The most important tool in my shop!

Hey everyone,

I am new to the site after I received an invitation to join. I thought the best way to introduce myself would be to share with your the build of my most important tool in my shop. At the first of this year, I embarked on my first hand tool project. I build a proper workbench using Paul Sellers plans. I used only hand tools. The workbench has become the main work area of my small wood shop. I hope you enjoy the video and thanks for the warm welcome to your site. This website and community is a wealth of information that I did not know existed. Looking forward to contributing to the community.

This video is a summation of many months and hours of work!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzHMfhUK4R0&t=1s

Jim

A really great looking work bench but far too painful to watch

It is fascinating, to see the old style joinery. I always loved climbing in my great grandpa's big ole barn. You could still see the scratches form the lay out of all the joints in the heavy hand hewn beech beams! Then thinking about cutting the huge old growth trees with a double ended hand saw, limbing it with a axe or hand saw, and dragging it out of the woods... Unfortunately the years, and the wind and the rain and the ground hogs and the bugs took it down. BUT, it lasted much longer than many of the modern concrete and steel structures we have these days. We still use some of the furniture that was in his old house. The scribe marks are still undet the few pieces we have. It should humble all of us.

Few have as much patience as you!! Perhaps ... consider fast motion for some parts of your videos.

Thanks Frank and hemmjo

Good work. But I hope you will not regret using softwood lumber for the top. Its tendency to splinter means you must be cautious when brushing debris from it.

What made it painful to watch was it brought back a memory of My grandfather making a particularly ornate door for a guy and his wife. After spending months planing mortising gluing carving and sanding on a door that was shaped and over-sized of any standard door He was on about the 20th hand rubbing of it out in the sunlight when the couple showed up . The man took one look at it and said it was the most perfect door he had ever seen but the wife said I don't know, I was expecting something a little different.
Grandpa said Madam point out to me what you would like changed after she did, he said that's no problem then calmly spilled a a can of thinner on it and struck a match to it. The guy screamed what are you doing? then grabbed a 5 gallon pail of water and doused the flames.
Grandpa said your misses didn't like it I'm going to make her one that she likes, this door cannot be altered the way she wants and it will not fit anything else.
So the guy had a few very choice words with his wife then pulled out his wallet and handed Gramps' 3 times what grandpa would have charged for it. If that house is still standing I would lay bet that the slightly charred door is still hanging at their entry way.

Great build Jim.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Philip Davies

But I hope you will not regret using softwood lumber for the top. Its tendency to splinter means you must be cautious when brushing debris from it.

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There are pros and cons for softwood and hardwood tops. A lot can depend on the type of work to be done. A softwood top is much more forgiving when you drop a crisp sharp corner of a finished piece of furniture on it. My radiata pine bench top is standing the test of time. 30 years on and only 2 sandings back

Cheers Phil

Impressive and beautiful. I wish my hands and wrists were still capable of that type of work.
When I was living near Cincinnati, Ohio I would take road trips out east of the city and just explore the back roads.
There had been many Amish/Mennonite/Shaker/Quaker communities throughout the area and I loved looking at
the barns and houses etc. Some of the best examples of timber frame construction and various other techniques.

The best find was an old workshop that had started in the 1800's. Originally all hand work but some sections had been converted to pulley run machines powered from the (now dried up) creek that ran along side. The current owner retained and maintained many of those old machines but ran the pulley drive using an old Ford 8 cylinder engine. I have heard that it has since burned down. What a great loss!

Thank you for the inspiration to continue working on my own shop!

That does sound painful! Building the bench though was just good exercise.

Phillip so far I have no regrets! One day I might build another bench out of hardwood.

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Thanks for your gracious reply to my tentatively-worded comment.

Cool! Thanks

wow, I wanted to scream break out the power tools but I was at the library.

Scream or not, you have a bench that should last a long time and help produce excellent results. As for softwoods not lasting I really doubt that it will be a factor. The only thing I might do is mix up some thin epoxy to soak into the end grain, especially the dog holes. You could probably use other glues that can be thinned enough to wick into the end grain.