This is the abridged version of my Minimebo work bench posts, an overview collected in one place.

I have a smallish (9' x 8') area to work in and I wanted a hand tool work bench. I came up with this 5' x 14 1/2" 105 pound bench made out of reclaimed Fir 4x4s (milled to 3"x3") construction lumber. The lumber is pretty nasty stuff but it was free. The monster knots on the top surface were cut out [to about 1" deep] and patched before lamination. There is also some cedar and spruce in there and a little maple and oak. Finish is varnish over gallons of BLO (since work is clamped, slickness hasn't been an issue). Total cost was under $50.

Height is 33 1/2", about 1/2" over palm height (I'm 5' 6"). The height is good for face planeing and sawing but not high enough for carving so I use a stool (which is more comfortable anyway).

The bench has two vises, a leg vise and a wagon vise. Both were built with stuff I got at the scrap yard plus machined bits.
The leg vise cost $7 (Acme screw and nut, my attempts at making a wooden screw were a dismal failure). I copied the Benchcrafted Glide as much as I was [cheaply] able. The chop is blue spruce (I think) that fell down in my yard and is riddled with [epoxy filled] knots.

The wagon vise is a rather complicated bit of work, again copied from Benchcrafted. I found a 1 1/8" stainless steel acme screw and bronze nut for $20 and machined an aluminum carrier for it. Travel is 7". The dog strip was made from pieces of oak, rather than routed out of one board. The bench is fully populated with 13 square dogs. I used bullet catches in the back of the dogs as keepers. The screw has a right hand thread so the action is reversed (turn counter clockwise to tighten) but doesn't bother me (of course, after I built it, I found a left hand threaded stainless screw, oh well). It works, but was a pain to get dialed, my design isn't very good.

I'm not the most coordinated of people and the bench is in a cramped space so I didn't want any sharp edges to run into. Here is one end treatment:

Since the legs are flush with the top, I don't need a board jack, I just clamp to a leg or the top.

Expressed Concerns
People have some suggestions or reservations about the bench so I’ll try to address them here.

• No stretchers, it is going to rack or the legs break off under heavy planeing!
  I was originally going to have stretcher(s) (such as a 2x4 between the feet) for fear of racking but when I dry fit it and used it, it didn't rack much at all. Now that it is glued and pegged, it seems very solid (as a 105# bench can be). The tennons are something like 2 1/2" square (w x h). If I bolted it to the floor and mounted my machinist vise to it, I'd start to worry (my metal working bench takes racking abuse that makes planeing seem pretty tame). Also, since this is a pretty light bench, if you ram a plane into a piece of wood, the bench slides. Time will tell, dining room tables get away with spindly legs and people banging into them, maybe I’ll get lucky also.
• You have a small space, why not add cabinets between the legs?
  I went back and forth and back and forth ... on cabinets but I also sit at it (carving and such) so I want the knee room. TIlls for saws and planes at the legs are being considered. I also want to hang my bench hooks somewhere. And, as you can sorta see in the photo, I actually have quite a bit of storage space on two walls.
• The hand wheel on the wagon vise protrudes above the surface of the bench.
  Uh, well, I built the vise before I found the handle. Most of the time it doesn’t get in the way but that #7s tail can smack it, which is annoying.
• I’m surprised no one mentioned this: The top will expand and contract (ie get wider) but the feet won’t. This means the top of the legs move back and forth but the bottoms don’t. Won’t that break the joinery? I checked The Shrinkulator and it indicated the Doug Fir top isn’t going to move much at all (the bench is in a indoor conditioned space and the top is only one foot between tennons) so I think I have that covered.

As featured at the Pottery Shed! For only $1499.99. Perfect for a romantic breakfast after a late night working wood.

I don’t like square ends on table tops, because I run into them and it hurts! Since this bench will be sitting in the middle of my really small work area, I’m going to be bumping into it a lot, so no pointy parts. I added a couple of other constraints, just because I could: add some “pizzazz” and don’t shorten the top too much. I doodled, on the top, ideas until I came up with three circles, one 25”ish and two 4 1/4” (the white Mars-Plastic erasers work well on wood, as long as you use a soft lead fat pencil and don’t press too hard). Then I looked around the shop for circle things, grabbed a bicycle rim and a can of paint. Good enough (after grabbing, and discarding, a bunch of other sizes). I didn’t take any pics of the cutting process, too bad as it was pretty twitchy. I have a bow saw but I’m horrible with it. I don’t have a jig saw so I rough cut to about 1” from the lines with a hand saw and used a chisel to define the line to about 3/8” deep. Then a 1/2” pattern bit (smallest I have) in the router. The top mounted bearing rode against the chisel line. What a fricken mess. Eye protection, ear protection, lung protection and a layer of sawdust between me and my clothes. I refined the shape with files.

