Description

This is the paper version of the plans. Paper plans are only available in the UK. For the digital version click here.

Shipping £5.45 UK only

Build a rock solid workbench that’s quick and easy to set up and packs down in minutes. Built from widely available materials you have a choice of three different lengths (1m, 1.5m & 2m) and two different vice options: a leg vice and a face vice.

The plans include 6 A1 drawings, 2 A4 drawings and a set of instructions to build the bench with guidance on materials, tools and joinery.

From the introduction:

“Our garage used to be a coffin makers’ workshop; in it there is a 10’ bench that is older than any living woodworker. It is built from whatever material didn’t make the grade for coffins and is hammered together with the random selection of nails they had to hand.

Despite the apparent lack of joinery, low grade materials and optimistic approach to bracing it survived life in a busy professional workshop.

Your bench will be better. It will have better joinery, more carefully selected materials and a better design. And you will put more time and thought into building it. So there’s plenty of room for error. When building it live by the phrase “It’s a workbench, not a piano.” When you’ve finished it don’t point out the errors to friends and family and soon you’ll forget where they are. If you get tear-out when you plane it: don’t worry. If you pull out a lump as you drill a through-tenon: never mind. These scars will blend with the clamp marks, the saw cuts and the glue spots that will appear the moment you start using it. Remember: “It’s a workbench, not a piano.”

The design of this bench has been evolving for many years. We run chairmaking workshops and so have built a lot of benches. With each generation they get a little bit better and this is the result. Nothing is original and almost every aspect has been borrowed from another design.

These benches are designed for woodworkers who have a small amount of space and time to practice their craft. Space that is probably shared with bicycles, a lawn mower and a jet wash. They need a rock solid platform for planing, sawing and chiselling but have to pack it up and share it with the rest of their lives.”