Welcome to the bench page, this is the first of the step by step pages, it details how my workbench was constructed, the materials used, and how they were handled....I have been doing a lot of research on workbenches and there making, there are many great sites on the net, some are noted on the links page, and the book, The Workbench book, was a great help in deciding on the height, and length, and structure...Just as a side note, I think as most woodworkers grow and learn, their benches kind of reflect the stages there in, (I am in the second-bench-working-on-the-third). The First Bench is either bought or thrown together out of whatever is handy, and it only scratches the surface, and shows us a glimmer of things to come, the second bench, overcomes most of the shortcomings of the first, but ultimately still proves to be inadequate...I think most woodworkers finally end up using the third bench for a long time...since by the time you make it...you really are starting to understand what you need...

This is the stock that is to be the Legs and Stretchers for the bench, here that have been squared,  and cut to length with a compound miter saw. This particular bit of stock I believe to be fir,  I also think that it is old growth stock, from a huge tree, as these were almost 4 inches square, and rift sawn, the growth rings are straight across the diagonal, so I have no idea how large the log they were cut from was, there are twenty to thirty rings per inch. It was "liberated" from a shipping container...

The parts above have now been joined with mortise and tenons, and make up two sub-assemblies for the benches base, note the through holes in the sides, I need to be able to move this bench, so these assemblies will be further joined with another stretcher, but it will be bolted in place rather than being glued. Also, as a bit of a side note, the joints were smoothed with the tools shown in the foreground, the chisel being a plain (found on eBay) 1" chisel, the plane is a 45 degree smoother I made a while ago the planes iron is from Steve Knight of Knight Tool Works

This is how the two sub assemblies go together, no glue just the bolts drawing the joint closed, Since the bolts are being driven into end grain, which I thought would weaken the joint and eventually work loose, I drilled a couple of through holes, and then inserted some one-inch dowels. I guess that this a variation on bed-bolts, or metal bench bolts....if these strip out I can just tap them out and install a new set...

This is how the joint looks once the bolts have been drawn tight....  I know this may seem like overkill, but this is a planing bench and it needs to be strong, besides I think the dowels look kind of  cool... and I will be able to unbolt it and be able to move it around....

This is the completed base for the bench, All that's left is top and vises, and maybe I will be able to work on something else......but I am sure this will all pay off in the long run...