 

In case you are wondering, those are patches covering knots I cut out.

Ahhh, this is what I like to see, a flat bench. I’m using two levels as winding sticks; yellow in front and orange at back. I had hoped to use a drum sander to flatten, and smooth, the top and bottom but that fell through so I ran one half through my lunch box planer and used hand planes when the rest was glued on.

Look at that grain pattern – I think I’ve violated every slab glue up guide line. There are some wildly differing growth rates (I think it is all fir except for the oak dog strip).

I didn’t have a nice thick piece of hard wood to carve into a dog strip and I wouldn’t want to turn big chunks of it into sawdust anyway, so I came up with another way to make the dog strip. Basically, I cut dog blocks, glued them to a backer board, then glued the resulting strip to the bench.
There is basically no setup required to make the blocks but making the strip sure takes a lot more time than making a router jig and routing a dog strip.

Drawing
The dog holes are canted forward (towards the shuttle) at 2º so that, if the dogs don’t fit perfectly, they will be pushed back towards vertical. The notch is a stop so you can’t push the dog below the top of the bench. The blocks are 4/4 oak (a bit under 1”) x 3” (the thickness of my bench top). I used various widths based on guesses but all are less then half the vise travel. The dogs are 1” wide.

The backs of the blocks fit the face of the trailing dog and the front of blocks fit the rear of the leading dog. The first block has a square face (90º) with a notched back.

Procedure
Once the rhomboid has been cut (chop saw), the notch for the top of the dog is routed out. This is a safe-ish cut since the bit is pushing back at the block, not pulling it into the stop block.

Squaring the faces that matter (ie the ones that face the dogs). Awkward since it the block isn’t a square. I can’t remember why I was doing this (because the cuts should have had a square edge) but it is a good pic of the block.

 

The glue up. The first block (far right) is the reference block for the entire strip. Get it right!
A 1” spacer is used to position the next block (I used a steel 123 block)
This photo shows the all the stages of the glue up (from right to left): glued, glue drying, spacers (on narrow blocks so they don’t smear squeeze out) and staged blocks (with dogs).After the glue dries, the strip is glued to to its neighbor in the top lamination. I used clamps and temporary screws (for alignment and clamping, removed post glue up).

Here is the leg vice I built for my bench. These aren’t “off the self” items like bench vices so I figured I’d document mine. I made mine for $7 as I had most of the materials in my junk piles. I got the 3/4” x 5tpi Acme screw from my local scrap yard (Burcham's Metals) for 80 cents and the nut from MSC ($6). The vice screw clamps the vice face (or “chop”) to the bench leg and the “foot” of the chop is the other end of the fulcrum.

My chop measures 26” tall x 2 1/2” thick x 7 1/2” wide. The screw is 8” from the top. Bench Crafted recommends 8” - 9”and around a 1 : 3 ratio for chop length to screw. I choose 8” because any lower and I’d have to bend over too far to adjust the vice (the bench top is kinda low at 33 1/2”).

The screw and foot are 13 1/2” long (11” in front of the chop). Not including the knob. The vice opens to 7 1/2”, about the same as my Record bench vice.

 

 

Performance
I would liken it to a Stanley Bailey plane: it works, I like using it but it won’t get me to say “wow!” (unlike a Bench Crafted Glide). In contrast, I really dislike my Record 52 bench vice.

The Screw

The handle is a chunk of 7/8” broom stick with two caps to keep it on the knob. One cap is glued on and the other screwed. The knob was turned from a piece of 2” steel rod and brazed to the end of the screw. A steel collar (with set screw) acts as a garter to retract the chop. A plastic washer keeps things smooth and quiet. The set screw (5mm x 0.80) just almost fits between the threads so it jams nicely. A split collar works “better” but is too big for my tastes.

 

 

The nut is mortised into the bench leg and held in place by a wood plate.

The chop has a decorative face plate that acts as a washer and spacer for the knob.

 

 

 

The Foot
The bottom of the chop is the depth stop and, in this case, supports the chop. I made it out of maple and mortised it into the spruce chop. Miller dowels add some peace of mind as this chop seems really wimpy (the tree fell down in my front yard).

A 3/8” steel pin is the depth stop.

