My 21st Century Work Bench

Alot of work benches I’ve studied closely either look to top heavy, with flimsy legs, or too light to handle the rigors of heavy hand planing. I’ve found many designs that incorporated a huge slab top, with massive timbers for legs. The Roubo design as presented by Christopher Schwarz stands out as one designed to do what a work bench should, securely hold work for hand tools. This design I’ve taken many aspects of various benches and blended them together to form one I think will work for me. The center tool well will allow a chair or small table to be on the bench top without the worry of the piece tipping into a more traditional well that is positioned on the edge of the top. The legs are dovetailed into the top, with the natural locking abilities of dovetails, and the top mortised into the leg, I can’t see how this bench would ever rack. Not to mention multiple dog holes, and hold fasts for every clamping operation I could think of. I haven’t yet added the deadman, but that will come later.