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Making a Woodworking Bench- Making the base.

The 3 main considerations affecting the design for the base :

1) It must be hefty. Using heavy hardwood such as Kapur helps. Benches that are too light often "walk"across the shop while a piece of wood is being planed.

2) It must not rack. If you have planed a piece of wood on a rocky bench, you will know how that affects worksmanship.  All the books say having wide stretchers will reduce or eliminate racking. For my bench, I spread out 2 stretchers 7 inches apart to mimic the effect. At this point, I want to add that if you are building a bench or thinking about it, read Scott Landis' The Workbench Book. Nothing compares to this book interms of scope and depth. From boatbuilding to snowshoe carving, the tools of the trade (the tool being the highly evolved work bench) was given an in-depth coverage. Again, I will buy you a pint, if you will prove me wrong.

3) The base and its members: the stretchers, rails, legs, must allow flexible clamping configaration. It must not hamper or impede work holding.

To a lesser extent, I've chosen mechanical fasteners (bolts & nuts in this case) over traditional joinery (such as wedged or draw-bored mortise & tenon) for the possibility of the bench being disassembled. You never know what life brings, and I would want to be high and dry without a bench, or start over again just because I cannot move the bench. Build it once, and build it right.


 These 3/8" threaded rods comes in 6 foot lenghts, so it is necessary to cut down to size. I would have used carriage bolts had I been able to find the correct lenght/size configuration.

 My P-Bench Vise set-up for small metal working.(P is for pathetic) Untill the bench is completed the real McCoy, a Record 4" Engineer Vice I've hoarded for years can be jig mounted in the woodworking vise. I am using a junior hacksaw here for a good reason: The thinner the saw  blade, the easier the cut, since less metal needs to be removed. A regular hacksaw would have needed more heave-ho and a bigger vise.
 The saw marks are removed, along with the burrs at the circumference. You can file a slight chamfer to ease screwing into the nut.


Some handy things to have around:(From top) A brush to clear the iron filing, Junior hacksaw, chalk to rub your file so the filing don't get stuck, a mill bastard file and a smooth(single cut) file.


Dry fitting the base (Ain't never gonna be wet or glued anyway) Here, any deviation in dimensioning can be corrected; a long bolt filed short, a narrow mortise widened, an erant tenon shoulder evened out and slighly undercut, etc.
If you did and cut everything reasonable close to plan, you should end up with a sturdy base. Mine is rock solid, with no trace of racking, but I am still able to push in across the floor with one hand in spite of the weight. I guess 4 pieces of cut rubber mat to go under the feet is in order.

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