Woodworker's Journal 2006-30-Winter, страница 17
Workshop Classic: A Bench You Can Rely OnA family tradition continues with this no-nonsense maple workbench. Granddad would likely approve. Four Bench Building Basics: 1. If you regularly build furniture or cabinets, the space between the last bench dog and the wide open vise jaw should accommodate a standard five-foot base cabinet. 2. To ensure stability when lateral force is exerted on it, a bench should outweigh the user by about 50%. -42"- 3. One row of bench dog holes should be set in a few extra inches. This makes it a little easier to support doors, drawers and other large parts during clamping. 3. One row of bench dog holes should be set in a few extra inches. This makes it a little easier to support doors, drawers and other large parts during clamping.
35 4. A good rule of thumb is to size your bench so that the top is half as tall as the primary user. The worktop on regular contributor John English's grandfather's bench was a pair of railroad ties with an eight-inch gap down the middle. Granddad, who lived in Ireland, was a skilled artisan who built coaches and wagons. John's father is pretty good with his hands, too. The bench in his Dublin workshop is better suited to the work he does — refinishing antique furniture, tuning small engines — than Granddad's would be. The three-inch-thick hardwood top rests on an iron frame, but the vise is a metalworker's and the top shows scars of butane torches, solder and even a few errant hammer blows. The point is that a workbench is personal — it must match both the work and the worker. Neither of the benches described above would be suitable for fine woodworking, but the model shown here is ideal for building furniture and casework. And it's easily modified to suit an individual craftsman's needs. Starting with a Few Design Basics John built this workbench to fit his six-foot-tall body. The rule of thumb is to locate the worktop at half the height of the user (in this case, 35/8"). If you need to build it higher or lower, simply adjust the length of the legs (see the Leg Subassembly Drawings on page 22). The top of the bench features two parallel rows of bench dog holes. The front row is close to the edge, but the back row is set in a few inches to help support wide subassemblies like drawers or cabinet doors. The top is large Winter 2006 17 |
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