The Ultimate Workbench

Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Projects

ANTHONY BAILEY AND MICHAEL HUNTLEY J OIN FORCES TO DESIGN AND BUILD THE ONLY WORKBENCH YOU’LL EVER NEED

Table of Contents

Working Height
The Bench Top
The Base
Trenching on the Sliding Mitre Saw
Dealing with Waste
Bridle Joint Cutting Options
Bridle Joint Waste Removal
Shaping the Legs
The Legs
The Vice Recess
Marking Bolt Holes
Fixing the Vice
Attaching the Rail to the Legs
Fitting the Vice
The Shelf

Person smoothing wood with hand plane tool.

Serious woodworking requires a solid flat-topped surface. Our workbench design dimensions can be extended or compressed according to the size available in your workshop and the height can be adjusted to suit. It is designed to be easy to make from standard timbers and using only a basic toolkit. We’ll begin by building the top and base, and then add the all-important workbench extras including bench dogs and planing support, and show you how to fix your vice.

Just because a workbench is hidden away doesn’t mean it has to be kept plain and I took trouble shaping the lower ends of mine so that it would be an object of pleasure for ever. There is almost no limit to the ornamentation that you could put on your bench and this also gives you a chance to play with ideas and techniques that only you need see. When I was happy with the overall look, I got down to accommodating the all-important holding devices.

The plan was to use 32mm-thick MDF doubled up to 64mm, but as the timber yard had 30mm MDF ready and waiting we chose that instead. They offered to cut the 8 x 4ft board down the middle and it seemed churlish to say no as it is so heavy and it was one less cut to make. Just two crosscuts were required with a portable saw and straightedge at the 5ft, or 1,530mm, mark. Follow our step-by- step picture sequence to see how we progressed from there.

Working Height

To find the best working height for your bench, stand up with your forearms stretched out in front of you, then measure that height from the ground and reduce it by 100mm to give you the optimum finished height. This will be higher than most benches, but should save you from backache.

The Bench Top

Red biscuit joiner on a woodworking table. — 1. Use a few biscuits to locate the boards accurately

Woodworking table coated with adhesive in workshop. — 2. A network of glue lines all over the top ensures the two surfaces will bond adequately all over

Woodwork clamps holding tabletop on workbench. — 3. We used clamps all around the edges and then additional weights in the middle to keep the surface absolutely flat. However, a check with a steel straightedge revealed a slight dip so the weights were removed and the MDF boards therefore dried flat. Flatness is critical so check carefully before leaving your top to dry

The Base

Person using Ryobi mitre saw on wooden plank. — 4. The legs are substantial 94 x 94mm posts. Crosscut these to length. Here I am using a sliding mitre saw with trenching facility, but the job can also be done by hand

Person measuring wood with tape measure and ruler. — 5. Mark the cut-to-length legs for ‘Top’ and ‘Bottom’, selecting the most knot-free areas for the joints. Mark the position of the trench shoulders on one leg with a knife

Carpenter measuring wood with hammer and ruler. — 6. Place all the legs on a flat surface, selecting the correct faces to point upwards, and square them up using a roofing square; alternatively butt them all up to a straight piece of timber

Work Bench Plan, Left Side Download

Carpenter measuring wood with a square ruler. — 7. You can then carefully mark across the other legs from the line on the first leg

Hand cutting wood with a utility knife. — 8. Next, mark the width of the rail to get the position of the two edges for the trench

Utility knife cutting wooden surface close-up. — 9. Carry the lines around the arrises …

Measuring and marking wood with a square tool. — 10. … and drop the line down the side of the post …

Carpenter marking wood for precise cutting — 11. … then set a gauge to the thickness of the rail and mark the depth of the trench

Hand using a woodworking marking gauge. — 12. To move the fence, tap the gauge on a hard surface. If the thumbscrew is very slightly loose the fence will move a fraction, so check it and then re-tighten the thumbscrew

Trenching on the Sliding Mitre Saw

Circular saw cutting wooden plank in workshop. — 13. Use the trenching facility on the mitre saw. (If you haven’t got a suitable saw, you will have to do all the cuts the old-fashioned way by hand with a tenon saw. To make the trenching cut, cut down to the line at each joint using the tenon saw. Cut well inside the waste and trim back later. Make ‘relieving’ cuts to make chopping out the waste easier.)

