Ultimate Space-Saving Carving Bench

Alan Holtham builds a folding bench for a part-time carver.

Table of Contents
Man carving wooden sculpture on sturdy wooden table.
Wooden apple press for cider making

The brief for this project was to produce a bench that would be useful in a very small workshop. Thinking about it, I was inspired by a carver’s bench, and thought that an adaptation of this design would be of use to both general woodworkers with a very small workshop, and any woodcarvers with similar space constraints.

The original concept for this design is not mine – I found something very similar on the cover of a 1970s woodworking magazine and just adapted it to suit my available materials. In this case I was using up some standard 3 x 2 PAR softwood, and a couple of rather tatty boards of 11⁄2in ash. You will need to think very carefully about the dimensions to get the relative height of the seat and bench just right for you.

I spent some time playing around with a small stool and a desk on blocks of wood to be sure the finished heights were suitable. I fitted a conventional woodworking vice, to which I added a front dog, along with a series of holes in the bench top for both fixed and screw-adjusting bench dogs. I also made provision for the quick fixing of a heavy-duty pivoting vice for anyone who wanted to use the bench for carving in the round.

Construction is very simple – I just used dowels, but the alternatives are mortice and tenon joints, dominos, or biscuits. I always feel that the strength of modern adhesives makes heavy structural joints such as the mortice and tenon less necessary these days, but the choice is, of course, yours.

Cutting list

List of workshop materials with measurements.
Plan 1Download
Plan 2Download
Plan 3Download
Plan 4Download
Cutting wood with circular saw safely
1. The first stage is to cut out the longest lengths of frame material and here a chop saw with outrigger supports is a real advantage, but make a trial cut first to check that the saw is actually cutting spot-on, or the frame will not end up flat or square
Wooden frame assembly on workbench with ruler
2. Each component can be cut to exact size when you are dowelling – there is no need to allow anything for the joint. Lay out each frame on the bench and clearly mark a face side and face edge to ensure proper dowel orientation later
Pencil and metal disc on wooden board for marking.
3. The top and bottom rail ends are marked out with a simple curve – I have cut out a series of aluminium circular templates just for this purpose
Person using jigsaw to cut wood plank.
4. Cut the shape carefully using a jigsaw – a sharp, clean-cut blade and steady feed pressure should ensure that the cut stays true and does not end up angled. Cut just clear of the line and then sand back to a smooth curve using a bench-mounted disc sander, but once again, check that the table is perfectly square to the disc
Electric drill boring into wooden block securely clamped.
5. For the dowelling I used a Joint Genie jig – in fact two jigs bolted together for a double row of holes. The jig is clamped in place with a couple of F-clamps. As it will not necessarily centre perfectly, it is essential that you work from the face side and edge on each piece to ensure the mating halves align perfectly. I use six 8mm dowels for each joint, setting the depth stop carefully with just a fraction of clearance so the dowels wouldn’t bottom before the joint was firmly closed. You can’t use the end stop on the jig for the points in the base rail, so set this out manually with some careful measuring
Person assembling wooden furniture with tools.
6. Assemble each frame, ensuring the dowels are well covered with glue

Top tip

If you find dowels are a little too tight, a good tip is to zap them in the microwave for a few seconds first to dry them thoroughly. They may even then appear to be too loose but will soon swell out once covered in glue.

Person assembling wood frame with clamps and glue.
7. Clamp up carefully, making sure the frame remains square – it is so easy to pull it out of line if the clamps are even slightly angled, so keep checking and don’t overdo the pressure. The frame for the central support and the swing-out seat are made in exactly the same way, but this time just using three dowels per joint as the material is thinner
Wood clamps securing wooden pieces on workbench.
8. The top cross rail on one of the frames is set down lower to accommodate the vice, but then glue in a couple of riser blocks to support the top at the same height as the other frame

Top tip

9 & 10 Follow our Top tip (right) and when you apply clamps, any glued blocks will not slide.

Hand holding wooden block with small nails.
Person using clamp on wooden furniture

The swing-out frame also needs some extra support blocks top and bottom, which again are simply glued in place. However, it is often very difficult to stop these blocks sliding as you clamp up, so knock in a couple of very fine panel pins. Then use some pincers to snip off the heads, leaving just a couple of millimetres of the pin proud of the surface.

