Once you start building a workbench for yourself, you never stop with the first.
I had been working mainly on an old table top sat on an old rickety table. Being rather fed up with this, I set out to design a simple but very sturdy workbench. I drew heavily on the classic Roubo design (and learned Roubo was a French cabinetmaker).
Used reclaimed scaffolding boards to cut the legs and stretchers. Might be Douglas or Oregon pine. Smelled kinda soapy.
Used way too much glue for the legs.
Flattened and squared them up as best as I could using a plane. This sure is hard work.
Straight(ish) and flat(tish).
Marked for the stretchers.
Used half-lap joints.
Glued and screwed the stretchers in place. Starting to look like a workbench already!
In the end I opted for CLS beams for the top as I was not keen on joining 20 hand planed boards for the top.
Cut off the rounded corners and almost destroyed the jobsite saw. Had to replace a bearing in the engine house.
Glued up the top in two parts.
And used just about enough glue.
Ended up with a huge cup in the top. Mental note: use cauls for the next glue-up.
Used a home made router sled to flatten the top. Dust collection is key here if you do not want to drown in saw dust.
Marked where the legs would go. Fitted simple leveling feet based on John Heisz' design.
