British Joiners Bench


G S Haydon

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Mel,

 

It was a tough one. The Schwarz in his very good book on the topic makes a very compelling case for the French type. I even designed my own Roubo and uploaded it to the sketchup Library on this Forum. I swayed between the two types for many Months.

 

A few of the reasons I went British was cultural, I'm British and it felt right to interact with that.

It's a quick build (why am I not finished then  :)). I think if I could get a whole day I could nearly make one complete.

I don't need a bench to build a traditional bench.

It's cheap to build. A while ago I think popular woodworking did the "$175 Workbench". Excluding your vice choice I think this bench would easily come within that bracket.

I will not shed a tear when I hit it, chip it, stain it, tear a chunk out of it etc

It's proven, pick up nearly any UK joinery text from the 1820's to the present day and you will see a variation on this theme.

I like choosing the underdog.

You gonna tel me some old cheese eating surrender monkeys designed a better bench, get outta here  :lol:.

I'm going to stop now because I'm reminded of this guy . I did that exact thing at college when asked how many types of doors I could think of, got half way through and all of a sudden all I could think about was shrimp  :lol:

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I'm still surprised that after reading the Schwarz book on workbenches, you decided to go against the Roubo bench. That guy loves those benches :)

 

Are you kidding? We fought them for over a hundred years! (And came second  :( ). Nice videos Graham, though I'd love to hear a bit more grunting, or a tongue sticking out in concentration. You're making things seem far too easy.

 

John

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Leg frames have been glued up today. On joinery like this I don't think you can beat a good wedge. In my mind at least it kinda creates the Holly Grail of joints. A fully enclosed dovetail. I like to drive the wedges into the tenon. My reasoning is that the wedge has two faces of long grain to bond to whereas when driven against the outer edges of the tenon there is only one long grain bond. The wedges on the outer faces also, in my mind at least, only create a tight joint whereas the wedges in the tenon make the tenon actually part and fit the splayed mortice. 

Needles to say I'm a fan of wedging.

 

post-11619-0-15339100-1378159578_thumb.j

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Bench-Aprons.jpg?resize=653%2C490

 

Hopefully some more progress this week. British benches are known for those wide aprons. These aprons provide extra rigidity to the bench, reinforce the typically thinner top and provide a location for bench pegs or holdfasts.

I did a little experiment on some scrap wood using an 18mm bit to bore a hole to see if the Richard Maguire Tomes Holdfast would work well in the 38mm – 1.5″ apron and bench top. I had my concerns as nearly all holfasts I have seen have been used in thicker French style tops. I need not had worried, they clamped down very hard hard indeed.

All the holes were bored with an old Stanley brace and bit. Nothing special, plastic handles, pitted chrome, still worked like a dream though. 

 

Workbench-build-aprons.jpg?resize=593%2C

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This is looking good! I like the large front apron! Makes me second guess a big decision I am about to make regarding my bench!

 

Mel I was going French for a long time, but I felt this type of bench is perhaps not the evolutionary dead end the Schwarz thought it was in his book. At the end of the day it's impossible to cover all bases in a design and I look forward to finding out the pros a cons of this bench. It's cheap and quick too, which is nice  :).

 

Chet Golf is something I still don't understand, I'd much rather see Nelson use his wedgy skills on Millhouse than Ian Rose use his Wedge on the green  :).

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