A heavy small workbench – 1

Lately I’ve started to do more and more woodwork, preferably without any power tools. This created a need for a proper workbench. Commercial workbench were not suitable (too big, too light or too expensive), so I’ve decided to build my own workbench.

I’ve found some inspiration in chairmaker’s workbenches. Especially this one is very beautiful and looks rock solid.

You can find more info on this workbench by following this link.

The first step is increasing my knowledge about building workbenches by watching a lot of Youtube movies and by purchasing this book:

Based on what I read I decided to make a french style workbench.

It is going to be roughly 96cm high, 90 cm deep and 55cm wide and more than 120KG in weight. For this purpose I purchased some beech, which is a relative cheap hard wood available in the Netherlands. Most available pines are too soft.

So here’s my car full with pre-planed wood:

The stuff at the bottom are 300mmx55mmx210cm, which decided to rip and plane by hand. Which resulted in some proper exercise. The problem is, that a proper workbench would be handy, which I obviously do not have. So I used some wood to fix my portable workbench to a closet, such that it stops moving all the time.

After some hard labour the result is this nice pile of wood:

The next step will be glueing and planing the legs and top. The result of that will be for some other post.