While woodworking workbench ideas x 4 framing timber is still used, they also add 1 x 2 as well as 1 x 3 timber. A Few of My Favorite Holes. Workbench plans help you discover simple techniques for how to build a workbench. A spacious, sturdy, flat workbench is woodworking workbench ideas crown jewel of your DIY workspace. Adding a small woodworking vice to one corner allows you to clamp projects down securely, and frees up your hands for other things.

However there was always something with higher priority, and I never got around to it. JPG Then, last December, while working on my…. Workbench plans help you discover simple techniques for how to build a workbench. Workbench plans are available via a downloadable PDF. Workbench - plans, ideas, designs to know before buying or building a workbench for your garage or shop. The vise chop snapped and the garter on the wooden screw gave way. While I could repair the damage, I decided to replace the entire mechanism with a Benchcrafted Classic vise and a Crisscross Retro.

I have this setup on one of my other benches…. For the many-hundredth time last week, I explained the virtues of simple workbenches to a skeptical audience of 10 workbench builders. Their benches were sketched out with complex tail vises, multiple rows of dogs, twin-screw vises, quick-release vises and other assorted bench appliances. As always, I shrugged my shoulders and smiled….

Popular Woodworking. This workbench design is a simple and inexpensive DIY project that anyone can complete in their garage workshop. We are making the workbench plans available for download, check the link at the bottom of the post! Some might not like the idea…. David Thiel. Each bench and each maker has a process and something unique that they want to add to their bench — and they darn well should! Tim Celeski. My last several posts have been about how the BARN workbench vise chops were designed.

This post…. In my last few posts, I showed how two different vise chops designs were created for the BARN workbenches. One technique was based on an easy to use 3D CAD tool: extrusion. Armed with a squiggly line, that gave me a 3D ripple in a hurry. The second chop was created using rule-based clone copies….

Rather than a square and blocky shape for the vise, I used 3D drawing tools in Rhino3D to give it a gently curved…. Because I was still at the beginning stage of the project, I also designed and built a jig that holds the blank stock during machining on a CNC. Now that the basics are out of the way,…. The chop profile is a simple curved shape. A workbench designed for hand tool woodworkers but made partially with a CNC.

Each bench features a unique 3D carved leg vise. BARN is a Seattle area community group that built a wonderful community…. Sitting at your workbench does not make you lazy. Many times it makes you smart. Chopping out the waste between dovetails requires endurance and patience — especially when building a large piece of casework with drawers.

If you sit while chopping, you conserve energy and your eyes are closer to your chisel, improving accuracy. It features a 3D carved leg vise and a workbench top designed to improve ergonomics. The island is directly across and a 35 minute ferry ride away from Seattle. Started by a group of enthusiastic woodworkers, the group has grown to include artisans with a…. I have a confession. I love workbenches. Workbench 1.

CNC Skills: Part One: All about Origin Points The Origin Point is your prime reference position No matter what kind of woodworking you do, reference points and accurate measurements are critically important for woodworkers. This is particularly true when using any kind of woodworking machinery. When traveling, there are many times when I wish for a toothed planing stop, especially when installing stuff where I rarely even have a bench.

Hommel MIT Press, , which focuses on tools used for making other tools blacksmithing , food, clothing, shelter and transportation. Unlike other…. Megan Fitzpatrick. The intro is…. While at Bloodline Merchants we also investigated this English workbench, which is almost certainly an early manual training bench. Parkinsons were made in the s and this example features early metal screw threads that are not….

While poking around Bloodline Merchants, a delightful import…. I built my first slab-top workbench in , which was published in the August issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When researching Roman workbenches, one of the things that leaped out at me was how low many of them were low, knee-high like a sawbench. After building a low bench based on drawings from Pompeii and Herculaneum, most visitors to my shop had one question: Were the Romans really short?

The answer is: no. Screw-driven vises are not modern inventions. The earliest screw-driven vise that I know of is this Italian vise that is circa I am always looking for earlier vises because the screw mechanism has been around since Archimedes, though his screw was originally used for irrigation.

This year I have been delving deep into a…. This will be my only public appearance in — I am in full-on hermit mode right now. Why the heck would an Arkansas boy build Roman workbenches? Seasoned, well-dried wood is good, but not for all things. The book is not a review of the historical literature sprinkled with speculation about how people worked…. Here is a question that has been going through my mind for more than a decade: When an 18th-century French woodworker started building a workbench, what was the moisture content of the wood?

