Just completed my workbench which, I'm embarrassed to admit, I started in February. Anyway, I wanted this to be my first and last dedicated woodworking bench. Borrowing heavily upon published ideas in Fine Woodworking, the extremely heavy project is comprised entirely of hard maple. During the latter stages, the pieces were so heavy that I was dependent upon my muscular sons for assistance. The weight and dimensions took my power tools to the very limit of their capacities. You can see that I elected T-track over dog holes. The 16 mortise and tenon joints employed the technique of dadoing, then laminating the two halves to form a mortise. This allows a near-perfect fit. All of the joints are through tenons, un-necessarily reinforced with screws dipped in epoxy, then capped with square sapele plugs trimmed into pyramids. The 8 exposed through tenons have large chamfers for purely aesthetic impact. The apron ends are attached with the breadboard technique, using Lee Valley's oval washers to allow the lag heads to be firm, yet slide with seasonal changes. I then inlayed maple patches to cover the lags, using hide glue in case I have to make lag screw adjustments in the future. My two vises are Veritas, their quick-release front vise and their popular twin screw vise, both faced in leather. Trying to be a responsible steward of resources, I made the front jaws of both from cherry and walnut scraps too small to use for anything else. Overhead, I have three LED fixtures totalling 36,000 lumens. The base rests on 3/4" thick pieces of pure phenolic in order to avoid wicking moisture from my dry (but still bare) concrete floor. Now, finally, I have a bench for the handwork that I enjoy so much.
