Building an oak and Douglas fir workbench using salvaged wood from a timber yard’s mistakes and off-cuts.
Workbench Design
A 5ft long by 3ft wide workbench is a good size for a small workshop. It’s not that often that I need to plane timber longer than 5ft and with a width of 3ft gives me access to work on all four sides.
One heavy, strong last a lifetime workbench. That’s relatively simple to build with basic woodworking tools. Solid oak legs rebated into the top, with a restored 10” Parkinson’s face vice. Using wedged mortice & tenon joinery to clamp the lower rail and sides together.
Making the base
Starting with the legs, remembering to make the legs longer than necessary. I will cut them down to a sensible working height when it’s finished. What’s important is to be able to plane and chisel at the bench while keeping my back straight. Leaning over a workbench that’s too low all day is no fun.
When marking out the tenons for the large 8” side rails, put a pencil line exactly in the centre of the 8 x 2 and mark out the mortice either side of the centre line.
Clamp and screw the side together, and check all four corners for square. Having these side rails housed in the legs provides extra strength, taking some of the pressure off the tenon, especially given the substantial weight of the mid rail.
Mortice and tenon, mid-rail
The legs and sides are set at a five-degree angle. It’s important to cut the mortice and tenon at the same five-degree angle. This will make sure that the mid rail is in line with the top. All the joinery layouts use a centre-line marking system as the datum.
Assemble the two sides and the lower rail, hammering the wedges in hard to clamp the workbench together. The bench should now stand up on its own.
Making the top
Laying the 6 x 4 oak slab onto the top of the adjoining legs. Then, sitting underneath to mark a pencil line around the leg and side rail. Do this on all four legs, then roll the oak over and saw and chisel away until you get a good fit.
No glue in this project. The sides & top are all held in position with large tech screws. The tops were screwed down and the holes plugged. The entire workbench can easily be disassembled if I ever need to.
Installing the vice
Having restored a 10 “Parkinson woodworking vice. The face of the vice needs to be about 3/8ths lower than the top of the workbench. You don’t want any metal near the workbench surface. Next, the internal vice jaw also needs to be set into the front face. Allowing enough room for a wooden face plate to be flush with the front of the workbench and top.
For the finish, I applied 2 coats of rustic pine wax and 1 coat of clear wax. Buffed it off. That’s it, easy to apply, no sanding between coats. Apply an even layer with a lint-free cloth, leave for 30 minutes. Then polish it off with a clean lint, free-cloth.
Thanks for reading
Best Matt North
A couple more workbenches for you to take a look at