Had it been seasoned for many years? Freshly cut? Something between? Lots of modern people have speculated about the answer, but I…. Graham Haydon. In the third part of this workbench build I get around to gluing up the leg frames. As I worked through my recent workbench project, I got a comment on one of the build videos about how the build might not be suitable for the inexperienced woodworker.

I reflected on that for a moment and I actually think they had a point. Doubtless we all complete very similar tasks, but we also all have our own preferences which leads to tweaking designs. We might take a little off the leg or add an extra dog whole, whatever makes things easier. The first test for my completed…. I am really pleased to have this workbench project done.

I had…. The first workbench I encountered at Pleasant Hill was a little non-standard by Shaker standards, but the second workbench was unusual by most any measuring stick for modern workbenches. It is a bit Roman, a bit English and has a lot of other interesting details worth thinking about.

When most people discuss Shaker workbenches, they conjure up images of massive cabinets with drawers and doors that are topped by a workbench top — plus a tail vise, leg vise and probably a sliding deadman. This form of workbench shows up in many of the East Coast Shaker communities, but in the Western communities,…. Apart from a lack of time, the shop the workbench project is progressing well.

On the last bench I made I used some heavy gauge screws and the aprons were made flush with the legs. Here is what…. Whenever I mention that I do this, I get a barrage of questions: Where do you buy suede? Any craft store, fabric store, Tandy etc. What glue do you use? Any glue. Hide, yellow glue, epoxy,…. After 19 years of building workbenches and testing workholding devices, I am darn picky about what equipment I have on my benches. But when it comes to my leg vise — the most important part of my bench….

And if I used a tail vise, I probably could get away with just two or three holdfast holes. The topic of…. Sometimes you can get a joint together no problem. But getting it apart is another matter.

With the joints for a heavy French workbench, disassembling a test-fit gives many beginning woodworkers a fit. Many times they end up slamming hammers or mallets on places that are easily bruised including their hands. The easiest way to….

The sliding dovetail joint on the heavy French workbench is one of its most distinctive features. And if you mess it up, everyone will notice. So today I took an hour to pare the female part of the joint with some care to get a tight fit with the male part on the leg.

One of the defining characteristics of the heavy French bench is its joinery — the top and legs are joined with a joint that is one-half through-tenon and one-half sliding dovetail.

The sliding dovetail is the easy bit. Saw the walls. Knock the waste out with a chisel. Clean the floor with a router plane…. The last time we built these French oak workbenches the wood was wet — sometimes out of the range….

All stock jointer fences stink. Anything that can be adjusted will eventually go out of adjustment. So today at the French Oak Roubo Project, we had…. This week a team of 25 woodworkers is in Barnesville, Ga. The book will be released on or about Oct. I spent several months earlier this year on the revision to the book and am quite pleased with the…. On the back of my last write up on the wooden try squares, Shawn was kind enough to ask a question about my workbench and in particular….

Saws, chisels and planes — the core tools of the furniture maker — are only mildly different in the East and West. While some people amplify those differences — pushing a saw vs. Though I find it darn-near impossible to believe, it has been more than five years since we published plans for a full-sized workbench.

But perhaps the Italians did? It happened to me quite often and at one point five years ago to be exact , after using a Wilton…. The revised book is scheduled to be out by the end of and printed in the United States. I started writing that book in , and a lot has changed….

During the last couple years of using this…. For the last 15 months I have been working on a bench without a deadman or a tail vise, so I am always looking out for novel solutions. This weekend a woodworker…. This week I have two vises that are worth a close look. It usually takes a year for a new workbench to settle down, and for me to put enough hours at it to form a half-decent opinion.

Every bench has plusses and minuses. OK, that last part…. Len Hovarter of Hovarter Custom Vise has developed a simple and inexpensive quick-release leg vise mechanism that looks quite ingenious. They slide in and out smoothly without a threaded rod. Then they engage the work with a short turn of the…. Take one leg vise. Now you have a Basque face vise. Woodworker Matt Talley is working in France right now.

Mine is a primitive arrangement compared to a beautiful European tail vise with its array of dog holes, but it works. Building a workbench at a school is, in my calculation, a wise investment. Good schools have huge machines — wide planers, beefy mortisers and sliding table saws — that can make difficult jobs a breeze. You also have lots of help — another 10 to 20 people who can help you muscle the stock. For each class, I design a new workbench from scratch that is suited….

