A Table Is Not a Woodworking Bench

    Having grown up with basic power tools and no history of hand tool woodwork, I never had a good appreciation for a "bench."  I never understood how important it was for a hand-tool woodworker.  I mainly saw a bench as an Assembly Table or a counter along a wall with some power tools, etc on it.  This reflected on my initial garage setup.

 When we moved into our new place, I was very happy to find a few tables that I could put in the Garage to set some tools on.  That is all I wanted.... and my bench-mate folding work table which you can see in the previous post's photo of the oars.  I was aiming so low!  But, with my focus on forces supporting the work piece as I ran my saw through it, sander over it, or router around it was probably in line with that as a basic standard.  Forces are typically vertical with limited side forces.  All I needed was a few clamps to keep the wood in one place and give me an extra pair of hands.

    One can do a lot with that sort of set up.  I made several pieces of furniture that are still used in my house to this day with a circular saw, a jig saw, a drill and a sander.  Even though the joinery was very basic (butt-jointed with screws for the most part), I was very proud of those items and even though I would construct them differently today, they look good enough that I am not embarrassed to say,  "I made it."

    It was when making the oars that I really understood how important it is to have a solid and secure means for the wood when using many hand tools, but I still had no idea what I was really missing out on.

    In the Summer of 2022 I was not looking for a bench.  I wasn't thinking of building a bench.  I was interested in what I needed to make a boat.  I just got lucky going to buy some wood and then being offered a bench and a table at a reasonable price.  I took it.  It looked awesome!  it had a metal frame and it had hard wood (maple?) work surface about 1.5" thick.  The top was 3 x 5 in size.  More importantly, it was heavy.  There was, however, no work holding on the bench, but the previous owner had made a "clamp on" "soft wood" vise that I was very happy with until it broke.  Ignorance is bliss at times!  LOL  The best bench I ever had up to that time.  Here it is as I had started to disassemble the tool rack that attached at the back and gave an overhead light.

    Here is a photo from a short time later after I had reassembled the bench in my garage.  You can see the host of power tools I had recently purchased on a "makeshift" shelf under the bench... and in the front center of the bench top, you can see the "home made" crank vise made from essentially 2 chunks of 4 x 4 pine with a couple rods in and a crank screw.  Best woodworking Vise I ever had but it should be called Vice in British tradition by how bad it was!.  You can also see on the far right corner of the bench a clamp on metal vise I got with the hand tools I had purchased.

    The "crank vice" pictured above didn't last long before the screw stripped out.  But, it did last long enough for me to realize after planing some chunks of firewood with that "German Horned Jack Plane" that I needed a wood working vice, so off to YouTube to explore.

    I watched many videos.  Rex Kruger's videos on the Low Work Bench, vise-less holding, adding a home made vise, and his english joiner's bench, vise-less, and leg vise videos were some of the most inspiring.  Of course, given the bench I had, a clamp on vise would also be nice... and I needed something I could make relatively fast with what I had.  I also didn't want to spend a lot of money since after all, I really wanted to make a BOAT and this joiner wood working stuff was about learning to use the tools I had through making things.  In the clamp-on vise category, I came across a "moxon vise" through some other video's in the YouTube Rabbit Hole on 3x3 Custom's channel.  She is very worth following for some excellent videos on router use.   

    The Moxon Vise though was the clear winner at the outset.  I set about figuring out how to make one with the items I had a the house:  reclaimed hardwood flooring off-cuts, all-thread, nuts, and some other reclaimed wood.  I present to you the Moxon!

    This was ok.  It worked!  It gave me the tool I needed to make some furniture for the house and to do some dove tail practice.  That was a plus, but it had some annoying issues that motivated me to continue to pursue a better solution.  For reference, here are the main issues of this one and the solutions:

1.  The All-Thread was too narrow so it took many many many many turns to open/close.  I have sense made a new one using one of the Moxon Kits from Taytools that has fixed that issue.

2.  The nutts on the front handles kept coming loose.  The fix was to "Peen" the nutt on the end by hammering on the side to "squeeze" the nut onto the thread.  That worked a treat.  The other nut in opposition was on inside and able to be accessed once removed.

3.  The smooth knobs sucked.  A simple fix without much effort was to use a triangular file to file some "knurling" into the sides to provide purchase.

4.  Adjusting both screws to clamp things.  Answer... DON'T.  Adjust one side to be the width of the board you are clamping.  Move board to other side of vise and add one or two more twists to the screw you just adjusted.  After that... only undo the side closest to the piece you are working on.  This is efficient because most projects use similar board thicknesses so in practice, most of a job will be on one setting!  (ie-- dove tailing).

    My bench was still not a wood working bench.  It was evolving though as I sought ways to do the essential capabilities for wood working:  working on ends, faces, and edges of wood.  But, at this point... it is still not a woodworking bench.