The Workbench: A Complete Guide to Creating Your Perfect Bench Hardcover – Illustrated, October 1, 2004

I'm an occasioknal woodworker - but less active since giving up a large basement workspace. Some day, I hope to get back to it.But for now, I can dream. This beautifully illustrated book shows a wide range of benches, for everything from boatbuilding to fine dovetails. I haven't seen these exact words in the book, but the workbench might be the most fundamental tool in any workshop. It can be a precision tool, too, when the flatness of its surface guides the accuracy of projects beuilt on that surface. Like any other tool in the shop, the bench must support the specifics of work being done, so its construction and features might be different for every artisan. In that respect, I find this book a perfect complement to another book, which describes much smaller benches for much smaller-scale work, meeting a different but equally broad range of needs.This book provides inspiration, ideas, and plenty of opinions about what makes the ideal bench. It does not, however, provide construction details for any of them. Particulars of how-to are left to the experience and skills of the reader, or to other sources that offer measurements and plans. (I'm sure that many who do need plans will customize them a bit, based on what they're learned here.)Beynd the benches themselves, I'm fascinated by the workspaces they live in, by the tools of each woodworker, and by the storage solutions they come up with. Even if my next workbench is just plywood on a 2x4 base, I'll still be thinking of what I've seen here.-- wiredweird

I have at least four workbench books and spent a lot of hours studying them and WAY too many hours on youtube before I built my bench (see photos). I truly believe this is the best of them all, although none are perfect. I did NOT want pages and pages of excruciating details, cut lists and overwhelming instructions. I wanted tons of PICTURES to guide me in my OWN efforts. This book provided exactly the guidance I wanted. Many times in the process, I would stop and search through the book to find pictures of how others solved a particular problem or spacing or dimension I was trying to tackle. If you want highly detailed, specific plans, this is not the book for you. Thank goodness this book was not that. I actually kind of hate those, lol. FYI, my bench is 5" thick southern yellow pine with front vise jaws of cherry and oak (that I milled myself from trees) and the end vise is 8/4 maple. The two dog hole boards were cut to 3" to allow holdfasts to work properly. Finish is Danish Oil. Now that I've started using it, I have no idea how I got along without a serious workbench many years ago. Get this book, and take the time to build yourself a good workbench. It is worth it!

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 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.

Until I got that book I didn't know what a useful tool a good workbench could be. I had been getting by for years with makeshift creations thrown together from scrap, but after reading this book I was inspired to build a good woodworker's bench with a pattern maker's vise and bench dogs out of maple.The book is full of terrific ideas for every budget and time commitment. Some of them, like the pipe clamp bench are ingenious. I only wish I had time and space to build all of the ideas in this book. Even if you only have the time and budget to throw something together from scrap, this book will help you get the most out of your workbench.

If there is a wood workers bench not covered in this book I don’t know what it would be. Several designs and well thought out for whatever your needs are. Not only a great read but a good resource book.