Roger Holmes. Reclaimed Lumber Back at the beginning of April I wrote about some household items I made using leftovers from a commissioned project. Well, I thought I'd show you the original project. It's actually two pieces — two ridiculously heavy conference tables. One of them is roughly 4' x 8' and the other is 4' x….

I started a project with it today; a long, slender dovetailed box with a sliding lid. I'm a big fan of boxes; particularly boxes with sliding lids because I love the sound that they…. So my early-morning giddiness about the Benchcrafted Crisscross is worth note. The only downside to the Crisscross part of the assembly is that you need a vise chop that is….

A Little Bit of Buried Treasure A friend of mine had an old two-seater Adirondack chair that she figured was rotting and ready for the landfill. But she liked it so much, that she asked me to copy it for her, but build it using composite decking material.

Not my favorite material to work…. Cordless Jointer. Yup, it's late. But it's still Friday. It's been a whirlwind of a week. While working on a project today, I got to use one of my favorite techniques. Most seasoned woodworkers are well aware of this one, but not everyone is a seasoned woodworker, and this is just one of those things…. Turns out they're now distributing Shapton sharpening products. If you're not familiar with them, they are the cream of the crop ceramic stones.

I was drooling over their glass-backed versions today. I'll be talking more about these, their traditional stones and a Shapton…. The Right Boards I've been planning out a bowfront wall cabinet with coopered doors for a few months. Originally, I was set on making it of walnut or cherry — two of my favorite woods to work with because they're very hand-tool friendly. I took a trip to the local lumberyard, and unfortunately, none of…. One of the unanswerable questions in woodworking is: What type of bench dog is best?

Other unanswerables: What does Peter Follansbee hide in his beard? At least on the bench dog question, I have answered it for myself…. Making a change to my blog posts. Instead of posting old tips from the American Woodworker archives, I'll be posting a wide variety of stuff, including projects on which I'm working, new tools that I'm putting through their paces, or maybe just an interesting piece of wood. When I'm not working on a commissioned…. Cutting Multiple Parts One day my wife asked me if I would make her 58 shields for awards day at her school.

Usually when I cut multiples on my scrollsaw I tape or screw the parts. This time I hot-melt glued them together. It not only worked great, but was much faster and easier. Clean Up Squeeze Out Q. I saw one of those woodworking wizards on television the other day.

As I watched the guy build a three-day project in 30 minutes, I noticed he washed off glue squeeze out with a wet cloth immediately after clamping…. Retractable Chuck Key After losing three chuck keys I attached the fourth to a plain, old retractable key chain. Now I don't have to turn my shop inside out looking for my chuck key because it'salways within easy reach. I truned the holder upside down because the chain pulls out mor smoothly that way.

Versatile Center Gauge I wanted to add accent dowel "dots" down the center of some slightly curved, tapered table legs. Sounds simple, but I nearly pulled my hair out trying to accurately find the center of these legs using a ruler! Here, in my opinion, are the most common missteps woodworkers make when…. No-Hassle Filter Cleaning My air filter works great and sure makes my shop a cleaner and healthier place to work.

But cleaning the pleated filter was always a problem. Blowing or shaking it out just made a big mess. I tried vacuuming it but my vacuum wand would attach itself to the filter like a…. Knot-Free Planing I use a lot of 2 pine boards, but when I plane them, the knots often nick my knives. I found a way to prevent this by cutting out the knots before I plane. Because most of my projects require only short pieces, this works fine and my knives last a lot longer…. Stable Roller Stand I bought a roller stand to support my lumber when sawing.

It worked okay, but sometimes the rear leg would fold up and the stand would collapse. This was very annoying. I fixed it by adding some plastic cable ties at the top and bottom of the leg and stretching a bungee….

Discussions about the proper height for a workbench always crack me up because they are usually myopic in the extreme. When you look at workbenches across long periods of time and across cultures, there is a lot more diversity.

Roman workbenches, for example, were about knee high. And lest you think that bench went out…. About six months ago, I became crazy annoyed about my workbench moving while under heavy planing. For some…. Flip-Top Sawhorses I got tired of rummaging around for a blanket or anything soft to lay my finished projects on, so I rigged up these simple carpet caps that fit on top of my sawhorses.

They just flip out of the way when I'm back to rough work. James Blandford My Take Now that's just…. Jacques writes: I have your workbench book, and I am currently working on my version of the French bench. I had soft maple cut down from my woods, so I had it sawn, and I am working with it for the top. For the legs, a friend of mine gave me four beams that are…. Photo 1 …. Plane Stand Every so often I need to plane down a piece of wood that is too small for my jointer.

