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Chris asked me to post some details on my little workbench.

This is the bench:



He asked for some dimensions. As I just built it to fit I don't really have a plan, I have been cabinet making for about 30 years so it was pretty basic cabinet stuff but others may need a bit more information. So I took a tape measure and made this basic sketch:



These dimensions are in inches and from these one should be able to make a detailed drawing, if they need it, that better suits their needs. You can see from the sketch that the bench cabinet is just three individual boxes that are just slid together and secured to each other with screws and also screwed to the 4.5 inch high base that is attached to the floor.

Anyway...Right in the front is a pair of large drawers that I store portable power tools in. They look like this and are mounted on full extension drawer slides:



You can see in the picture at the top that there is also a door to the left of the drawers. That opens into a large storage area that has one shelf in it.

The left side of the cabinet has two doors that are just for cupboards and is where I store various things from glue pots and water stones to screws and drum sanding paper:



On the right side of the bench and on the outside of the "U" are a bank of narrow drawers:



These drawers are constructed on a sliding shelf principle, where I just cut rabbets into the gables of the cabinet and made the drawer bottoms wider than the drawers so that they slide into the rabbets. A quick, cheap and effective process for making drawers like these.

I have also made many of my jigs and fixtures so that they mount into the end vise:





The fixtures are attached to a sub base that has a skeg attached to it that can be clamped into the end vise. This allows me to change jigs and fixtures and it also locates them in a great spot where I have clear three sided access.

The top has a two inch overhang for clamping purposes. I also use that overhang for attaching things like my vacuum guitar holder:



So, some design considerations when I built the bench were that I wanted a "U" shape. I wanted an end vise and an area where I could use a "dog" system for holding work that would be hand planed or otherwise worked. I wanted the outer leg to be narrow so that I could place a guitar on it and work from both sides (it typically has a piece of carpet laying on it). I think this bench fills my needs very nicely! As a matter of fact I plan on moving this bench to the larger shop once it is built as I can't see where I would change anything on it for guitar making. Of course in the new shop I will have more space for other benches but this will still be the centre of the operation.

I hope this is helpful for those of you planning a new bench. Please ask if you need more details or dimensions. This is made mostly from MDF with some birch plywood. Quite inexpensive really!

Shane

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Canada

Dang that's a great set up you got there Shane! Now you just need to find the time to finish building that 3 year old guitar

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Yup....cause the bench does not look at all like that right now! It has guitar two in a mould as well as that one and they are surrounded by packages ready for shipping, a few hundred curly maple bindings I just made up and bunch of other crap that remains in the way for getting back to working on these guitars! But I have a DREAM.....!

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Canada

Hey Shane,

Thanks a lot for sharing some more information about your perfect bench setup with the rest of us.
This is far more than I was hoping for and the detailed pictures explain a lot of the setup.

I will post some pictures when my version is finished...