Hello fellows. I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, touring around France with the family, but I’m back now and ready to continue with the saga of the workbench build. When I last posted, I had got to the point in the story where the bench itself was basically finished, but not particularly functional. The next step was to add a shelf under the bench to store tools etc. during a project.
In keeping with the patchwork appearance of the bench I decided to use up some offcuts of various species of wood for the shelf slats. Seven in all: ash, oak, walnut, cherry, maple, beech and chestnut.
Working in production line mode, I began by dimensioning each piece of timber, establishing reference faces and edges, correcting any twist or cupping, checking for square and then creating the opposite edges and opposite faces. Once each piece was at the correct width and thickness I made rebates along the long edges of each board so that they could overlap and support each other, before cutting each board down to the correct length. I then notched the boards that would sit at either end, so that they would fit around the legs. Obviously, these boards were only rebated along one edge.
The boards were to be nailed in place onto the cleats that I had previously fitted to the stretchers, so I drilled pilot holes for the nails to minimise the risk of splitting. I then gave them three coats of oil/varnish and fixed them in place with some copper nails.
Finally, I turned my attention to the tommy bar for the tail vice. The bar was made by turning a 1 1/8″ dowel from a scrap of oak. This was done in much the same way as the dowel for the leg vice screw. I then made some end caps from small pieces of walnut. The three components were glued in place and also given three coats of oil/varnish.
The next post will be about the leg vice assembly and will be up in a day or two. See you then.
goatboys woodshop 
Would you like to see if I could come up with a set of plans for this one since you did so much customization?
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Just wondering if you decided to have a bash at plans for the workbench in the end? The reason I ask is that in my final post on the subject, someone had asked for plans. No worries i not. Juist thought I’d ask. gb
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If you want to then sure, fill your boots, but there isn’t that much customisation really. Barring the fact that it is a tad smaller than the one in Chris Schwarz’s book, it is pretty much to his specifications. I’m grateful for the offer but I’m not sure there is a need. I’ll leave it up to you, but in any case it might be best to wait until it is finished. I’ve a couple more posts to go yet 😉
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