To handle these small jobs, I devised a stand for my No. The plane rests upside down on two wood blocks that fit up between the ridges on the sides…. Last summer I built a workbench that was as close to the bench shown in A.

While I still have three details to add to my bench a drawer, a tool rack and a grease pot , the rest of the bench has been up and running since August…. Behind the Stairs Storage In my basement shop every square inch counts! Out of necessity I found a wealth of unused space tucked right under my nose, or should I say feet. That awkward space under the basement steps can easily be turned into a set of deep shelves perfect for storing everything from….

Most of the skills we need and tools we use come from earlier times when everyday items that are now mostly plastic or cardboard were made of wood. Straight-Shooting Drill Jig You may not face this problem often, but when you need to drill a hole nice and straight but the part is too big to fit on the drill press, here's what to do: Make this nifty little jig. Line up your drill bit in…. Double-Decker Mini Clamp Here's a great little clamp for those light-duty hobby or craft jobs.

Start with two ordinary clothespins, then modify and combine them as shown above. You now have a clamp with triple the capacity of a single clothespin.

Alan Dooley My Take Who thinks of this stuff? Well, obviously, Alan Dooley did,…. Workbench Joint Plans for my knock-down workbench called for the 2 x 4 stretchers to be fastened with bolts and hex nuts.

I'd have to rout huge pockets, weakening the stretcher, in order to get a wrench on the nuts. I rummaged through my jelly jars of spare hardware and came up with this…. One of the gripes I hear about French workbenches is that the benchtops are difficult to flatten because of the end grain protruding through the top. Here are a few simple tricks that deflate that argument. Edge-Banding Clamp I ran out of clamps and patience the last time I applied a veneered edge to a long piece of plywood.

The tangle of clamps to hold the veneer and cauls in place was more than I could take! To make life simpler, I came up with a slick way to clamp edge…. Glue-Up Helper I've always struggled with the rubber bands I use to hold jewelry box sides square and steady during glue-up. The biggest pain in the neck was cleaning the glue squeeze-out from under the bands. When I lifted the band the box would shift before my eyes!

I was ready to chuck the whole…. Tabletop Connection Steel tabletop fasteners are a great way to attach a tabletop to its base while still allowing for seasonal changes. On a table with straight aprons, it's easy enough to saw a kerf to hold the connectors with the tablesaw, but on a curved or molded apron that's not feasible. Instead, I've found…. Tablesaw Sled Cutoff Block My sliding cutoff sled gets lots of use for repetitive cuts. In the past, I clamped a board to use as a stop, but moving it for different cuts became cumbersome.

To make a quickly adjustable stop, I routed a dovetail slot into the back edge of the sled and made…. Getting the Point I frequently use awls in my work and like to keep them needle-sharp. This little jig takes only a few minutes to make and guarantees a fine, tapered point.

The magnets keep the jig securely in place while in use. Jay Wallace My Take Judging from the "down" arrow on the illustration,…. Cross-Grain Trim I recently needed to attach molding across the sides of some bookcases. Because the sides were solid wood, I had to allow for some seasonal movement.

I used a table-mounted router with a keyhole bit and cut slots in the back of the molding, as shown above. I installed round-head screws and adjusted…. Repairing Ripped Belts Sanding belts can rip at the worst possible moment — such as when you're out on a jobsite with no spares. When this happens I remove the belt, turn it inside out and cut the torn spot into a diamond-shaped hole with a utility knife.

This adds life to the belt without…. Tablesaw Jig Clamp I added this hold-down to my tablesaw's sliding cutoff jig and find it a great convenience, because the height of the clamp is easily changed. This clamp uses a standard bar-type caulking gun, cut in half, as shown. The mounting block slides to apply clamping pressure where needed, and I covered the…. No more! I found a clever way to protect them. I cut the fingers off some old leather work gloves.

Then I poked holes with an awl and threaded a drawstring through the holes. Now I just slide…. Once you are able to rip your eyes off of H. Router Base Transfer Points After I lost track of the base plate for the router that goes in my router table, I had to make a new one with accurately marked holes for the mounting screws and a centered hole for the bit. I figured out how to do it while flipping through a machinist's…. Vise Crank Handle I'm getting up in years but I still love woodworking.

