built workbenches in such magazines as Fine Woodworking. Some are truly awesome. But I could never bring myself to actually use and abuse one of those pieces of art. So my workbench detailed here is a real working workbench. Above all, it is solid and sturdy. It doesn't bend, flex, sag, shake, sway, or budge in any manner.
This bench is optimized for my needs. The top is 31-inches off the floor. This is a bit low for much handwork, but it's a compromise. My bench does double-duty supporting a small drill press, router table, and dovetail jig. So the surface is high enough to work on the table and yet low enough to hold other equipment without being too tall. It's also the same height as my Black & Decker Workmate. The best thing about this workbench is its size: it's big, 6 feet by 4 feet. This provides enough room to leave the drill press or the router table set up while pounding out a major construction project on the other end. It can hold a full sheet of 4 x 8 plywood for trimming. One of my design goals was to make a bench big enough so I never have to work down on my knees again. You'll also note that this workbench doesn't have a shelf. That's because on my old bench everything on the lower shelf just collected sawdust and dirt. So, anyway, here's my bench. It's a long way from perfect and everything can be improved. | |
| The diagram is my working sketch. It has the critical dimensions along with details on the interesting parts. Of note are the mortise and tenon joints connecting the legs and rails. The upper sides of the frame are bolted to the outside of the 4x4 legs while the lower rails are mortised into the middle of the legs. This offset provides additional rigidity since the leg is prevented from flexing on a single vertex. Trust me on that. |
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| Here are a couple of the side tenons cut in the 2x8 rails. They may be a little sloppy since they will end up being pocket-bolted to the leg and incredibly secure. |
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| The side rails each have two 7-inch bolts on each end. After cutting the mortise and tenon, I drilled through from the outside of the leg into the rail. Then I pulled the tenon out of the mortise and continued drilling down the pilot hole to the length of my boring bit. Note that the upper frame sides have only a single bolt at each end. This is all that was necessary. The lower rail with the pocket bolts into the mortise and tenon joints provide the main rigidity. Note also that the side rail is positioned pretty close to the center of the leg between the floor and the table top. |
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| I drilled out the mortise holes on my drill press with a boring bit. Here is a mortise for the end rails after drilling. |
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| Then I cleaned out the hole by chisel. |
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| The major frame pieces are ready to assemble. I've got the bolts started in the various holes and the clamps ready for the end rails. The end rails are glued and then secured with 3-inch deck screws from the side of the leg (at a right angle to the tenon). I didn't glue the long 2x8 side rails. The double bolts are adequate. |
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| This is looking straight down on one of the corners. You can see what I was talking about earlier with the upper and lower sides and rails each securing the leg at a different point. Each leg is firmly secured. The two bolts visible in the photo are those securing the upper sides. |
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| Here is a pocket. This is taken from inside the table. The nuts are hidden from view. I guess a real woodworker would have cleaned up the cavity even if no one would ever see it! |
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| The two side rails meet the leg at substantially different heights above the ground. Again, this was to distribute the points of contact along the leg to prevent movement. Also note that only the long 2x8 rail uses pocket bolts. The shorter 2x6 rails were fastened with glue and deck screws. |
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| With the major frame components in place, it was time to cut the notches for the ribs. This feature departs from my initial sketch if you examined it. I decided against simply securing the ribs with screws into their ends. That would not form a strong long-lasting joint. So I notched the ribs and fit them into crenelations along the upper sides. Here the crenelations along one side are complete and I've just started the other side. The depth was set by the maximum reach of my circular saw -- very high-tech. |
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| The ribs are 2x6 inch. |
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| At last the frame is finished. I used a long straight-edge to identify a few departures on the top from flat and true. These were quickly corrected with a belt sander. Never underestimate the usefulness of a beltsander. |
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| The top consists of two layers of plywood. The lower layer is a pretty nice piece of 3/4-inch plywood. The finished dimensions will be 4 x 6 feet. But for this phase I cut the lower plywood to a length of 6 ft 3 inches. The top is a really, really, nice piece of 3/4-inch oak plywood. The top overhangs the frame by 3-inches on each side. This allows plenty of room for clamping stuff. To position the top on the frame, I clamped stops along two sides. This allowed me to position the top over the frame for drilling five screws holes. |
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| I removed the lower plywood sheet and spread an entire 8 oz tube of Liquid Nails glue on the ribs and sides. Then I quickly slapped the plywood back into place, guided by the clamps, and secured it with five 3-inch deck screws. |
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| The second plywood layer was more tricky. First, I cut it also to a length of 6 feet 3 inches. Then I clamped it square on the three uncut sides. Thus clamped, I drilled four holes to initially secure the top after gluing. To maintain alignment I dropped a short brass rode into each hole after drilling. |
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| The glue-up seems perfectly adequate, but I still wish I had used 16 oz of glue rather than 8 oz. |
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| The 3/4-inch oak plywood lines up with the lower ply layer and the little brass rods assure alignment with the screw holes. I set the screws, clamped it around the edges, and drilled another 12 holes for 3-inch deck screws countersunk into the top. Note that the clamps along the three uncut sides are right at the edge while the clamps on the cut edge are set back a few inches where the edge will eventually be (on the left in the photo). The clamps worked great but I could have used a few more. |
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| Once dry, I trimmed the end off to ensure that both layers of ply are even. |
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| This is a 10-inch vise from Harbor Freight Tools. At $20.00 it was a good value for a well-built vise. |
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| It is attached with four bolts countersunk into the top, spaced carefully to avoid any of the ribs. The main bolt of the vise and the two guide rods pass through the table frame via 1-inch holes. The top edge of the vise jaws is just slightly lower than the plane of the table top. |
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| Finally I drilled 16 holes for benchdogs. They are standard 3/4-inch holes. |
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