My first shop was on the back porch – 6’ x 8’ of sloping, rotting, dead opossum-smelling space. So I am sympathetic to anyone who has a small shop.
Blogger Brander “Badger” Roullett has a petite shop and a plus-sized storage problem. He needed a sawbench and he needed someplace to store his saws. What he came up with was a clever adaptation of the classic six-board chest.
These sorts of chests come in all sizes – I recently saw a sawbench-sized one at the Museum of Early Southern Decorate Arts. So Badger’s chest “looks” right to my eye.
And it’s all assembled with nails, so Adam Cherubini is somewhere smiling.
Check out Badger’s post on how he built the chest, along with step photos at Badger Woodworks.
— Christopher Schwarz
Wow, I am working on basically the same thing.
Great minds think alike?
A great idea here from Badger. I’ve never used a saw bench so clearly need to build one, and as it happens, I also need somewhere to store my saws…
I’m sure a ripping notch could be incorporated into the design without much trouble, but I wonder if it’s a drawback not being able to clamp stuff down?
Chris, as the man who’s made and used a thousand saw benches, have you ever used them with clamps, or just knees and fists?
My current shop is on the (enclosed) back porch – sloping, not rotting, and no dead opossum-smell unless I’m heating hide glue. My space limitation demands that I limite myself to saw stools that can be easily tucked away – a whole sawbench would be luxury! In defiance of my limitation, I am currently building a Chippendale chair (Benjamin Randolph repro) back there.