My hands aren't as limber as they used to be, so it was uncomfortable to twist my vise handle. I remembered the crank on my father's Model T, so I made one just like it for my vise. I drilled a hole…. The two-hour video show you how to build a sturdy workbench using home-center materials and a benchtop made using solid-wood kitchen countertop from IKEA.

It really can be built in two days — I built it…. The point where the arcs intersect will be on the centerline. With a centerline point on each end of the leg, place a scribe on the point, slide a straightedge up to touch the scribe.

Do the same on the other end. When you have the straightedge positioned so that you can touch both points with the scribe, and in each case it is touching the straightedge - without moving the straightedge - scribe the line. Use scribes, rather than pencils or pens, because they make more precise marks. Then mark the second hole on the centerline, six inches below the first. Repeat for the other two holes. To precisely set the span of the compass, use a rule with etched markings, and set the points of the compass into the etched grooves.

Place a centerpunch on each of your four points in turn, and press down to make an indentation. This will mark the center of the hole. Drilling the holes Because of the depth of the holes, drilling each hole became a four step process: 1.

Flip the leg, position the jig, and finish the hole off with the Forstner bit. This gives a clean exit. The top hole on each does not extend through, and only steps 1 and 2 are necessary. If you bought 6' lengths, cut off two 24" long lengths. On one end of each, place a washer and a nut. Screw on the nut only half way, you don't want the end of the rod protruding. Thread the rods through one of the legs, then set the leg flat on the table.

Insert dowels into the dowel holes. Place the matching stretchers into place. Put dowels into the dowel holes at the top end of the stretchers. Place the other leg onto the threaded rod and settle it down onto the dowels.

You'll probably have another opportunity to whack away with your rubber mallet. When you have the other leg seated, the threaded rods will extend father than you want them to. You'll want to mark them so they can be cut to length. Place a washer and a nut on each threaded rod, and then tighten down the nut to pull everything tight. Depending upon the wrench you are using, and how much longer the rod is than it needs to be, you may find it necessary to stack up a number of washers, so Woodworking Ideas For Beginners Examples that the nut is positioned where the wrench can operate on it.

Once you have pulled everything tight. You want to cut it slightly below flush. Then take everything apart. Cutting the rods There's nothing very tricky about cutting the rods.

Clamp them to your temporary table, and cut them off with a hacksaw. Make sure you're using a sharp blade. While you're setting up the clamps,. The hacksaw will often damage the last thread when it cuts. Running a nut off the end will fix this. You'll have to run the nut all the way down from the other end. This doesn't take long, if you chuck up the rod in your drill and let it do the work.

Hold the rod vertically, with the drill pointing down, and just hold on to the nut enough to keep it from spinning. Assembly When you have the rods cut to length, put everything together the way you did before, and you'll have your first trestle. Repeat the same process for the second trestle, and then for long stretchers to assemble the base Once the stretchers and legs have been connected, flip the assembly upside down, and install the levelers.

Then flip it back upright. Next is the shelf. Start with the 24x48" piece of MDF. Clamp this on top of the base, and pencil in the outside of the stretchers and the inside angle of the legs. Flip it over, pull out your trusty cutting guide, and cut it to width and to length. Cutting out the angles is simple, with a jig saw.

It's not much work with a hand saw. If you took enough care with supporting blocks and stops, you could probably do it with a circular saw. Since I did have a jig saw, I used it. I'd decided on an oil-and-wax finish. Oil finishes are by no means the toughest. In fact, they're really rather pathetic, so far as protecting the wood goes. But they're easy to apply, and not even the toughest finish will stand up to the abuse that a workbench will suffer, so it's more important that it be easy to repair.

Wax is usually used to add a high gloss. On a bench, it's there to keep glue from sticking. And then decided that the oil alone would be sufficient for the base. The wax serves to give the surface a gloss which I see no need for , and to make it easier to remove spilled glue and paint which I also see no need for, on the base. So I oiled the base and oiled and waxed the top.

The "Getting Started in Woodworking" video series has an episode on applying oil-and-wax finishes, that includes steps such as wetting the wood, and then sanding down the raised grain. All of this seemed excessive, for something that I was going to put in my basement and bang on with a hammer.

I made a low table out of a couple of step-stools, my hollow-core door, and one of the MDF panels that would eventually form part of my top. I was concerned that any oil that dripped on the door might interfere with its glue adhesion, when I finally get around to the project for which I'd purchased it. The top side of the top sheet of MDF, though, I planned to oil, anyway. Ditto for the bottom side of the bottom sheet.

