Summary
This is the only workbench book that shows the reader how to design a good workbench, how to build it and – most importantly – how to use it in their shop for all sorts of tasks. Encompassing years of historical research and real-world trials, this book boils down centuries of the history and engineering of workbenches into simple ideas that all woodworkers can use. With this book, your very first workbench will do everything you need it to do for the rest of your career in the craft. Here’s what you’ll find inside:
1. This book shows you how to build inexpensive, simple and very useful benches that haven't been in widespread use for 100 years or more.
2. Every woodworker needs a workbench, and other books skimp on showing you how to design a good bench yourself, or how to use it once it's built.
3. The construction information is presented so even beginning woodworkers can build these world-class benches. The technical drawings are extensive. The step-by-step instruction is unusually detailed.
Every board has edges, faces and end grain. So every workbench should be able to easily work the edges, faces and ends of boards. But most benches built during the last 100 years will fail you on at least one of these tasks. This book dives deep into the historical records of the 18th and 19th centuries and breathes new life into traditional designs that have lain dormant for decades and were utterly fantastic to use. These old-school benches are simpler than modern benches, easier to build and surprisingly perfect for both power and hand tools.
This book explains the fundamental rules of good workbench design that have been largely forgotten. It explains all of the complex vises and ways of holding work so you can understand what they do. And it shows you how to use this knowledge to design a workbench for the ages, using two venerable designs as basic skeletons. Unlike other books on the topic, this one isn’t a tour of unusual or beautiful workbenches. Instead it’s essential reading for anyone who likes to get their hands dirty in the shop.
The deluxe edition of this 140-page hardbound book is signed by the author and includes a CD that works with both PC and Macintosh computers. The deluxe edition CD includes the complete and searchable text of the book, plus 3D models of the benches, a bonus workbench plan and slideshows of the bench-construction process. Want to see Chris put these principles in action? Check out the Workbench DVD
here.
