The Workbench: A Complete Guide to Creating Your Perfect Bench [Hardcover]

Lon Schleining (Author), Randy O'Rourke (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004

In this fresh and contemporary look at the world of workbenches, Lon Schleining takes us on a guided tour of a wide variety of classic, modern, and specialty benches and offers hundreds of options for choosing or building that perfect bench and its accessories. The Workbench looks at the classic subject with a focus on helping readers find the right bench and accessories for their needs. The object is to guide the reader through making critical choices, including whether to buy it or build it. Even long-time woodworkers dream of the perfect bench and the time to build it, and for them the real enjoyment is in the planning. With 279 color photos and additional illustrations, this book provides in-depth information along with the inspiration to fulfill workshop dreams.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 202 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561585947
• ISBN-13: 978-1561585946
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Do-It-Yourself

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book, December 16, 2005

By 

Scott Pointon "Former Marine, Librarian, Wood... (Crest Hill, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Workbench: A Complete Guide to Creating Your Perfect Bench (Hardcover)

Though I am a huge fan of Scott Landis' book on this subject, I think I like this book even better. Because I will soon build my third and final bench (yes I am a dreamer), I have been reading a lot about this subject lately. This book does a great job of grabbing your interest, showing you the thought process you should use to determine what design and features are best for you, and then showing many beautiful examples of hard working benches in scores of woodworking shops.

Three things stood out to me as I read this book. The color photography is excellent, the text is well written, and the whole package culminates in giving you the inspiration to go out and build that new bench you have always wanted. In response to the notion that there is too little detail here, I say that this book is not intended to be a set of plans for one to construct a bench. this is an IDEA generating book, so you won't have to say later "Gee I wish I had thought of that before I built my new bench."

I highly recommend this book for any woodworking book collection or anyone interested in options for bench design.

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Needs to be a bit more detailed, January 2, 2005

By 

Andrew Violette "A Customer" (Hoffman Estates, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Workbench: A Complete Guide to Creating Your Perfect Bench (Hardcover)

I recently started building a bench that is featured in this book (the one that appeared in the 3rd edition of Fine Woodworking's Tools&Shops magazine). This bench design is excellent and incorporates all the best of traditional european-style cabinet maker benches and some new modern touches such as the Veritas twin screw vice. This book's design is incomplete. For instance, how much of a gap is there between the two legs? How far in did he start the slight elevation of the sleigh feet and how high is that elevation? Where do the mortises for the stretchers start? These are questions that are not answered in the design. While most woodworkers change the designs around to suit their needs, it would be nice to have a good starting point with the designs.

I found the pictures to be excellent (although most are probably ones you've seen before if you've subscribed to Fine Woodworking).

This book is more-or-less complete, but I think if you're going to build a bench you are going to want buy this book AND the Workbench book (especially if you plan to build a traditional tail vice which I find to be very complicated and the pictures in both make it clearer). I like the binding in the Workbench book better, since the hardcover binding is kind of hard to lay flat and it costs more.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book delivers on building your own dream workbench, October 11, 2004

By 

rankar "rankar" (Wilton, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Workbench: A Complete Guide to Creating Your Perfect Bench (Hardcover)

After years of wanting my own dream workbench, I finally took the plunge and began building one this year. My workbench is a slight variation of one of the workbenches profiled in Mr. Schleining's book and I couldn't be happier with it.

This book covers many different designs of workbenches from traditional style benches, to European, to more modern workbenches (suited for the woodworker that uses more power tools). What I liked most about this book is that it not only covers some of the nation's most well-renowned woodworkers' workbenches, but Mr. Schleining also goes into great detail why their respective benches work.

Mr. Schleining does an excellent job of getting you to think about how you work in your shop to come up with your dream workbench. This is not a cookbook packed with a ton of plans. Instead, Mr. Schleining includes plans that are representative of today's styles such as Tage Frid's bench, the New Classic bench (modern), windsor chair maker Mike Dunbar's traditional bench (complete with wood screw vises), Niall Barrett's no-frills bench, and a Sam-Maloof style bench.

Each bench profile gives details on how to build the bench. But more importantly, Mr. Schleining arms you with a wealth of information to customize each bench to your liking, giving you the benefits and drawbacks for each design and add-on. For example, for those who wish to have cabinets under their bench, Mr. Schleining notes that his helps to add mass and storage space to the bench. But it also may impede your ability to clamp certain work pieces to your bench. Other examples include comparisons between wood and steel vise screws, round versus square dog holes, tool trays versus no tool trays, and a host of other feature comparisons. In addition, Mr. Schleining also provides a number of very helpful tips for building your own bench such as flattening the bench top, using offset-pinned tenons, picking the right location for your vises, and others.

This book is more than just a show-and-tell piece on different workbenches. It provides inspiration, practical advice, and detailed plans for those planning on making their own dream workbench someday. Even if you aren't interested in making your own workbench, Mr. Schleining provides ample information for regarding pre-made workbench kits, bench tops, and custom-built workbenches.

As a woodworker just returning to the craft after a ten year hiatus, Mr. Schleining does an excellent job of communicating his ideas through his pointed prose and his numerous color photographs. I give my highest recommendation for this book.