Woodworking clamps holding wooden frame on table.
11. Repeat the same procedure for the lower support blocks
Sanding wooden frame with Bosch sander on workbench.
12. Once the frames are thoroughly dry, clean them up and remove any pencil marks using a sander. I prefer the controllability of a small palm sander for narrow section material
Person using power tool on wooden frame.
13. To minimise the possibility of splintering or otherwise damaging the edge on benches like this, which are bound to get a bit knocked about, I always radius over all the framework edges using a tiny bearing- guided router bit. For this type of work, I feel that the tiny, rounded edge gives the finished frames a much more professional look, but don’t overdo the size of the radius

Benchtop

Two wooden planks cut by circular saw
14. The top is made from some kiln- dried ash. I am always worried about the stability of this type of material in wide pieces, particularly when it is a long way off being quarter sawn, like these two boards
Wood plank clamped on workbench with tools.
15. To overcome this stability problem, and also to produce a thicker top, rip it up on the bandsaw into 64mm wide strips
Wood pieces clamped together on workbench.
16. Plane and thickness these all round and then glue them together on edge to produce a thick top – the grain orientation now makes the potential for movement far less
Woodwork bench with clamps and wooden frame.
17. Breadboard ends complete the top and these are just dowelled in place. Normally, this would not be recommended practice, as a conventional top would move much more relative to the ends, but a laminated construction like this will minimise any problems with later movement
Wooden workbench with drilled holes and sawdust.
18. Once dry and cleaned up, the top can be drilled to take dogs which will suit whatever holding arrangements would want to fit. Don’t be too sparing with the holes – the more you have, the easier it will be to accommodate a variety of different workpiece sizes. For the sake of neatness and also to make it easier to drop in the dogs, run a tiny chamfer round the top of each hole. It is probably best to avoid your glue line when drilling just to be on the safe side, so as not to introduce unnecessary weakness
Wooden circle and jigsaw on workbench.
19. For the seat, I laminated up a couple of off cuts from the top material and cut out the circle with a jigsaw
Hand using tool on circular wood piece.
20. To trim it perfectly circular, use a trammel bar on the router with a straight cutter, taking two or three passes to achieve the full depth. Use double-sided tape to stick the top to a piece of sacrificial MDF
Wooden stool leg joint with bolt close-up.

21. The top and bottom edges of the seat can then be radiused on the router. It locates in the leg frame with a long bolt, which is held captive by recessing the head into a small square of off cut material
Wood glue-up with several clamps on workbench.
22. This square is then glued into place on the underside of the seat. I did consider screwing it as well, but I’m convinced the glue joint will be strong enough on its own
Assembling wooden frame with drill and screws
23. Fit as many of the hinges as possible on the bench, as it is so much easier working with the frames flat. I use simple lay-on hinges which do not require recessing in
Person assembling wooden furniture with power drill.
24. Use props on the floor to hold the central and the leg frames in position while you attach the other leaf of each hinge
Person assembling wooden furniture in a workshop.
25. Drill a hole in the leg of the swing-out frame to take the seat bolt. I did think afterwards that recessing a nut into the top of this hole would allow you to raise and lower the seat by simply winding it up and down, but in this case, a bigger bolt would have been preferable

Fitting the vice

Carpenter uses a router on wooden edge.
26. To fit the vice, you need to rout out a recess in the end of the top to take the back flange. I held the top upright in the vice and clamped on a piece of scrap to provide more support for the router base. Fine tune the fit until a flange fits f lush with the end of the top – you may need to taper the recess slightly to accommodate the thicker web at the bottom of the flange
Blue woodwork clamp on workshop bench.
27. Before fitting it in place, attach the inside wooden jaw plate by screwing through the back of the flange
Woodworking with a corner clamping tool.
28. The vice can then be firmly fixed to the top using 50mm coach screws, drilling the appropriate pilot holes first to maximise the grip
Adjusting blue woodworking bench vice on table.
29. Now, tighten up the vice to hold the front wooden jaw plate in position, and screw through the two front holes. Use a finely set plane to trim the plates to be flush with the bench top
Wooden workbench with metal vice and holdfasts.
30. For the front vice dog, I drilled a hole in the jaw plate and then turned a small dog, though as the hole is the same size as the bench top holes, any of the other metal dogs can be used
Person using drill to assemble wooden frame.
31. To hold the top in place, drill a 10mm hole on either side of each end frame. Then temporarily insert a dowel marker in each hole and drop the top down onto them
Inserting dowel into wooden furniture joint for assembly.
32. This should leave a clear mark for the matching holes in the top which can then be drilled with the same drill. The locating pins are short lengths of 10mm brass bar epoxied into the top
Workbench with clamp and wood block assembly
33. The pivot vice is held similarly to the seat top, with a captive bolt countersunk into a mounting block, with a large washer and locking handle to secure it to the bench
Red carpenter's clamp on wooden workbench.
34. I actually drilled a dedicated 10mm hole just for this vice, though there is nothing to stop you using the bigger dog holes if need be
Wooden workbench with attached foldable seat and vise.
35. A couple of coats of finishing oil completed the job, and particularly enhanced the colour of the top and seat. Oil finishes are so much easier to apply on multiple components where there is a real potential for drips and runs if you use varnish
Wooden cider press equipment for fruit juice extraction.
36. The whole thing folds flat in seconds and will stack away neatly in the corner of the workshop, or it is easily transportable if you want to work away from home

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