After years of working on a 4 and a half foot less-than-premiere Scandinavian style workbench, and learning through research and experience what it lacked, I decided on a design for a new workbench.
So after a fairly lengthy search, I scored some spalted Red Maple for the frame and top slab. The log from which it came was massive, and took some maneuvering to get the pieces cut on my cousin's mill. The slab for the bench top was cut on the side of the log pith and still measures 21" wide and about 4 3/4" thick in the rough.
The log had dried for 2 years, and the slabs I dried over the winter outside before bringing it into the shop. I rough cut and stacked the pieces, letting the wood acclimate between other projects, sometimes months at a time.
I took some time to work on the leg vise after buying a wooden screw from Evans Wooden Screw Co.
The next step will be bringing the slab to a local shop with a large planer to make the other side co planer with this one. It will save a few hours of work. Final smoothing will be done by hand, though.
These next few pics show the leg mortises and tenons. Pretty straight forward.
The leg vise guide mortise was carefully done, tweaking it so the guide slides with little slop.
So after a fairly lengthy search, I scored some spalted Red Maple for the frame and top slab. The log from which it came was massive, and took some maneuvering to get the pieces cut on my cousin's mill. The slab for the bench top was cut on the side of the log pith and still measures 21" wide and about 4 3/4" thick in the rough.
The log had dried for 2 years, and the slabs I dried over the winter outside before bringing it into the shop. I rough cut and stacked the pieces, letting the wood acclimate between other projects, sometimes months at a time.
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| Legs and rails |
I took some time to work on the leg vise after buying a wooden screw from Evans Wooden Screw Co.
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| The backside (inside vise jaw) had a fairly shallow split in it, which I reinforced just to be safe. |
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| I used a hole saw to drill the through hole from both sides |
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| After gouge and rasp clean-up. It just needs to clear the threads of the screw. |
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| "Old vs. New vs. Old." The new old-style leg vise mounted upside-down on my old new style Scandinavian bench. The leg nut is on the bench in the background. You can see the Walnut garter that was supplied with the screw, which I will replace with a custom one. |
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| Working on garter design |
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| Final design and garter traced on Book-matched Walnut. The two halves are temp-installed on a scrap piece for drilling. I just need to buy the correct size Forstner bit for the center. |
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| The five inch slab has a slight cup and twist, which is normal. I will be truing it soon, and it should dress out about 3 3/4" thick. |
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| Truing the work bench top with winding sticks and a scrub plane. The straight-planed sticks accentuate any twist in a board when looking across both at the same time. You can see the left foreground and right background surfaces were high spots have been planed down. |
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| Slight twist and slight cup of this side apparent in this picture |
The next step will be bringing the slab to a local shop with a large planer to make the other side co planer with this one. It will save a few hours of work. Final smoothing will be done by hand, though.
These next few pics show the leg mortises and tenons. Pretty straight forward. 
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| Drilling dog holes |
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| Deadman groove routed |
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| Cutting front dovetails |
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| Cleaning the dovetail center to register the chisels against, and clean up the hard to reach areas. |
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| Pieces laid out, ready to assemble. I used polyurethane glue, with its long open time, for assembly |
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| I made a bunch of wedges, although I only needed a few during assembly. The one pictured inserted on the face of the tenon is inserted just to fill a slight gap, as driving a wedge deep here would likely split it. |
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| Oak pegs installed, time to let it sit over night. |
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