Putting the base up on this temporary table put it an a more convenient height than it would have been on the floor or on a full-height table. Applying the oil is easy. Put on some vinyl gloves, pour some oil in a bowl, take a piece of clean cotton cloth the size of washcloth or smaller, dip it in the oil, and apply it to the wood.

You want the wood to be wet. Apply oil to the entire surface, and then go over it looking for dry spots, applying more oil as needed. After fifteen minutes of keeping it wet, let it sit for another fifteen minutes. Then apply another coat of oil, and let it sit for another fifteen minutes. Rub it dry. Wait half-an-hour, and then wipe dry any oil has seeped out. Check it every half hour and do the same, for a couple of hours. The next day, apply another coat, wait half an hour, then wipe it dry.

Do the same on successive days for as many coats as you think are necessary. I applied three. Remember those fire safety tips you used to get in grade school, about the dangers of oily rags? It was linseed oil they were talking about. All oily rags are dangerously flammable. Linseed oil will self-combust. Linseed oil doesn't evaporate, it oxidizes. The oxidization generates heat, and the increased temperature increases the rate of oxidation. Linseed oil sitting in a bowl, or spread on the surface of wood, is perfectly safe.

But a linseed oil soaked rag provides a vastly increase surface area, so the oxidation happens faster, and the rag can provide insulation, trapping the heat. The increased temperature speeds up the oxidation even more, which raises the temperature even more, and the runaway feedback can quickly result in temperatures that will cause the rag to spontaneously burst into flame.

This isn't one of those "do not drive car while sunscreen is in place" warnings. This is one of those "keep your finger off the trigger until you have the gun pointed at something you want to shoot" warnings. Rags soaked in linseed oil will catch fire, if you don't handle them properly, and they can do so far more quickly than you might think.

Hang them up outside, away from anything combustible, and where there's enough air circulation to keep them cool. Or put them in a bucket of water, and hang them outside later. If you're just setting a rag down for the moment, set it out flat, without folds, on something non-flammable.

Hanging outside in the breeze, the oil in the rags won't retain heat while they oxidize. For the oil to completely oxidize can take in a couple of days, if it's warm, or more than a week, if it's cold and rainy. When fully oxidized, the oil will be solid and the rags will be stiff. At that point, they're safe, and can be thrown in the trash. Toss them in the trash before that, and you might as well say goodbye to your garage. Before you start cutting or drilling the pieces that will make up the top, determine the layout of the top.

This should include the dimensions of the MDF, the dimensions of the edging, the locations of the vises, and of the screws or bolts that will support the vises, and of all of the benchdog holes and of all of the drywall screws you will use to laminate the panels, If you don't lay it all out in advance, you could easily find that you have a bolt where you need to put a benchdog hole, or something of the sort.

I sketched out ideas on graph paper, then drew the plan full-size on the top side of the bottom layer of MDF, using the actual parts as templates. The width of the top is determined by the width of the base. The length of the top depends upon the vise or vises you uses. The end vise I had purchased was intended to be used with hardwood jaws that extend the width of the bench. I had a piece of 2x6" white oak I intended to cut down for the purpose.

The decision to be made with respect to the end vise is whether the support plate should be mounted to on the inside or on the outside of the stretcher. Mounting the plate on the inside of the stretcher reduces the reach of the vise - it can't open as far, because the support plate is back from the edge by a couple of inches.

But mounting the plate on the outside of the stretcher means that we need to add some support structure for the inner jaw of the vise, which the legs would have provided if we'd mounted the plate Woodworking Workbench Ideas 01 on the inside. I mocked up the two scenarios, and determined that with the plate inside the stretcher the vise would have a reach of 8 inches, and with it outside the stretcher it would have a reach of 9 inches.

I decided that 8 inches was enough, and that the extra inch wasn't worth the extra effort. With the end vise mounted like this, the right edge of the top would have no overhang. I wanted the left edge of the jaw of the front vise to be flush with the left edge of the top, the right edge with the left edge of the left front leg. So the amount of overhang on the left depends upon the width of the front vise jaw.

The width of the jaw is, at a minimum, the width of the plate that supports it, but it's normal to make the jaw extend a bit beyond the plate. How far? The more it extends, the deeper a bite you can take with the edge of the vise, when, for example, you are clamping the side of a board being held vertically.

But the more it extends, the less support it has. What you need to determine, by this drawing, is where you need to drill the dog holes, the mounting holes for the vises, and where you will put the drywall screws you'll be using for the lamination. As well as where the edges of the top will be cut.

