There’s nothing like a charming character to warm up a long and dreary winter and fortunately we’ve had our Little John to help keep things moving for us this February. The first batch of our smallest workbench began as planned and it’s brought a whole different feel...
Workbenches
Woodworking Workbenches – Design, Building & Use
Here you’ll find all of our post about woodworking workbenches.
There’s details about traditional bench design and vices, along with other alternate methods for holding your work.
Whether you’re building your workbench from scratch, or looking to make better use of an existing bench, we hope you’ll learn something useful.
Roughing It Up
I received an email this morning asking if I feel it’s a good idea to use a toothing plane on a bench top. I was slightly unsure of the intent at first but soon realised that this was a question of roughing up your bench top to increase the friction. Yes absolutely, I...
Bench Dogs – Wood vs. Metal
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my preferences when it comes to the shape of a bench dog and now I’m going to elaborate a little and cover some points about the choice of material. I’d thought about comparing the options with a list of pros and cons but then...
First Look – MKII Wagon Vice
Our wagon vice has been undergoing a bit of a make over and today I’d like to share the first photo of the prototype. The handle, its most recognisable feature remains the same. I’ve always loved it’s balance and size and certainly didn’t want to loose any of it’s...
If You Don’t Want To Buy A Cow…
When I posted about suede a couple of weeks ago a great suggestion was made by Paul Chapman. I'd written about just how effective suede can be for adding grip to any vice though I've never really come across anywhere that sells it in small quantities - we always have...
Round Dogs or Square?
Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. Both round and square bench dogs will hold effectively. After a short time of working with both shapes though I must say that I soon came to favour the round ones. Many, many bench builds later and that opinion still stands. As...
Get A Grip!
If you’re building a workbench then you’ll likely spend a lot of time pondering over which vices are going to suit you the best. There’s a lot of choice out there so it can be a big headache but whatever you opt for there’s one step that I definitely recommend you...
All Style and No Substance??
Whenever I’ve taken my workbenches out to a show I’ve always enjoyed lovely feedback and appreciation. One line that I can guarantee will come up at least a dozen times though is “it’s too beautiful to use!”. You’ll think I’m mean but it’s always that line that leaves...
My Dog’s Too Tall!
The Veritas Inset vice is a real gem which is why I chose it for our Little John Bench. There’s nothing excessive about it and its qualities lie in its simplicity; simple in design and simple to use. Compared to the wagon vices we're now more familiar with this one...
The Little John – Small Hand Tool Workbench
Our latest small woodworking bench has now been named and is ready to step out in to the big bad world. We introduced The ‘Little John’ last month and if you haven’t seen it yet you can catch up with that post here. After taking this compact 5' workbench along to the...
Related Posts:
Choosing Timber – The Best Wood For Building A Workbench
If you're going to build yourself a chest of drawers, what wood would you build it out of? You'd build it out of whatever you fancy building it out of. What you like, what's to hand, what's cheapest. Who, bloody cares? It's the same when you're building a workbench....
Holdfasts – How Should You Be Using Them?
When I started building workbenches, I pushed my way of working on to my customers. I wasn't aware I was doing this. But my cave's a small place, and I forget there's other people out there. Every workbench went out complete with sliding board jack, large planing...
Face Vice Rack – How To Work With It
Can't be Bothered to Read? Click Play: https://www.theenglishwoodworker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Nice-Rack.mp3 Without a reliable way to hold your work for woodworking we'll quickly become frustrated. Whilst I'm a firm believer that a lot can be achieved with an...