Do you have any bench plans?

[chopnhack]

Hi all, I find myself in need of a better workbench than my two sawhorses and a beat up piece of plywood with holes, spilt oil, etc... well you get the idea. I would like to review a whole bunch of plans and was wondering if anyone was willing to upload any. I wanted to peruse the various types to see what I am looking for. I basically need a sturdy bench with good work piece holding capability. Thanks in advance!

[LinuxRandal]

For hand or power tools? I strongly recommend Christopher Schwarz book, Workbenches, from Design & Theory to Construction & Use, if doing hand tools.

[chopnhack]

Combination of both power and hand tools, power to prepare raw stock, etc. hand tools to do some joint work, etc.

[dbhost]

Getting Started In Woodworking videos from Fine Woodworking has a nice a good workbench. I think they have the plans online. I got mine from the magazine / DVD I got at Krogers a few months ago...

I have yet to actually build mine... But that is the style / plan I am planning on using. Currently I have a Simpson Strong Tie 2x4 and plywood bench, and sawhorses with a half sheet of plywood.

[Mr__Bill]

I have been collecting plans for some time. If you PM me with an email address that can accept a 155 M I will send them to you.

Bill

[radhak]

For me, visuals work best. Looking at pictures makes a decision easier.

Check out benches here : http://www.plansnow.com/workbenchplans.html

Or, there are 50 project plans here, http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=39085, one of which is a workbench, a pretty interesting one.

[BigguyZ]

I built the Family Handyman workbench. I know a few other people here have built it as well. I think it's a great all-around bench.

Here's a thread about my build here, there's some pics, as well as a link to another user's build of the same bench.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=25382&highlight=family+handyman+workbench

[Sam Conder]

Last week's episode of the Woodsmith Shop on PBS featured a pretty good looking imple workbench. A PDF of the plans is available here for free, as long as you give them your e-mail address:

http://www.woodsmithshop.com/episodes/season2/downloads/

[LarryG]

for hand or power tools? I strongly recommend christopher schwarz book, workbenches, from design & theory to construction & use, if doing hand tools.

+42,973,622 -- and his benches work equally well for power tools, too.

Absent a copy of the book, you can learn a lot by reviewing the Workbenches section of Chris's blog. At least one of the benches, maybe more, is available for download as a SketchUp model and possibly in PDF form too.

[poolhound]

I guess it also depends on how far you want to go and how much you want to spend. There is a lot of room to step into from your saw horse and ply approach.

Do you want to bite the bullet and build a high end bench with solid wood top and all the fancy vises or were you thinking simple functional work surface? I recall this bench made from plywood laminations,



If you have access to FWW online you can see the atricle and construction here.

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/FWNPDFfree/011181054.pdf

you can get the plans here for $19.95

http://store.taunton.com/onlinestore/item/plywood-workbench-project-plan-011208.html

[chopnhack]

I was looking to move up from my jalopy as I have had a serious interest in woodwork for a long time now. Since this is not a passing fancy for me, I think its time to invest in some quality and well thought out workbench. Yes, I will primarily use power tools, however I would like the workbench to be more for hand tool, joinery use as well as assembly and possibly if it works out ok, outfeed if needed. Solid lumber top is a definite and it will probably be out of construction lumber or lvl, whatever I can find at a reasonable price or salvage. Major thanks to Mr. Bill, I have lots of reading to do. Thanks all so far for the input. Keep your ideas coming if you have more, this is purely a brainstorm for me. I want to spend the most time now and not have the regret of ... oh, gee I wish I had done that when I built this bench moment later. Thanks!!

[pelligrini]

The regrets and redesigns will always be there, it's best to limit them as much as you can. I changed my design some while I was building mine. I'm sure there will be even more wants and changes after I start working with it. Quite a bit of the my bench came from Schwarz's book (it is a good one), the rest of the ideas from a myriad of magazines & book articles, posts here & internet searches. Google turned up a bunch of good info.