The next step is to laminate the two sheets of MDF that will make up the lower layers of the top. First, trim the MDF to slightly oversize. You'll want room to clean up the edges after the pieces are joined, but you don't need more than a half-an-inch on each side for that, and there's no point in wasting glue.

If you're lucky enough to have a vacuum press, use that. Otherwise drill holes for the screws in the bottom layer at all the points you had indicated in your layout.

You'll also want to either drill a row of screws around the outside edge, in the bit you're going to trim off, or you'll need clamps all around the edge. I just added more screws. The screw holes should have sufficient diameter that the screws pass through freely.

You want the screw to dig into the second layer and to pull it tight against the first. If the threads engage both layers, they will tend to keep them at a fixed distance.

If you're using drywall screws, you'll want to countersink the holes. Drywall screws are flat-head, and need a countersink to seat solidly.

If you're using Kreg pocket screws, the way I did, you won't want to counter-sink the holes. Kreg screws are pan-head, and seat just fine against a flat surface. Both drywall screws and Kreg pocket screws are self-threading, so you don't need pilot holes in the second sheet of MDF. Regardless of which type of screw you use, you'll need to flip the panel and use a countersink drill to on all of the exit holes.

Drilling MDF leaves bumps, the countersink bit will remove them, and will create a little bit of space for material drawn up by the screw from the second sheet of MDF. You want to remove anything that might keep the two panels from mating up flat. I set a block plane to a very shallow bite and ran it over what was left of the bumps and over the edges.

The edges of MDF can be bulged by by sawing or just by handling, and you want to knock that down. After you have all the holes clean, set things up for your glue-up. You want everything on-hand before you start - drill, driver bit, glue, roller or whatever you're going to spread the glue with, and four clamps for the corners. You'll need a flat surface to do the glue-up on - I used my hollow core door on top my bench base - and another somewhat-flat surface to put the other panel on.

My folding table was still holding my oak countertop, which makes a great flat surface, but I want to make sure I didn't drip glue on it so I covered it with some painters plastic that was left over from the last bedroom we painted. Put the upper panel of MDF on your glue-up surface, bottom side up. Put the bottom panel of MDF on your other surface, bottom side down. The panel with the holes drilled in it is the bottom panel, and the side that has the your layout diagram on it is the bottom side.

Chuck up in your drill the appropriate driver bit for the screws your using. Make sure you have a freshly-charged battery, and crank the speed down and the torque way down. You don't want to over-tighten the screws, MDF strips easily. Once you start spreading glue, you have maybe five minutes to get the two panels mated, aligned, and clamped together.

So make sure you have everything on-hand, and you're not gong to be interrupted. Start squeezing out the glue on one MDF panel, and spreading it around in a thin, even coating, making sure you leave no bare areas. Then do the same to the other MDF panel. Then pick up the bottom panel and flip it over onto the upper panel. Slide it around some to make sure the glue is spread evenly, then line up one corner and drive in a screw. Line up the opposite corner and drive in a screw there.

Clamp all four corners to your flat surface, then start driving the rest of the screws, in a spiral pattern from the center. When you're done, let it sit for 24 hours. The edges of MDF are fragile, easily crushed or torn. MDF is also notorious for absorbing water through these edges, causing the panels to swell. This edging is one of the complexities that Asa Christiana left out in his simplified design. I think this was a mistake.

MDF really needs some sort of protection, especially on the edges. Of course, I, on the other hand, with my Ikea oak countertop, probable went overboard in the other direction. I clamped the countertop to my bench base, and used the long cutting guide. I'd asked around for advice on cutting this large a piece of oak, and was told to try a Freud Diablo tooth blade in my circular saw.

I found one at my local home center, at a reasonable price, and it worked very well. Remember, you want the width of the top to match the width of the base, and you're adding edging. First, cut one long edge. Second, cut a short edge, making sure it's square to the long edge you just cut. Finally, cut the remaining short edge square to both long edges.

The length of the top doesn't need to precisely match anything, so we don't need to bother with clamping the trim before measuring. Glue up the trim on the end, first. Do a dry fit, first, then as you take it apart lay everything where you can easily reach it as you put it back together again, after adding the glue. To help keep the edge piece aligned, I clamped a pair of hardboard scraps at each end.

I used the piece of doubled MDF I'd cut off the end as a cawl, to help spread the pressure of the clamps. Squeeze some glue into a small bowl, and use a disposable brush. As you clamp down, position the trim just a little bit proud of the top surface.

