A heavy small workbench – 3

A was lucky to be able to buy some 10mm diameter beech sticks, which would be perfectly suitable to make dowel pins for my draw bored mortise and tenon connection.

But before inserting the legs I first connected part of the vise mechanism. It is heavy and annoying to connect once the workbench is in the correct orientation.

In the mortise in the top-left of the image a hole for the drawbore pin is visible. Sadly enough on mortise and tendon connect has the offset of the whole in the wrong direction, causing one leg to have a small gap with the top instead of being extra tight…

I filled the gap with a very thin strip of walnut, just like the butterfly joints used on the top and one leg.

If drilled a couple of 19mm dog holes in the top and in the legs. I was first planning to make a leg-vide as well. Instead a settled with a Veritas Surface Clamp, which I can use at the top as well. This should be sufficient for clamping work I intend to do.

People often say that the best way to start woodworking is by making a workbench, and I couldn’t agree more.