It’s been done for a couple of weeks and is already suffering HSS, Horizontal Surface Syndrome, the collecting of stuff on almost any horizontal surface.
- Design – Anarchist’s Workbench by Christopher Schwarz from Lost Art Press
- Dimensions – 100 inches long, 23 inches deep, 34 inches high
- Lumber – grade #2 Southern Yellow Pine from central Florida Lowes stores
- Vise – Crisscross from Benchcrafted
- Vise screw – 21 inch screw from Lee Valley Tools
- Vise accessory – Crubber non-slip cork/rubber from Benchcrafted
- Planing stop – Crucible Planing Stop from Lost Art Press
- Holdfasts – Gramercy Holdfasts from Tools For Working Wood
Note: I have no affiliation, nor collect any royalties, from any of these products. I simply enjoy their quality.
And a fine bench at that. How have your feet been on the concrete?
Hi Gav,
Fortunately, this old body has been very kind, no significant aches and pain and I don’t mind the concrete. Of course, I’m not spending 10 hours a day at the bench, usually only a couple of hours at a time, but no problems.
…and living in a warm climate, I often go barefoot, making sure dropped chisels and heavy tools don’t fall straight down. 🙂
Is that “key” in the centre of the bottom stretcher purely decorative?
Bingo! Jim, you win the prize (unspecified and worthless) for finding a measurement error. Yes, I cut that outer lamination an inch short. When considering how to hide the error, I decided to cut the piece in half and fill the gap with the “key” you discovered. Yes, purely decorative. Congrats!
BTW, there’s an assembly error you haven’t asked about yet.
I’ll take a stab at it and say it is the back side long rail was installed backwards and is not flush with outside of the legs.
just finished my anarchist bench this summer and am thoroughly happy with it. Although my plane stop did not stay snug. It’s cooler and dryer now allowing for the stop to move freely even though I used a piece of really fine grain doug fir that had been looking for a purpose for years.
Congrats Charlie! You win the 2nd (unspecified and worthless) prize. 616 days later.
On that planing stop, which I’m certain you have already resolved…
Two possibilities: 1) glue on a piece of common lath and plane it down. 2) glue on a strip of cowhide leather.
Enjoy your new bench. It should last a lifetime.
Dang, that’s a monster of a bench. I’ll bet you’re going to love working on it! I’ve got a question about your planing stop – more specifically, the chuck of wood it’s attached to. I’ve wondered why I see them so long. Seems like you’d only ever raise the stop 1/8″ to 1/2″, maybe occasionally a full inch, so it only needs to extend below the bench a little more than that. Why so long a piece of wood?
Good question Matt.
I don’t have a good answer other than that was what the plan / drawing specified.
I remember an occasion of raising a stop to 4-5 inches to work a large rough bowl. That height kept the heel end from kicking up as I worked. The bowl horse turned out to be better for that kind of work.
The one advantage of the longer stop is that since it is a tight press fit, the length makes it easier to hit with a mallet from below. If shorter, one would have to bend over more to hit it accurately.
Then again, perhaps Monsieur Roubo and Mister Holtzapffel had a dispute: “Mine is longer than yours.”