Close-up of tool dial and knob — 14. Close-up of the depth gauge: this stops the saw head dropping as low as it does on crosscutting. Other saws will have different depth gauges so refer to the manual

Wood being cut with a circular saw — 15. Because of the curvature of the blade, the rear of the cut may not be as deep as the front. In that case use a packing piece as shown here, to bring the leg forward from the fence. Make sure you balance the leg with an identical packer against the fence on

Mitre saw cutting wooden plank securely clamped. — 16. You can use a stop block clamped to the fence to get repeat-cut accuracy on each leg. Notch the base of the stop block to prevent sawdust build-up pushing the leg away from the block

Circular saw cutting wood in workshop — 17. Make repeat cuts to ease the chisel work later on

Dealing with Waste

Chisel carving grooves in wooden beam — 18. Sharpen a chisel and chop out the waste to halfway from each side. Don’t try to chop all the waste at once. Work back to the line

Chisel cutting through wooden block grooves. — 19. Use a large chisel for the final cuts close to the bottom of the trench

Wood chisel carving a joint in woodwork — 20. You can then clean up the bottom, first with a chisel, then …

Woodworker uses hand plane on wooden block — 21. … with a shoulder plane

Vintage wood plane on workbench with wood shavings. — 22. Now test the fit with a rail offcut. The shoulder plane is the most useful plane for joint cutting

Bridle Joint Cutting Options

Bandsaw cutting through wooden plank. — 23. Now we need to cut the bridle joint at the top of the legs. Measure the rail and mark the top of the leg for the rail to sit centrally. The cheeks can be cut on the bandsaw or …

Hand saw cutting a wooden block on workbench. — 24. … by hand. Here I am using a Japanese saw with a narrow kerf (the slot that the blade leaves). You could use your tenon saw but the brass back on the tenon saw will prevent the saw going deep enough. You would have to finish the cut with a panel saw, which is perfectly OK, but I am just showing the possible variations

Close-up of wooden plank with groove. — 25. Here you can see the difference in kerf. The Japanese saw is much narrower. These saws are very useful when you want to make small and fine joints

Bridle Joint Waste Removal

Drill bit cutting through wooden board on table. — 26. To remove the waste part of the bridle joint drill a series of holes along the baseline

Close-up of drilled holes in wooden surface. — 27. Keep the holes clear of the baseline

Wood chisel carving a mortise in timber. — 28. Chop a diagonal cut into the area of the holes and then make a vertical cut to free the waste block.

Person using chisel on wood joint. — 29. Finally clean up the sides …

Carving wood with a chisel. — 30. … and the base of the joint

Person assembling wooden dovetail joint by hand. — **31.** It can be seen here how the rail is clasped by the ‘bridle’ formed by the two upstands on the legs

Wooden table frame under construction on workshop floor. — 32. Glue and screw the joints together so the finished underframe looks like this

Man using electric drill on wood board. — 33. Counterbore the top so that you can plug the screwholes, making sure that the edges have the correct overhang according to the plan

Person using a cordless drill on wood. — **34.** You can now fit the top to the base

Shaping the Legs

Curved pencil mark on wooden board corner. — 35. Draw any shape that you fancy onto the lower ends of your bench …

Electric jigsaw cutting wood plank — 36. … then cut the shape – a scroll in this case – using a jigsaw

Drilling rounded edge in wood with power tool. — 37. Clean it up with a drum sander then consider whether you want to bevel the edges by hand or rout them

The Legs

Workbench with blue vice and clamp attached. — **38.** Here I have marked the position of the legs on the top of the shaped rail. If the top is still loose, push it back from the front and cramp the rail in place. Select where you want the vice to be, generally on the left end for right-handers and vice-versa. Turn the vice upside down and mark where the cheeks will go

The Vice Recess

Note: Take care when handling the vice as it will be heavy and probably greasy. Clean off most of the grease with spirits so the vice can be gripped by its bars.

Woodworking dovetail joint markings on timber panel — 39. With the vice propped on the benchtop above where it will be fitted, sketch the shape of the cutout needed. You won’t get it right first time; it will need lots of offering up and ‘nibbling’

Blue woodworking vice on wooden bench — 40. The cutout allows the top edge of the rear jaw to sit about 10mm below the benchtop. Use the quick-release mechanism to check that the jaws open and close fully. The little thumbscrew at the top of my vice secures a small bar of metal. This is known as a dog

Wooden joint cutout demonstration on a workbench. — 41. Mark the shape of the recess needed to house the rear jaw. The recess must be 1mm deeper than the thickness of the jaw. The extra millimetre is to allow for expansion and contraction. Also allow a millimetre above the metal jaw. I know I have used MDF which doesn’t move with the seasons, but it would be an unwise person who didn’t allow a little tolerance here

Woodworking router in use on wooden plank — 42. Remove the top and clamp it vertically against the legs. Clamp a batten level with the top to give support and screw stop blocks to each end of the batten. Form the recess with a router or use a chisel and mallet

Marking Bolt Holes

You should now be able to clamp the top to the rail and have an opening into which you can offer the vice. Adjust the jaws until the vice is slightly open and it balances without falling out of the hole. Clamp it with a batten or get a helper at this stage because you most definitely do not want it falling out! Sit under the bench and mark the position of the bolt holes. You could at this point, and with the help of a second person, set the whole top assembly upside down to do the marking, but it is fiddly and you must remember the correct alignment of all the components. I prefer to clamp it in position right way up and grovel on the floor!