The foot rides on rollers. This is a innovation that Bench Crafted introduced. Otherwise, the chop hangs on the screw and/or slides on the foot mortise, which can lead to binding and isn’t very free running. I like the look of small rollers, even though bigger ones work better. My original plan was to use fixed casters but I couldn’t find any cheap ones. Then I tried small rubber rollers but they deformed enough that the foot would bind in the mortise. So I replaced them with wood and they are working dandy. The roller bracket was cut from 1” square tubing. A slot is cut for a lag screw and a hole tapped for a 1/4” x 20 screw. The slot allows you to fine adjust the screw height to align it with the nut. Both sides are tapped, which I think is both unnecessary and will keep the sides from deforming. The 7/8” dowel rides on a 3/8” steel bushing.

If you have looked at the Bench Crafted parts, you will have noticed the black plastic plate that is mounted to the front of the bench leg. The hole in the leg is bored a bit oversize so the screw doesn’t bind and the plate is a screw guide to remove the resulting slop. I don’t use the plate and, as a result, the chop flops (side to side) as it moves in and out. It doesn’t bug (yet) but might if I had a hand wheel.

Notes:
- As the vice tightens, it tips forward (at the top), pivoting at the pin. This means the foot tips down (unloading the top roller) so I think it is a good idea to leave a bit of space under the foot. Otherwise, if the foot presses down on something, it puts pressure on the foot/chop joint (which is bad because of the leverage). My foot can drop about 1/4” at the toe.

Yea! the acme nut fit! I turned a knob for the screw from 2” steel rod and brazed it on. While that cooled down, I drilled 3/4” holes in the chop (vise face) and bench leg, did a test run. That went well so I chopped the mortise for the bottom leg of the vise (whatever that is called, the foot?). Which, at 3 1/4” was beyond most of my tooling and there was no way I could chop it manually and stay square so I drilled it with a forstner bit, then manually cleaned it up. In order to drill all the way through, I could only hold about 1/4” of the bit in the cullet (I used the mill). Running with scissors. The pin is a 3/8” steel rod epoxied into a turned oak handle. Put things back together and it works quite nicely. It will never be confused with a Benchcrafted Glide but $7 is a bit cheaper than $325 (OK, I admit it, I think the Glide is seriously cool but I’m seriously cheap and I pay myself the princely sum of $0 per hour (if I didn’t, it would have been cheaper to buy a Glide) and I was too lazy to copy the Glide even though I have the parts). Still have to figure out what I want to do for a garter (so the chop retracts when backing off the screw).

Learnings:
- Lots of gription. I can pick up the bench by that block and the vise isn’t all that tight.
- If I forget or mis-set the pin, I’ll probably break the foot. I might want to make the mortise taller.
- I had thought the leg would rest on the foot but the long screw holes means the screw holds it level (the holes are just a bit bigger than the screw). As the holes wear, the leg will probably sag onto the foot and then I might add a [plastic] rub block.
- I’m surprised at how easily it moves with no bushing or bearings. It probably doesn’t hurt that Spruce is just a little heavier than Balsa.
- Leg vises seriously rack. The screw and the foot try to resist but I bet I could break the foot and bend the screw pretty easily. Better wear my “don’t be stupid” hat.
 

I’m probably just a little too pleased at how the knob turned out. But I am. It is a little too close to the chop for my fingers so maybe I’ll space it out with a garter.

Just realized I can use my bench as a long shooting board, how simple is that? I don’t have a power jointer (ignore that blue POS blob), keep forgetting I have a jointer fence (how lame is that?) and can’t free hand a 90º edge to save my life so this is pretty handy for longer boards.

Procedure: Put spacers on bench. Put board on spacers. Clamp. Plane. Admire long square edge.
Learnings: I knew I would find a reason to keep the wagon vise hand wheel lower than the bench top (the plane can hit it). Pulling the plane works really well. I really hate using a Bailey plane on a shooting board, here they work quite nicely (as you can use both hands to pull it).

Please don’t ask why I don’t have a fence permanently attached to one of my four jointer planes.

Boy, it has been hard to get anything “real” done; I decided to take advantage of the tax incentives and replace my 40 year old furnace and air conditioner. All fine and dandy (other than sticker shock) but the old A/C unit is in front of the cut off switch, which is, apparently, a code violation, so that meant [re]moving the old cement slab to make room for a new one about displaced about a foot. Grrr. A lot of work just to save space in a garden bed. My tankless water heater also needs to move to fix another code violation, it has been a real joy [NOT] to figure out the right vent parts. Stainless steel venting is expensive.

