I’m pretty new to woodworking.. I mean, I’ve been reading the Schwarz for about two years now, so I feel like I KNOW a lot. But actually DOING those things is another story. Mitered dovetails sure look easy in a blog post, I’m just saying.
Anyways, you can only stare at beautiful furniture and tools for so long; eventually you’ve got to get cracking. I’ve built a couple things, but nothing huge. I’ve done enough, however, to know that my sears craftsman workbench and it’s horrible, wrack-prone vises and barely attached top is more of a hindrance than help. When you spend half your time trying to secure your work to the bench so you can actually get to doing the joinery, you’ve got a problem.
The solution? Well, like I said I’ve been a disciple of C. Schwarz, so obviously a Roubo. But if Schwarz is our modern woodworking Jesus, than Jameel Abraham of Benchrafted is the Father and Holy Ghost. I mean, look at this bench.
That being said, I ordered up a pair of Benchcrafted vises and Jameel’s bench plans. The bench is almost done, but over the next few posts I’ll detail the build a little bit, and show some of the construction pictures (the few that I’ve taken).
To start off tho.. A pile of Ash. Oh, Ash. A heavy, damned wood that will take my freshly sharpened chisel and turn it’s edge into something that resembles a lawnmower blade that’s taken a turn through a gravel driveway.
After a bit of milling, we’ve got a pile of square, leg-sized lumber ready for glue! I love glue-ups! Just kidding, of course. I hate glue-ups, and if I was doing this again my primary goal would be to buy some 12/4 and 16/4 lumber to avoid the glue-spread and clamping dance.
Eventually we’ve got some glued legs, some stretchers, and plans to hit the drill press for some mortising. We’ll leave that for the next post though.
Don’t you love these build threads? It compresses hours and days of works into a 2 minute read. Makes chumps like me think “oh, man I could build that bench in like, 2 weekends tops, no problem.” Wrong.
Next up: Mortising, tenons on looong rails, and massive bench hardware.
– Matt