New Bench

[charliex]

Finally got around to replacing my old bench with something a bit more substantual. It's kind of a cross between Ian Kirby's and Frank Klaus's benches, with a few twists of my own. In order to keep the cost down I used mostly white pine. The base is 3" x 3 1/2" white pine, with mortise & tenon joints. The top is 2 1/2" pine with 3/4" maple flooring on top. Over budget by less than 10% and some of that was due to finding a nail in the flooring with my 3/8" router bit.
Today I used it for it's first project. Okay it was just a square, not a large project but it kept me busy for about 4 hours and gave me a chance to check out my bandsaw tune-up by doing some resawing.

[dlminehart]

Looks real nice Charlie, including the color contrast on the top. I've not yet decided between one like yours and one that has shelves/drawers below to give me a little more storage space in my garage shop. Did you opt for your version, without enclosed storage, for any particular reasons?

[LCHIEN]

Looks sharp.

[Wood_workur]

THat's one nice looking workbench. Just don't turn into a Kirby.

[Pappy]

Good looking bench, Charlie! From the pics, I wouldn't have guessed it was pine.

[lrogers]

That's a bench any shop would be proud to have!

[BobSch]

Sweet looking bench. Along with David I'm curious too, why no enclosed storage?

[mater]

Very nice looking work.

[ssmith1627]

Very nicely done. Looks very "finished".

Steve

[jhart]

Nice job on the bench, Charlie. Looks great. Hope you enjoy it.

[Popeye]

Boy Howdy that's nice. Super job. Pat

[charliex]

Thanks for the compliments. Dave & Bob you both ask a good question. I considered drawers but at the present time I have a large 48" x 24" x 40" tall cabinet with 6 large drawers, storage under the BT3, under the 14" bandsaw, under the router table, under the drill press & mortiser & 10" band saw. My main reason / logic for shelf over cabinet has to do with this one fact: I lose track of stuff easily.

With the shelf the tools I'm going to be needing for this phase of a project are in a convienent place, accessable from both sides, and visiable.

You might also want to consider this. If you want or need to move it.... This bench alone weighs well over 200# now add cabinets, tools.
Hope this answers your ??'s
Chas

[JR]

Nice bench! And good logic on the shelf vs cabinets. I'd really like to be able to walk all the way around my bench. You'll really be able to get at your projects with that setup.

JR

[GeekMom]

Very nice!

[cgallery]

That sure is one nice bench!