Happiness is

the first warm day in spring, 366 bf of prime black walnut, and a trip to the toy store.

Bench Making- The Specs

White beech, steamed beech, ebony, sugar maple drawer sides, baltic birch plywood drawer bottoms.

Veritas Tucker and Veritas Twin Screw vises.

460 lbs empty, 600+ lbs with tools

Main work done weekends May-September 2009, completed March 2010.

The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs

Bench Making- Completed Work

The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs

Bench Making- Final Assembly

The leg tenons have been drilled and kerfed for wedges.



I put several layers of plywood across the base, and placed the top on the stack. The tenons were guided home as the plywood was removed. They were glued and ebony wedged.



The compartment holds spare drawer slides, vise parts, insruction manuals, and replacement pencil sharpeners and blades.




I added a strip of end grain. My top board as well as all four base panels were made from this impressive beech slab.




My good friend Don Kondra turned matching handles for my vises. They're made from the remainder of the curly board used to make the drawer fronts. Brass accents and an ebony knob.



To make it easier to clean, I added a molding to the interior of the tool tray. A small cove to eliminate the interior corner.

The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs

Bench Making- The Drawers

My benches first project was its own drawers.



The drawer boxes are resawn hard maple, the sides are book matched on each drawer, and the backs are bookmatched left to right. The drawer joinery is hand sawn, through dovetails on the back corners, and half blinds with rabbet on the front.



I found a nicely figured board of 8/4 beech to use as my drawer fronts. It was resawn and carefully laid out.



I didn't want to have protruding pulls to catch on power cords, so I used Lee Valley's Finger Grip Bit to form the pulls.





I used six different Forestner bits in a scrap of Baltic Birch ply to make a template. I attached a 3/4" o.d. bearing and a lock ring to the shaft of the bit. This combination cuts a hole with the bottom the same size as the template, but with an outer hole 3/8" in diameter less than the template. I used a 3/4" forestner bit to drill pilot holes in the four smallest drawers to avoid damaging the rim as I plunged the bit. I kept those pilot holes a little shallow so the router would remove the mark left by the forestner bits centre spur. The other eight drawers pulls are large enough so that I was able to keep the router bit well away from the rim. I didn't withdraw the bit while it was rotating, and I kept the router moving until the bit stopped so the bottom of the hole wouldn't get a burned spot.

I like this solution, it’s considerably cheaper than metal pulls, and the look picks up on the circular dog holes. Graduating the holes meant I can get two fingers into the pulls for the heavier drawers.



The drawers are given two coats of polyurethane and the full exension side mount slides are attached. I dislike the look of slides but I like the feel of a heavy tool drawer on ball bearings.



Installed!



The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs