Jeb74 Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Hello, You may remember my thread a while back about the joinery class at Marc Adams. Well, as a result of that class I got bit by the hand tool bug and I decided I needed a proper bench. I looked around and tried to find a design that I liked. But other than the class, I have never used a workbench. So I really didn't know what I wanted. Then Woodcraft had a sale a couple months back and in it was the Sjoberg 1450 workbench for what I thought was a decent deal. So I decided to buy this bench to get me started for now and then I can start designing the bench I really want in my head/sketchup over time and with more experience. It didn’t take long before I started to realize that this thing was, although a decent bench, way too light and not very rigid. I thought that maybe I could weight it down with some weight lifting plates, but the puny shelf between the legs just was not going to support much. What to do? I needed to weight this thing down and stiffen it up. My first thought was I need a cabinet. Woodcraft sells a cabinet that goes under this bench, but I really didn’t like the design. There are only 4 drawers and a large cabinet area with cheap looking sliding doors. Plus it doesn’t totally enclose the space, with quite a bit of empty space above and below the cabinet. I thought this was a waste of space and not really worth the 170 bucks they were asking for it. I had never built a cabinet before, but after just attending the class at Marc Adams I had the confidence that I could pull off a decent cabinet for this workbench. After all, it is just a workbench cabinet, right? I mean, even if I screwed up royally, nobody will really see it but me. Also, this workbench did not have a tool tray which I found to be very inconvenient. So I did it! I built a very heavy, very rigid cabinet for this workbench. This workbench started out almost unusable because of the lack of weight and rigidity. Now it is a tank! Very heavy, especially with all my tools in it! I still don’t think it is the bench I will have for the rest of my life, but it is a good start. I also built the tool tray on the back myself. Cabinet details: Pretty much everything is Hard Maple and Maple ply. I used 3/4” ply all around and for the drawers because I wanted as much weight as possible. Drawer corners are box joints. The bottoms were made out of 1/2” red oak ply, because that is what I had on hand. Finished with BLO. Tray details: Made from American Sycamore with ½” Maple ply for bottom. Corners are hand cut dovetails. Finished with BLO. Overall, I am very pleased with this cabinet. It turned out much better than I had even dreamed. The total time on the project was probably about 60 hours and well worth it. Now for some pics! One last thing! You will notice the holes in the centers of the drawers. Obviously those are for the pulls. I have a friend who likes to turn wood. So I asked him to make me some pulls for this cabinet. He should have them done and I will put a new picture with them installed when I get them. Oh, and they will be made from Walnut for contrast :biggrin: Thanks for looking!! J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Great job! How tall is that bench? Looks quite tall. Of course, I'm short, so everything looks tall to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeb74 Posted June 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Great job! How tall is that bench? Looks quite tall. Of course, I'm short, so everything looks tall to me. Thanks Vic, The bench originally comes 34" tall. I decided it wasn't high enough for me, I don't like to stoop over very much. As you can see, I raised the bench about 4" to a total height of 38". This height seems to work better for me. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Thanks Vic, The bench originally comes 34" tall. I decided it wasn't high enough for me, I don't like to stoop over very much. As you can see, I raised the bench about 4" to a total height of 38". This height seems to work better for me. J Wow, how tall are you? I'm assuming that's not primarily a planing bench. I plan on building a Roubo for planing and do an auxiliary bench for the top to bring it up to dovetailing height. I'm guessing my final height on the bench itself will be right about 31", as I'm 5' 7". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texfire Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Nicely done there, been thinking of doing the same thing for my Sjoberg. Have you made provisions for clamping stuff to the benchtop? The reason I ask is I was thinking of leaving enough room underneath the top of my hypothetical drawers to fit some clamps if I needed to be able to secure a piece with something other than the end vise/face vise and dogs. I like the tool tray in the back, am I correct in assuming that you made that as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeb74 Posted June 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Wow, how tall are you? I'm assuming that's not primarily a planing bench. I plan on building a Roubo for planing and do an auxiliary bench for the top to bring it up to dovetailing height. I'm guessing my final height on the bench itself will be right about 31", as I'm 5' 7". I am about 5'11". I still have not even learned how to use handplanes yet, but it is on the list. This bench may be too high for planing, but I can always take my risers out and make it shorter again. But like I said, I don't really know what I want yet, so I gotta start somewhere J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeb74 Posted June 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Nicely done there, been thinking of doing the same thing for my Sjoberg. Have you made provisions for clamping stuff to the benchtop? The reason I ask is I was thinking of leaving enough room underneath the top of my hypothetical drawers to fit some clamps if I needed to be able to secure a piece with something other than the end vise/face vise and dogs. I like the tool tray in the back, am I correct in assuming that you made that as well? Hi, thanks! Other than the back of the bench where the tray is, there should be enough room to get a clamp under there. I haven't tested that yet, but theoretically it should work. And I guess if I didn't clamp to hard, I could clamp it to the tray in the back. We'll see! Oh, and yes I made the tray too! It is American Sycamore with dovetailed corners. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeb74 Posted June 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 I received and installed the drawer pulls today. The pulls are Walnut, finished with BLO. I think it looks great! I don't want to get it dirty now...lol. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 Ah, looks very sweet with the Walnut knobs!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwood Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 Looks great. I like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harmsdph Posted June 11, 2011 Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 very nice job, fits the bench well, i like the dovetailed face frame! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texfire Posted June 11, 2011 Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 Ah man, now I want to build one. I need to weight my Sjoberg down, and more storage is always nice. Anything you'd do differently the second time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeb74 Posted June 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2011 Ah man, now I want to build one. I need to weight my Sjoberg down, and more storage is always nice. Anything you'd do differently the second time? mmmm....Not really. I made some mistakes along the way, but for the most part it turned out better than I expected. If you dovetail the face frame like I did, just go half way through, not all the way. That is probably the biggest thing I would do different. Other than that, I am pretty pleased. Thanks, J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texfire Posted June 13, 2011 Report Share Posted June 13, 2011 I kinda like the exposed dovetails on the face frame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeb74 Posted June 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 I kinda like the exposed dovetails on the face frame. I really like the look as well, but I would just cut them differently, that's all J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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