Customer Reviews

The Workbench: A Complete Guide to Creating Your Perfect Bench

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book has a lot of good ideas, great pictures and plans. I especially appreciate Schleining's review of what modern masters, including Sam Maloof and the late Tage Frid, are using/used. I would have liked to see more coverage of classic benches - only a couple of shaker benches and Henry Studley's (amazing) bench are included.

I have already built most of my bench but I sure wish I'd had this book before I got started. I would definitely have done things differently.

Workbench tops, bases, built-in cabinets, vises, hold-downs, deadmen etc. are all covered. I am looking to add a tail vice and several good plans are included.

This is a very good and quite complete book. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent book. If you are thinking of designing and building the perfect workbench, you absolutely should buy this book.

There is no single perfect workbench. Any design is a tradeoff between competing demands. The author discusses all facets of workbench design--vises, tops, support/chassis. It is up to the reader to design a workbench that satisfies her needs.

The author provides several examples of workbench designs / plans. These plans include important dimensions but leave the details to be worked out by the woodworker of an intermediate skill level. This I feel was the right decision because the book is directed at the intermediate woodworker. If you are a beginner and looking for detailed plans, I suggest the article from this month's Wood magazine or any of the other magazines.

The layout and format of the book are top notch. The photos are superb. Reading the book makes one eager to get in the shop.

This is a great book for what I wanted - a survey and idea book to design my own bench. Essentially the author surveys a number of different woodworkers and what type of benches they use and why. The book is broken down into logic chapters on various components of the bench including the top, base, vises and holding techniques. He covers ideas on how the bench fits in the shop, ergonomics, tool storage/trays, holding wood, and other issues related to layout and placement. It covers some history of workbenches but isn't a history book.

In Chapter 8 he explains his bench design and building process. This is really a nice design and I think I will use it for the basis of my bench. Note as 1 reviewer mentioned that this isn't a very detailed engineering view plan; it contains basic part measurements in a 3-dimensional view. It is enough information to design and build the same bench but you may have to dimension out a few things in more detail when building yours.

The layout and photography in this book are excellent, and the writing style is easy to follow.

I bought this book because I thought he would expand on his bench design from Fine Woodworking. No such luck. This book is basically a history of wood working benches and some vague schematics of different kinds of benchs. As a coffee table book this is 5 stars but as guide for making your own bench it is only three stars.

Scant on details but good for ideas to design and build your own bench.......especially if you have not even seen one before.

There are two categories for this review.


Firstly is the short period of time it took for the book to arrive from America to Australia, being just 14 days. This was impressive to say the least!

The second part is not only the fact that it is a brand new hard back in perfect condition, but that the information inside the book is incredible. this was not my first choice for a work book, but has so far been my best choice.

Recommended to anyone thinking of looking up how to build a work bench - from this group. Thanks guys.

Andrew

This book shows those "I wish I'd thought of that" moments. Very good reference and idea book.