Once you have all the clamps on, take off the scraps of hardboard. You can clean up the glue squeezeout with a damp rag.. When the glue is dry, trim down the strip flush with the panel using a router and a flush-trim bit. Then cut off the ends of the strip with a flush-cut saw, and clean up with a block plane, an edge scraper, or a sanding block.

Leaving the ends in place while you route the edge helps support the router. The strips along the front and back edge is glued up the same way. I suppose you could try to glue both on simultaneously. I didn't try. When the top is done, we want the edged MDF and the oak countertop to have exactly the same dimensions, and for their width to exactly match the width of the base.

I could see three ways of doing this: 1, join the MDF to the countertop and use my belt sander to sand down their joined edges to match the base; 2, join the MDF to the countertop and use a hand plane to plane down their joined edges to match the base; or 3, use a flush-trim bit against a straight edge to route the MDF to the width of the base, then join the MDF to the countertop and use the flush-trim bit to route the countertop to match the MDF.

So I chose option 3. If you choose the same, you want to trim the edges of the MDF layer prior to joining it to the countertop. In other words, now. Put the MDF on the floor, bottom up. Flip the base and place it on the MDF. Line up the base on the MDF in the posiiton you feel best, then mark the position of the legs. Sorry, I have no picture of this. Flip the base upright, put the MDF on top of it, then use a straightedge to draw two straight lines joining the outside edges of the legs and extending the width of the MDF.

I used the countertop as the straightedge. Use a carpenter's square to transfer these lines onto the ends of the MDF. Put the countertop on the base, put the MDF on top of the countertop, and line up the marks you drew on each end of the MDF with the countertop below it. I clamped a couple of scraps of doubled MDF at each end to give the router base something extra to ride on at the ends. Edge-trimming endgrain can result in tearout at the right side, so route the short edge before you route the right long edge.

Routing the right edge can then clean any tearout that occurs on the short edge.. When gluing the oak edges on the MDF, I made a mistake. On the back side, the edging was positioned too low, which would leave a noticeable gap when the MDF and the countertop were joined.

I was determined to fix it. Either of the strips I'd ripped from the oak countertop to remove the factory bevel looked like it would work, if I could figure out how to rip them safely with a circular saw. I ended up using a couple of strips of MDF and a bar clamp to create a clamp that would hold the strip of oak, and had a profile low enough to fit under the cutting guide.

Once I had the strip cut, I glued it in place, and clamped everything up. I'd intentionally made it oversize, intending to trim it flush. Trimming is a little more complicated than usual, because I needed to trim it flush on two faces. Aside from the use of the edge guide, flush trimming the edge face was unremarkable.

For trimming the top face, I again stood the panel vertically, with the router base riding on the top edge, and the bit cutting on the far side of the panel. Because I was cutting on the back edge of the work Etsy Woodworking Ideas Canada piece, I needed to move the router from right to left.

And here I ran into another problem. The gap in the edging that I was filling was not of even depth. That means that on the right side, I was routing away all of the strip I had glued in. The result was significant tear-out. I did what I always do when faced with this sort of gumption trap - I turned off the router, set it down, and walked away for a bit. I've found that whatever action I take in the frustration of dealing with something that hadn't worked right is almost always the wrong one, and usually makes things worse.

What I did, when I came back, was to clamp down the strip where it had torn away, and then to start routing from the other end. I still moved the router from right to left, but I did it in six-inch sections, taking light passes, and sort of whittled the strip flush. As the sections I was working were farther to the right, the strip was thinner. Eventually I came to where I was trimming the strip away entirely, at which point I took off the clamps and the remainder fell away.

A better solution would have been to route a rabbet into the side, so that the added strip always had thickness.

The way I did it means that the strip I glued in is very narrow, and hence very weak, at a certain point. In this case, that's not a problem, because it's going to be sitting under the countertop layer.

I also noticed that because I had only clamped the strip down, and not into the edge, there was a noticeable glue gap where the strip butted up against the MDF. Again, in this application it isn't visible. But if I was doing something like this on the top of a table, I'd make sure to cut a clean rabbet, and to clamp both down and in. So while for the end vise, if we mount it lower, we can make both the jaws deeper to compensate, for the front vise we cannot, so we want it mounted as close to the edge of the bench as possible.

It's usual to attach vises with lag screws from the bottom, but there is a limit as to how many times you can tighten up a lag bolt in MDF.

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