Despite the photo above, you do not need two benches in your workshop. I have two benches for the following reasons:
1. The cherry workbench belongs to Katy, my 11-year-old.
2. I have to take lots of photos and video during a typical day, and being able to shoot from both sides of the bench makes my life much easier.
3. Taking photos while using my daughter’s bench protects you (the sensitive reader) from having to see lots and lots of photos of my rumored buttocks.
Several readers have asked about my favorite specifications for a second bench, so here they are: Don’t make one. But, you might ask, won’t a second bench be better for assembly? No, a second bench will only gather crap. Instead, make your only bench longer and assemble stuff on that. Or assemble on your sawbenches.
Right now I have a third workbench, as well, the Holtzapffel. It’s in our sunroom. I hope to move that bench onto its new home soon and move Katy’s cherry workbench up to our sunroom so she can work there – on her homework, crafts or whatever.
Then I’ll have one bench and more floor space. And you will see more photos of my backside.
— Christopher Schwarz
Ya know .. I was gonna say something about the two benches I kept seein’ in the photos. ;o) Just out of curiosity, do you have anything left in your wall cabinet?
The wall cabinet is filled with sentimental tools that I do not use. My mom bought me a Lie-Nielsen low-angle jack many many years ago. I can’t get rid of that. That’s what’s in the wall. I probably should bring it up to my office as it is more like a shrine than a tool cabinet.
One bench to rule them all…
Horizontal surfaces are Bad, at least for me. They tend to accumulate stuff, often new tools that don’t have anywhere better to be than laying around my shop. I have a giant WWII DoAll bandsaw that I call the CatchAll. I haven’t seen the surface of it since I resawed some claro last year.
Funny how woodworkers are. I have three, one 4×8 outside, one 4×8 inside, and one 30”x 72” inside. Also have one with a base frame and sliding top of cross members to clamp or secure partial tops. Usually used for odd assemble. All made of Douglas Fir with at least a three sheets top of marine ply and varnished then waxed. High humidity here.
To top that off there is a knock down frame, with levelers, which can be placed on the shop floor for large assembly.
There is an ole saying here—the higher a monkey climbs the more he shows his buttocks! Accept it—goes with the craftsman.
I dream of having space for ONE workbench. I live in London. I therefore live in a cupboard.
A cupboard? We DREAMED of having a cupboard. When I was a boy we lived in a lake….
You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.
Luxury!
Had to get up half an hour before I went to bed…
I knew that was your daughter’s bench – and bravo to you for doing that for her. You should show us some of her work some time.
To me, the best way to have two benches in your shop is to only have one bench, but don’t put the doggone thing against a wall! Move it out into the room…use both sides! Bingo – you now have two benches. You can have two completely different vise setups – clamp on one side, plane on the other, etc. I use a Roubo planing hook on one side of mine and a leg vice on the other, and can’t imagine the waste of utility involved with moving it against the wall. Look at period prints and notice how often the bench is in the middle of the room, or at least has walking room all around it.
My bench weighs 330 pounds yet I still find it moving all over creation when it is not fixed to a wall. How much does your bench weigh?
My big bench is probably just north of 300 pounds. You might be stronger than I am.
The bench is against the wall, so it doesn’t move when I’m traversing or sawing thanks to the wall. When I work with the grain I take a thinner shaving, so my bench never moves unless I want it to.
You might consider fastening a cleat to the floor by the face vise. That’s an old trick.
Go the a sporting goods store and buy one of those stiff rubber mats they put under nautilus equipment. I cut off pieces that fit nicely under each leg of my bench and the thing won’t budge…not even if I grab it and try to tip it. I think the mat was only $12.
I don’t know – I can’t weigh it because light can’t escape from its surface. In all seriousness, it’s 8′ long, built on oak 4×4’s, 2″ thick oak top plus 12″ tall skirt boards (a’la Roubo) and it has probably 100 pounds of tools on the shelf. It still tips maybe 1/4″ back and forth when I’m cutting in dadoes but it’s not going anywhere. Most work is long-ways, which is 100% rock solid.
I agree completely. I made a small second, lower bench for coopering and get tired of walking around it pretty quick. The more I take out of my shop the more I like it.
