At the heart of many shops is a sturdy workbench. I’ve been using an inexpensive WhiteGate bench (thanks craigslist) for several years and have made-do with the help of a handful of bench dogs, planing stops, and two very important screws securing this rickety bench to the wall studs. In short, the construction of a ‘proper’ bench has been on my mind for awhile.

Several years ago, my father in law found a pile of old timbers behind his office and offered them to me for whatever wild building idea I could come up with. We keep a vegetable garden and for years have lusted for a dedicated greenhouse to stretch our growing season (it’s time the rows of seedlings on the fold-up card table flew the coop). Naturally, our first idea for the timbers was to construct a timber-framed green house adjoining our garage. With more portable, lighter, and more reliable alternatives available, we have put that idea aside. The timbers have since languished in our garage, that is, until this spring.

We plan to demolish our existing garage and will be rebuilding a new two-stall garage later this year. Watch out for that series as we get into demolition in early May. Prior to demo, we need to remove the wood and garden implements remaining in what has become a very large garden shed into either the recycling bin or, more likely, into the basement as useful parts/material for a not-yet-conceived, theoretical, definitely-going-to-use-that, future project. Before bringing anything into our basement, I wanted to remove as much dirt, dust, and inevitable mold spores from the wood as possible.

The typical minimum dimension for a sawn structural timber is nominally 5×5, so the term timber in this post is loosely applied. On the scale of furniture, these suckers are big. Each timber is at least 4″ on a side and most are around 88″ in length.

As I brushed and scraped the old timbers, I noticed the familiar motions were just that of bench work; I’d substituted my scrub plane for a scrub brush. Looking down at the neat row of rough timbers I realized I had all the wood I needed for a new, proper, woodworking bench.

Now, what type of bench to build? Ah, the options!

Do I opt for the holding elegance of the Nicholson or the beauty and tradition of the European benches of Klausz? The bomb-proof thru-tenons of the Roubo or the knock-down legs of the Moravian?

In the interest of simplicity, mobility, and time, I’ve landed on something close to a hybrid of Benchcrafted’s split top Roubo, Chris Schwarz’ anarchist’s work bench, and a hint of Mr. Chickadee’s ‘Asian-style’ Roubo. Like any bench, this one is designed for me and my style of woodworking, which is a work in progress.

I’ll take a deeper dive into the design in a separate post.

Stay tuned for subsequent posts as I begin the stock preparation for the top lamination and joinery for the leg assemblies.