Craftsman’s workbench

By Gary Walchuk

Photo by Roger Yip

After many months of researching, dreaming and drawing, I finally came up with a design for my craftsman’s workbench. While planning, I took time to consider as many workbench features as possible. Mine is smaller than a lot of showcase bench designs, but it’s well suited to my  basement workshop. It’s also sturdy enough to handle most of the chores required for the size and type of woodworking I enjoy. If you’re ready for a challenging project that will help to improve everything else you build afterward, this bench is worth your time.

I do a lot of routing and belt-sanding, and for this, the end vise, bench dogs and bench surface hold much of my work in place. Still, I love traditional tasks such as hand planing, sawing and chiselling, especially when working on handcut dovetails. For these jobs, I really value the workings of a good shoulder vise.
To add extra storage capacity and weight to this smaller bench, I planned for a bank of drawers over the plain stretcher boards normally used to tie the leg assemblies together. The drawers are useful and they add stability to the whole bench, making it rock solid.

The wood I chose for this project dictated the final dimensions of the bench, including some rough-sawn two-inch-thick curly maple and some 1 1/2″ plain maple for the top. After sizing and hand planing the curly maple, I could only get 1 7/8″ of smooth thickness out of my stock, so all of the thicker parts listed had to be made from laminated boards. Wherever I had to laminate two pieces of wood, I took care to use the showiest board face on the outside for the best visual effect. If you can find lumber thick enough to build without laminating, you’ll save hours of heavy-duty resawing, planing and gluing.

It’s a good idea to have the vises and your other bench hardware on hand so that as you build you can keep in mind just how they’ll fit in. To make this bench come together as the flat, square tool it needs to be, take extra care to make your joinery exact and check for squareness frequently. Dry-fitting parts is essential before you get out the glue bottle. Once these hefty parts are joined, you won’t be able to make adjustments. Any holes to be drilled are also easier to make and generally straighter if done with a drillpress while parts are still separate. If you chamfer and sand all edges and corners before assembly, you’ll also save time in the end.

There are four main assemblies in this craftsman’s bench: the top, the left-leg frame, the right-leg frame and the drawer unit.

In describing bench locations, I’ll call the drawer side of the bench the front, the shoulder vise is on the left, and the end vise is on the right.

Instructions

Part Material Size (T x W x L*) Qty.

For each benchtop

Top strips maple 1 3/8" x 2 1/2" x 54" 13
Back apron maple 1" x 4" x 55 1/2" 1
Front apron maple 1" x 4" x 54 3/4" 1
Right end cap maple 1 3/8" x 5" x 20" 1
End vise jaw maple 2 1/2" 5" x 20" 1
Left end cap maple 2 1/2" x 4" x 30 3/4" 1
Splines plywood 1/2" x 1" x 18"** 2
Vise arm maple 3 1/4" x 4" x 20 1/2" 1
Vise block Baltic birch plywood 3" x 6 1/4" x 7 1/2" 1
Vise guide maple 3/4" x 4" x 7 1/2" 1
Shoulder vise board jatoba 1" x 4" x 11 1/2" 1
Vise accent jatoba 1/4" x 6 3/4" x 7 1/2" 1
Large vise
(LV #70G08.02 )
Lee Valley Large Front Vise 1
Shoulder vise screw
(LV #70G01.51)
Lee Valley Should Vise Screw 1
Vise handles
(LV #05G12.03)
Lee Valley Tail Vise Handles 2
Threaded rod plated steel 3/8"-diameter x 16 1/4" 1
Washers and nuts plated steel 3/8"-diameter 2

For the leg assemblies

Left foot maple 2 3/8" x 4 1/2" x 30" 1
Right foot maple 2 3/8" x 4 1/2" x 23" 1
Legs maple 1 7/8" x 3" x 27 1/2" 4
Left front leg maple 1 7/8" x 2 1/2" x 27 1/2" 1
Left top rail maple 1 7/8" x 2" x 29 3/4" 1
Right top rail maple 1 7/8" x 2" x 18 1/2" 1
Tenon dowels cherry 1/4"-diameter x 1" 15

For the drawer unit

Top and bottom maple ply 3/4" x 15 3/4" x 38 1/2" 2
Sides maple ply 3/4" x 15 3/4" x 5 1/2" 2
Side edge accents jatoba 1/4" x 3/8" x 15 3/4" 4
Side stiffeners maple ply 3/4" x 14 3/4" x 4 1/2" 2
Edge caps maple 1/4" x 3/4" x 5"** 4 4
Partitions maple ply 3/4" x 14 3/4" x 5" 2
Back maple ply 3/4" x 4 1/2" x 37 1/2" 1
Drawer runners maple 1/8" x 3/4" x 15" 6
Stile caps maple 5/8" x 1 1/8" x 6" 4
Rail caps maple 5/8" x 3/4" x 36 3/4" 4
Supports maple 1" x 2" x 10 1/2" 4
Outside drawer fronts maple 5/8" x 4 7/16" x 10 7/16" 2
Centre drawer front maple 5/8" x 4 7/16" x 15 11/16" 1
Ouside drawer boxes hardwood 4 5/16" x 9 11/16" x 14 3/4"*** 2
Centre drawer box hardwood 4 5/16" x 14 15/16" x 14 3/4"*** 1
Drawer pulls jatoba 3/4" x 1" x 6 1/2" 3
Top accent rails jatoba 1/2" x 1/2" x 39" 2

**Cut to length required. ***H x W x L



* Length indicates grain direction

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