Every time I tried fitting a second bench or accessory table into the picture, it became a crap catcher.
Eventually I realized that crap needs a home, and I need a set of empty wall shelves, for holding parts, sub assemblies, and tools that I don’t want to lay down on the bench. And I keep the shelves as empty as the floor around my bench.
Everybody always gets a jones for an uber-bench. But they don’t seem to get a similar yen for adequate storage space for ‘stuff.’
Amen. I’ve been putting up shelves and building shop cabinets for the past few weeks trying to overcome the crap deluge. Everything in its place can’t happen until you have a place for everything!
Well, there’s that, too. I had to build a huge storage cabinet for things that don’t get a lot of use. Circ saw, contractor tools, hardware, vacuum bags… But not near the work area. The shelves next to the bench need to stay EMPTY. It took years to figure that out. Reserved parking spaces for project- related materials only. Lefts shouldn’t be left ‘kicking around.’ They should be out of harm’s way. If the assembly needs to be moved around on the bench, hammer and chisel can’t be put down on the bench, or they’ll get in the way or get knocked off. Likewise for glue cup and glue brush, etc. Empty shelves… It’s not the shelf I need. It’s the space it provides.
Homeless stuff needs a home if you plan to keep it in the shop. But not everything is destined to remain in the shop, and that stuff needs a home, too.
Stupid auto correct… That should read “Parts shouldn’t be left ‘kicking around.'”
I have almost finished reading The Anarchist’s Tool Chest and must say your workshop looks a little more cluttered than it did after the makeover. I thought you were scaling back? 😉 BTW, when are you going to start printing The Art of Joinery again? I would love to read it, but can’t get myself to purchase the digital version.
It’s cluttered from a project and the disarray that comes with building. I have been selling tools and selling tools. Promise.
Ha! Thanks for this Chris. Needed a good laugh at the end of the day. Also, thanks for telling it like it is and helping us cut through the hype. I read the Anarchist’s Tool Chest at the end of three years of research and buying my tools…I only had two more small tools than what you had on the list. I only wish the book had come out sooner, as it would have saved me the three years and about $1000 in mistakes along the way.
Also, I’ve been doing the planing exercises in The Essential Woodworker. It’s amazing how quickly these helped my planing. Okay, back to my one bench.
I have and use two benches. The larger one is set off of the wall about 5 feet so that my back is to the wall as I work at the front vise. The other bench is smaller and set against the wall behind me as I work at the big bench. During each work session I take the necessary tools out of my chest and array them on the top of the small bench, the “back bench”. I’ll keep the tools I need for a given process on the big bench as I work but return them to the back bench when I move on. I find that I knock tools to the floor less often this way. I had to give up some floor space to accommodate the second bench (since my wife stubbornly continues to park her car in my shop) but I really like working this way. To each their own!
I have a folding leg table that I use for the same purpose. I put it perpendicular to my bench with all the tools lined up. I’m one long step away from anything on the table. This setup currently works, but I’m not happy with it. I’ll try the tool chest method and see if it feels better or worse.
Thanks to ATC I now store my tools in a chest, which is a departure from how I was raised. The shop I grew up in had heaps of tools on open shelves, walls laden with tools and jigs hanging on bent nails and hastily made racks, and piles of metal power tool boxes at the floor along the walls. The tools are safer in a chest, and it makes the shop easier to move (a big plus), but I miss the visual spectacle of a shop wallpapered in old wood, brass and iron. Sigh.
Shouldn’t you move your Holtzapffel into the kitchen and make it an island. 🙂
it would be interesting to see what we build. Which I think drives our needs
Some 25 years ago, when I was poorer and living in an apartment, I’d draw plans for my dream shop. The table saw was always in the middle, bench against the wall, hanging tool storage. That’s pretty much what I’ve got. The cabinet saw gets so cluttered that I’m constantly playing Avalanche when I move the fence. Last fall I gathered 25 (maybe 35) tool boxes, lined them up in an arching circle (double file) and gave away most. I need to eliminate two big Kennedy rolling boxes. I moved the jointer and drill press to the basement. Sigh… I don’t see myself using the mortiser or dovetail jig…
Dream shop 2012 has a chest, bench and a couple of sawbenches. Oh… a radio tuned to NPR.
