Introduction (updated with pictures of workbench build progress)

[Admiral]

Welcome, and nice work so far!

[Ken P]

Sean welcome to the forum, I know you will enjoy and learn here. I have about worn out the page in the Landis book on that bench. I have wanted one like it for years. Then along came CS and Woodworking magazine with the Roubo. Now eight years later I have two Roubos. Still look at that picture occasionally. While coming home from Maine we came by Hanock Shaker Village. It is the home of that bench, got a picture with my bil and myself in front of it. The camera was operated by the resident woodworker, that woodworker a regular on this forum known as Cloudy. Still would like to have a bench like that and not an inch shorter.

Ken

[SSolomon]

Ok, now for a little bit about the bench. I think the Roubo benches are pretty cool, but I also really like the idea of having nice orderly drawers where everything has its place. When I saw a picture of the Hancock bench I had to have it. I settled on using European Beech to build it because I really like the color, and I have always thought of Beech as a wood for making tools--why not make my largest tool of all out of it? It also helps that it was considerably cheaper to buy than maple. I found a few different places to buy it, but PeachState Lumber in Atlanta had the best prices/quantity. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it anywhere in 12 foot lengths, so my bench won't be quite the monster that the Hancock bench is. It'll be a mere 10 feet wide. I'm making it 32 inches deep so that the drawers, which are shallower than the top due to overhang, are long enough to accommodate my No. 8.

Back in January I went to Peachstate after visiting family in Atlanta for the holidays and loaded my truck down with 8/4 beech and 4/4 poplar. When I got home I put it in my basement shop and waited a couple weeks for it to acclimate. Then the real work began. My only option for ripping the 10 foot 8/4 boards was by hand. I did my best to sharpen my rip saw, snapped some chalk lines, and went to town:



Needless to say, it was a ton of work. It took probably 45 minutes to an hour to rip through all 10 feet. I wasn't too great at following the lines, and ended up generating a fair amount of work for myself planing the boards flat. Fortunately, after a while the sawing got a little more accurate (though there's a lot of improvement to be made).

I smoothed the faces with my Stanley No. 8 type 6 and glued the boards together one at a time - trying to glue multiples was a little daunting. I have a limited amount of time to spend in the shop, so I was happy to get one, maybe two, boards glued together a week:



After getting several glued up I decided to go ahead and plane what I had to a reasonably flat state so that I could use it as a work surface. This also was a ton of work, and it taught me the importance of focusing on my sawing to get straighter lines:




With about 20 inches of the top completed, I decided to change gears for a while and start working on the base/cabinet. I used the completed portion of the top with a 13 inch wide board laying down behind it as my workbench. I'm doing my best to follow the blueprints from the Landis book, but I had to make some adjustments for the bench being 2 feet shorter.

Here's what I've done so far of the base (it's dry fit together sitting on my 1/2 way finished top):



I've plowed grooves all the way around the sides and back so I can use frame/panel instead of tongue and groove:



My next step will be to install vertical member supporting the long rails. I'm trying to figure out now how wide to make the drawers and doors of the cabinet. I thinking of making the cabinet portion only one door wide so that the drawers can be wider. Not sure though.

When it's finished the cabinet will be painted with milk paint. Probably a lexington/sea green color.

Anyways, that's where I am now. It's slow going, but I really enjoy it. Can't wait to get it finished, and get my flax-baked Benchcrafted hardware installed. Having a proper work surface is going to be awesome.

Regards,

Sean

[Bibliophile 13]

Impressive looking bench so far, Sean.

It's great to see another Alabaman on the forum, too. I'm way down here at the southern end.

[DaveParkis]

Welcome to the Forum!! Lots of knowledgeable folks here and lots of fun. Very, very nice work you've posted.

[BaileyNo5]

Welcome to the forum and I am very impressed with your bench build. You seem to be a very discerning woodworker and I am looking forward to more posts.

I just have one question. Did the Walker-Turner bandsaw idea pop into your head immediately following the multiple 10-foot rips?

[SSolomon]

BaileyNo5 said:

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I just have one question. Did the Walker-Turner bandsaw idea pop into your head immediately following the multiple 10-foot rips?

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Bingo! My interest in getting a power tool or two certainly went up with this project. I really like working by hand, but after a while the ripping started to feel more like work than fun. The WT was a bit of a mess when I got it. I've just recently got it running, but haven't managed to use it to ease the labor on my workbench yet.

At this point I'm tempted to finish out the project by hand. Later I'll be able to look at this huge bench and be satisfied that I made something that big by hand (at which point I'll fire up the WT for my long rips).

[rhino]

Welcome aboard.

As you are finding out, building your own bench (and then using it) are among the more satisfying elements of woodworking. There is a tremendous amout of knowledge in this forum, particularly in hand tools, so be sure to ask lots of questions, and please start threads. I am often surprised at the discussions that are generated from what seem like binary questoins to me.

[rlance]

Sean.....welcome to this forum.....I was also influenced by the Landis book and Shaker benches.....I built my bench years ago before much of the current hardware was available....I used a Record 53E for a shoulder vise and built a Frank Klausz type tail vise.....it is a very satisfying project to make your own bench....and very arduous.....my shop influenced the size of my bench at just over 7' in length.....at 10', you are building a big bench......I'm looking forward to following your build.

[SSolomon]

Ok guys, here's my first call for help. The workbench is going to have two sets of drawers, with a cabinet on the left. Between the banks of drawers there is a one-inch think divider where the drawer runners will be dadoed in. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how this divider is supposed to be installed into the frame though.

It's supposed to go in like this:



But how is it supposed to be joined to the long rails? Do I install a vertical post at the front and back and install the divider like a frame/panel assembly? Should there be a piece going across the bottom? It doesn't seem like the divider is supported very well (it'll be holding a fair amount of weight with the drawers installed). The drawings in the Landis book are pretty good, but I can't really figure out this bit.

Thanks in advance,

Sean