The modified-Roubo bench with Benchcrafted Hardware
The new schedule of workshops is finally posted to my web site. I’ve added a workbench class! I have a little bit of extra room (not time, but rather 1500 square feet of physical space) this fall, after the guy in the back shop in my building moved.
I’ve built a few of these benches (2 done so far, but one more is almost done) over the past year. I’ve also been testing them out, and find them to be pretty amazing. I haven’t worked on anything better, and I’ve built many other benches, and have tried a wide variety of benches while teaching at many schools around the country.
You can also make a smaller version
The benches I’ve made lately have all had Benchcrafted hardware, which I think is amazingly good stuff. But there are certainly other options available. Please get in touch with me if you’d like to build a bench with a different vise configuration or hardware. By the way, Benchcrafted is offering a 5% student discount to anyone purchasing vises for this class.
It’s also worth noting that there are still a few spaces left in my classes at Marc Adams School of Woodworking next month. On the 15th and 16th I’ll be doing an expanded version of my class on jigs for had cutting mortise and tenon joints. From the 17th through the 21st we’ll be making a curved slat-back chair.
Curved Slat-Back Chairs
And then on November 2nd and 3rd, I’ll be teaching at Woodworking in America in the Cincinnati area.
Hello Jeff,
I’m curious whether you think the BC wagon vise is more useful for chair making than a high-quality tail vaise (such as the Lie-Neilsen vise)? In other words, do you miss being able to clamp with the front of the tail vise?
Thanks in advance
I’ve got two of the more traditional tail vises in the shop, and I don’t find I use them much in my chair work. Most of my chair parts would fit through the wagon vise slot if I needed to clamp upright, and so I don’t think it would be an issue. I do find a pattern-makers vise very useful for some chair-specific work (tapered and oddly shaped parts, as well as the ability to position those oddly shaped parts with great flexibility). I haven’t had as much luck using the pattern-makers vise for holding work between bench dogs, however, so I’m not sure I’d recommend it as a tail vise.
My shop is an interesting lab for testing out benches and work-holding. I’ve got many different kinds of vises on the various benches. And I certainly gravitate towards certain vises for specific tasks. In hindsight, after all of the experimenting (thus far), I think I could pare things back down and accomplish most of my work with the two Benchcrafted vises and the pattern-makers vise. I also like having two Record-style vises mounted a few feet apart on the side of one bench – I find this great for edge jointing even long boards. Bear in mind all of this is based on how I work, and what I tend to work on. But I haven’t had to settle for just one solution; I have the space and the need for lots of benches.
-Jeff
Thanks for the insights!