Workbench construction details
Workbench home

This is the top en route to completion. It is sitting on my previous bench, a $70 Wal-Mart special. It worked ok, but the stresses of hand tools really beat it up. The top is made out of oak runners on the bottom of pallets. What is now the top of the bench used to be the part of the pallet that touched the ground.

The top, up to the point of figuring out building the enclosed tail vise. You can also see my old plane rack - two barstools, mdf and a radio. And, of course - the first aid kit (with a few band-aides missing from various "wow, that was sharp" moments).

To do much of the work (especially the dog holes and tail vise), I needed the bench firmly on it's side. I took some of the less savory pallet wood and built this vertical cradle. It worked well.
Throughout virtually all of the bench construction, I moved the bench by hand alone. I used a lot of mechanical advantages, but there are a couple corners dinged from it slipping. At one point, the new bench fell off the old bench top and hit the old bench shelf - that' wasn't pretty. The new top was untouched, the old shelf was in three pieces on the floor.
In the foreground - the single biggest purchase of the bench - a 8/4 white oak plank 8" across, 7' long.

The base after I glued up the sides and the four main stringers. All of that was held in place by an oak dowel going in each side/stringer joint as well as a 1/2" x 6" bolt and glue.
I am pretty proud of the base sides. The legs and feet/top are three or five layers of wood glued up to make mortise and tenon joints and a frame for the panel. The panel is four pieces of wood tonge and grooved together, which I did with my stanley 55.

My biggest challenge from the pallet wood - making a solid contact between the top and the base. This was my solution, and the main use of power in the bench construction. The benchtop was roughed flat, and placed top-down on the floor. This cradle had same-thickness sides, a mdf top and a fence. This strattled the top. I lined it up where one side of a joint needed to be, and made the cut. I repeated that multiple times until I had a smooth place for the base to contact the top.

Here's the results. Man, that top underside is one scary looking place. Good thing you have to lay on the shop floor on your back to see it.

The top is attached to the base with four 1/2" x 6" bolts, covered with removeable cocobolo inserts. First, the hole in the top.

Square the hole, leaving enough room for a socket.

Bolt/washer

Insert planed down

The endcaps under construction. The tongue on both ends of the bench were done with my previously mentioned jig. The right end cap I probably spent two weeks on alone. It has a groove for the end tongue, the hardware for the vise, dovetails for the apron, two bolt holes (one for expansion) to hold it all in place.

We have three beagles, but in the shop - these are my dogs. Simple, very effective.s