Workbench Wednesday – Get Thee To The Shrinkifier!
Last year when prepping for the Labor Day weekend 18th Century Trades Fair down at Fair Lawn Farm I included a stripped-down Nicholson workbench. As useful as the bench is for demonstrating and didactic exposition, it needed to be stripped down further.
What I’m subtracting is two feet from the length of the original 8-foot bench; one-half foot from one end, a-foot-and-a-half from the other. There are a couple reasons, not the least is being an 8-foot bench is a little bit much for this 70-year-old to rassle solo. Also, the larger bench took up too much space in my work area at the Fair. I also will refrain from bringing a large display table for my pile of joinery samples. Absolutely no one took a look at them so out they go, at least for this event.
The Nicholson bench has many benefits to providing a heritage work station, including simple and fast making (I can make one in less than a day), in addition to ease of both assembly and disassembly. In this case It was a piece of cake to disassemble one end of the bench and cut off 18-inches and move those legs two feet.
At the other end I just marked off six inches and sawed it off.
In the end I had the same bench, only two feet shorter.
But, I’m not just subtracting. This year I will be adding a leg vise to the workbench along with a Moxon vise.
Stay tuned
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