In Need of a Bench

It's been at least a month since I finished my first project and I'm starting to get the itch to get back into the workshop.  That said, I'm not real excited about doing a more complex project with my limited supply of tools and using a couple of sawhorses for a workbench.  I think that I could have built that box from my first project in a fraction of the time it took me if I had the proper equipment.  And, I don't mean power tools.  Having a solid workbench with a vise and some specialty planes would have made many of the tasks a lot easier.

I have read several articles about building workbenches, but in all of them the writer used many power tools which I don't have access to to do the work.  So, thinking that building my own bench was beyond my capability, my next thought was to just buy a bench from a woodworking supply outfit.  I started researching to find the best manufactured ones and it turns out that to get a really solid quality bench I could end up spending around $2,000, like the really nice ones that are custom made from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks.

18th-century Ruobo Workbench by Chris Schwarz

I figure that whatever workbench I get now will be the one that I use the rest of my life, so I want to make sure that I will be happy with it.  I checked a few books out from the library to try and get some ideas, one of which was The Workbench Design Book by Christopher Schwarz.  This is an excellent book, which shows construction of nine different bench designs as well as critiques on each.  One design that I found very helpful was called "18th-century Bench by Hand" in which Chris Schwarz builds a Ruobo style workbench using only hand tools.  The Ruobo bench is based on benches from the writings of the 18th-century French cabinet maker and writer André Ruobo.  Chris Schwarz is a huge fan of this design and he is also a huge fan of hand tools, which makes me trust his opinions more than others who use their benches with power tools.  From the article I can see that I am lacking several tools to build a similar bench by hand, which might sound like a problem, but they are basic tools that I will need for any other project.  For instance, I will need a jointer plane to level the workbench surface, but I've been wanting to buy one for awhile anyway.

I think the Ruobo will definitely be the basis of design for my workbench, but I need to figure out what all features and vise designs I want to incorporate.  The Ruobo's hefty design (with a 5" think bench top) will make it ideal to prevent movement from the hand planing I plan to do.  Also, I love the old school look of this design.

Project #1 - Dove Tails and Assembly

I finally got around to finishing my box a couple months ago, but I'm just now getting a post together.  Unfortunately I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to, so I'll just have to trust my memory on what I did.  

My first step after cutting the grooves in the sides was to layout the pins for the for the dovetail joints. A dovetail joint is basically made up of two cuts that fit together, the dovetails and the pins.  I had read somewhere that it's easier to do the pins first so that's what I did.  In the bottom left picture you can see pins that have already been cut.  To layout the pins, I began by using a wheel gauge to mark the board thickness on all of the boards.

This determines the depth that the pins and the dovetails need to be.  I then picked a number of pins that I thought would look good, in this case three in the middle and half a pin on each edge (bottom left picture).  I picked an angel for the pins that I thought would look good and the spaced them out evenly.  Once the pins were laid out, I made all of the cuts with the grain using my dovetail saw (upper left picture) which is designed for cutting with the grain.  I then used a chisel to mark the cross grain cut and slowly chiseled out the waste in between the pins.  I did a couple of boards this way and then I decided to try a method using a fret saw to cut out the waste in between the pins and then clean it up with a chisel (The upper right picture shows me using this method on the tails).  This turned out to be way faster and I'll probably always use the method in the future.  Once all the pins were cut and cleaned up (its very important to make sure all the pins are straight to ensure a good fit with the tails), I lined the board with the pins up with a board that would have the corresponding tails (bottom left picture).  I then traced the pins, which left the outline for the tails on the opposite piece.  It's very important that I had each joint labelled so that I didn't mix up which tail went with which pin, because each joint will be slightly different.  Once marked, I cut out the tails the same way that I had cut out the pins.  I lined up the joints to see how they would fit and then cleaned them up with a chisel until it looked like they would fit.

After all the joints were complete, I cut the bottom panel to size.  I then attempted to test fit the entire box together, but found out that I had to clean up my grooves first.  It turns out that as I was going deeper while cutting the grooves, I did't go straight down and the walls of the grooves were sloped.  Once I straightened the grooves, the bottom panel fit in pretty good.  I assembled the box by positing the bottom panel into the ends of the box first (bottom right picture).  I then hammered the side boards with the tails down onto the end boards with the pins.  My joints turned out to be too tight and I created some splits at the the corners of a couple of the pins.  The good thing is that because the dovetail is such a strong joint, these splits can't be noticed.

I then disassembled the box, clean up the joints a little bit more, brushed a little wood glue on the joints and then hammered it back together.  I clamped it up over night and when the joints were dry this box was solid as a rock.  I see why the dovetail joint has been used on quality furniture for so many years.  Finally, I cleaned up the surfaces with a scraper and the edges with the block plane and sand paper.  I didn't put any kind of finish on it, because I liked the look of the bare wood.  I may still put some sort of oil on it to protect it, but I need to do some research on that first.

I hope to expand my wood shop before my next project, but there are so many things that I want.  There are many tools that would help speed up these projects and allow me to do more things.  I think I really need a heavy duty workbench with a built in vise that won't move while I'm planing.  I also really need a good set of sharpening stones, because having a nice sharp chisel makes a world of difference.  Of course there's a variety of planes that I would like as well.  Choices. Choices.