The disadvantage of having space is that it fills up. Nature abhors a clean shop. I’d be better off in a cupboard.
interesting –
I have multiple benches – often I have more than one project going at a time and/or I am using the vised bench to work on pieces and another bench for collating/fit/assembly – right now they are all relatively clear, except for a rough mock-up of a box to hold some specialty planes and a bit of detritus from last weeks completed project –
I’m sympathetic to the concept, but the only reason I can think of to have only one bench is if space is at a huge premium –
Now that you have had the little bench with full 360 access are you thinking of moving the larger bench out away from the wall? I have started a French inspired bench and had planned to place it against the wall and then talked myself into putting my old shaker style bench on the wall for storge (and a place for the crap to collect) while leaving the newer 10 foot bench in the middle of the room so I can let work hang over as needed. Sounds like that may not be the best plan after all.
Thanks by the way for all of your hard work, you’re a real insperation
Nah. I still like having the bench against the wall. When I need it away from the wall, I pull it away from the wall. Sawing, traversing and dadoing are all MUCH nicer with the bench braced my the north wall of my house.
Hi Chris: Followed for a while but haven’t posted till now. Looks like the packing box and school box under Katy’s bench. Have you got her following the path? Look’s like she still has some hinges to add to the school box but she’s way ahead of me! I don’t have to have mine done till my daughter’s weddding in August. Curious to know about the water barrel at the left end of your Roubo cause you’re an oil stone kind of guy. Can’t be oil for your Arkansas stones unless you’re expecting “peak” oil some time soon. Sad to say that as a Canuck I can’t buy your books directly but I don’t think Robin Lee minds my business! Regards Steve
I’ve been wondering what the fate of the Holtzapffel was since the Workbench Design book…I remember you really enjoying the twin-screw face vise, but since it’s moving to a new home, I assume it wasn’t enough to displace the trusty Roubo leg vise for primary use!
Does your Moxon vise make an appearance when working the ends of boards (i.e. a major strength of the twin-screw face vise)?
I use the Moxon constantly.
My own work habits have been formed by two distinct traditions, my work as 1) a patternmaker and 2) furniture conservator. As a result I almost always rely on both a workbench as the place where materials are manipulated and a nearby assembly table where it is put together. Yes it is a constant challenge as I am nothing close to a neatnik. In my little basement workshop at home I have my 48″ x 36″ workbench and use the table saw as my assembly table (since I use it so rarely otherwise).
For the bigger space at the mountain retreat, I am heading towards a 96 x 30 white oak bench with a 6″ thick top (estimated total weight just shy of 600 lbs) and a nearby lower assembly table made from a 5′ x5′ baltic birch torsion box.
Chris–Sorry to hear you have the dreaded disease known as the gauntass, but we probably don’t need photographic proof.
Well used to have four benches none of which were fit for purpose. Two down – two to go but I can’t get rid of the huge mahogany bench my brother gave me ( science classroom cast-off) … what’s that… perfect candidate for some campaign furniture…mmm
Hi, I am graham, and I have too many workbenches (HI GRAHAM!) . My addiction started in 1987, when I built my first bench from the Scott Landis book. Looked at all those Ideas and figured that I, 19 years old, could do better by redesigning them.Ohhh, the hubris… Then I built the base. Too wobbly. Then a cabinet base on wheels. Mising the point, that one. Then a massive base out of 16/4 maple. Ahhhhh! But I always felt like I could do better. I have worked at Acorns, Sjobergs, Liberty Hills, And half a dozen other commercial benches and never found the “perfect” bench. One employer gave me a turn of the century bench, a neibhor gave me a 1970’s “grainger”, Then in a flurry of activity (and an accumulation of patternmakers vices) I built a varitas-type top and another tailvice/facevice top. Oh, and a 48 by 72 assembly bench. Still having failed to achieve bench nirvana, I got the bug again when some YAHOO wrote not one, but TWO articulate and thoughtful trestises on bench building, sending me into another tizzy. Now I’ve got my eye on a Yost iron hand, and that Benchcrafted hardware is calling my veins! Help!