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...
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...
A workbench should be heavy, very heavy. So I build a lot of benches with good thick 4” tops and simple but robust bases. Now a days we tend to call this the French bench, mainly due to recent trends in workbench designs. I don’t think the evolution of workbench...
Yesterday we introduced our new 5’ workbench yet today we’ve been putting the finishing touches on more of a Wadkin grade bench! This is our 8’ Nautilus but built with a bit of a difference using what is pretty much quarter sawn oak. To top it off the customer opted...
This is a working prototype of the latest bench to be added to the Maguire Workbench range. At only 5’ in length it is rather on the small side for us, and it certainly feels that way after some of the huge benches that we’ve been building recently. This 5’ model is a...
Now and again Richard likes to build a bench that is a little different to what he’s done before to keep himself challenged (like it isn’t difficult enough!) On his current build the motto has been ‘bigger is definitely better!’ Since all of the benches that we build...
The best and most efficient way to mark out mortices for me is to use a story stick. It’s just a simple stick with all of the measurements drawn on to it so I can reference from either the top or bottom of the leg and mark on the appropriate line. I just make a little...
Once the top had been glued together and fully cured I removed the clamps and left it one side to allow it to stabilise. I don’t know the exact reason but after such a large glue up the top can be quite unstable for a short length of time so I give five days or so for...
The top is made up of three slabs which meant there was only two joints to worry about but because these are wide slabs there wasn’t any room for sloppiness. If I’d tried to just clamp poor edge joints together on sections this large then the joint would be...
Hate is a very strong word, but we all have jobs that we hate and today was one of those hateful days full of jobs I hate. To top it of, I arrived at the workshop to find the drains had blocked up … again. One more hated job to add to the list of hated jobs. I decided...
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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....
Audio File (Trial). Can't Be Bothered To Read? Click Play. https://www.theenglishwoodworker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/The-Planked-Top.mp3 The Planked Top. What, How Why? ..who? Since first showing photos of our English workbench, I've had almost as many questions...
When it comes to workbench design there's a rule to suit us all. Keep it simple, make it strong. Give any woodworker a French bench, an English bench, a trestle and a door fitted out with original Victorian handle bench... As long as they're strong, they all work. The...