I must say that wide drum sanders really rock. It really worked a treat on the knotty spruce vice face [chop]. What didn’t work [at all] was my attempt to make a wooden screw. I mounted a router on my metal lathe and, using a 60º bit (the angle of modern screw forms, traditional wooden screws use 90º but I didn’t want to make a bit for cutting the nut). I set the lathe for four threads per inch (the lowest my lathe goes), switched on the router and started cutting thread. Even with a vacuum right there, saw dust was thrown everywhere, truly unpleasant getting blasted. And the threads are horrible. So off to the scrap yard where I found a 3/4” x 5tpi Acme screw for 80 cents. I ordered a nut for $6, hope it fits.

 

Cut the mortises by hogging out most of the waste with a forstner bit, followed by a 1/2” pattern bit in a router. Couldn’t get deep enough, so chopped the rest of the way to the center of the earth (2 1/2” is a deep mortise). Banged it together (no glue) and am surprised and pleased at how stable it is, I guess those elephant tusk sized tennons work pretty well.

Started thinking about a leg vise. I have a big chunk of spruce from a tree that fell down in my front yard but it is a pretty unpleasant piece of wood, very fast growth and full of big knots and, as far as I can tell, completely unplaneable. I have a friend with a drum sander, we’ll see how that works. Roughed out the shape just to look at it, reminds me more of a pizza paddle than a vise.

Yeah, this might just work. Cut the leg tenons, did a test assembly to take it out for a test drive and also to see where I want to put the legs. Placement is a bit constrained on the right side – knots and the leg overlaps the vise hardware a little.

This bench is going to have “traditional” feet, I like the look. Duct tape was used to establish the arc, I picked an arbitrary lip (1/4”). I roughed it out on the bandsaw and cleaned it up with rasps, files and shoulder planes. With one finished, it was used to trace out the other three.
The bottom relief is 3/4” and was cut out on the bandsaw and then drilled with a 1 1/2” forstner bit from both sides (the opposite of the sensible order but that allowed me to index off the relief). And yes, I did it in the mill. Cleaned up with planes.
I put a heavy (1/4”) round over on everything because fir isn’t all that strong.
Turns out one of my 4x4s is cedar, I have no idea where that came from, not ideal as it is softer than fir but the shop sure smelled good after cutting it.

Here you can see how narrow the bench top is, the legs will be flush with the sides (15”). The extra width will keep the bench from tipping and probably cause me lots of tripping.

Bench dogs need some sort of “spring” to keep them at the desired height, otherwise you would need four hands: two to hold the  dogs, one to hold the work piece being clamped and one to tighten the vise. Bazillions of good ways to do this, I like this one (I think I got it from Fine Woodworking Tips): a bullet catch (spring loaded ball bearing) in the back of the dog. It really works well; reach under the bench and smack the dog, it pops up and it stays put. I got a hundred of these from Lee Valley so I should be set for several life times.

 

I position the catch by drawing two lines: one with the dog all the way down in the hole and one with bottom of the dog level with the bottom of the bench (see photo). Then, I put the catch centered between those two lines, not critical. Move it down if you want to extend the dog higher. You don’t want the catch to leave the dog hole at either extreme.

(The Pointer Sisters)

Here we have the bottom of a over engineered, under performing wagon vise. On the left, the dog strip with some dogs. On the right, a hand wheel. Turn the wheel and a big (1 1/4”) stainless steel square thread screw turns. In a big brass nut. Which is bolted in a custom machined aluminum housing, which in turn is bolted to an aluminum sled. That sled has two grooves that ride on two 1” x 3/16” steel rails, which are screwed to the bottom of the bench on 1/4” oak spacers. As the screw turns, it moves a wooden shuttle that is screwed to the sled. The shuttle rides in a slot in the bench that is in line with the dog strip. A dog resides in the shuttle. An object that is between fixed & shuttle dogs can thus be pinched. The act of pinching makes the screw want to move to the right and out of the bench. To prevent this from occurring, a collar presses against a plastic bushing mortised into the bench end cap. The bushing also acts as the [guide] bearing for the screw. You can also hold objects in the gap between the bench and shuttle (eg for dovetailing). The shuttle moves 6 3/4”.
The holes hold the nuts for the bolts that hold bench end cap on. I cut a pipe section in half to make a curved washer.It works pretty well and cost around $35 (gotta love savage yards). Alignment is a total and complete pain and very finicky. If I do this again I want a complete stand alone unit that I can just bolt into a bench. The garter/bearing is pretty Mickey Mouse and should be replaced with a ball bearing unit as it isn’t the most smooth turning unit. Ideally, bearings at both ends of the screw so the sled just keeps the nut from turning and holds the shuttle but that is probably over kill. As it is, the sled constrains the screw vertically and the slot constrains the screw horizontally. Both have to be adjusted so the screw doesn't bind (by moving the bench end cap around).