The Twin Twin Bench (pic)

Chris Billman

Member
Messages
5
Location
Ypsilanti Twp, MI
One of our friendly moderators asked me to post a pic of my bench, so here goes nothing....

This has been seen several times by you WoodNet regulars. I completed the bench in 2005 and made the base cabinets last spring. Hard maple bench, cherry drawer fronts, finish is danish oil. Round dog holes, 2-1/4" thick top, hand dovetailed corners, and two Lee Valley Twin Screw vises (which I looooove). Project is based off of Lon Schleining's bench that was in FWW a couple years back.

Bench-Front.jpg


More pics and lots of blabber about it on this page from my super-geeky website.
 
Chris,

That is one beauty of a bench. Just curious but I also have the twin screw vise but haven't installed it yet. I understand the vise needs 4.125" plus the core bench thickness for the vise jaws. What set up do you have in this regard? It looks like you have drilled through the bench apron. What is the bench thickness and the jaw size?
 
Chris, Very nice bench you built. One of the best I've ever seen and truly a work of art.

I also took a look at your web site and saw the furniture you made for your family. Impressive.

Thanks for sharing your work here and welcome to Family Woodworking.
 
A wise friendly moderator I'd say....

Chris that is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen created using wood. It amazes me how you have blended beauty and brawn together....absolutely gorgeous.

I'd have to use it as a dining room table instead of out in the messy, dirty shop of mine.

Thanks for posting the picture and your geeky site.
 
Chris

That is a great looking bench (do I hear an echo in here?) Excellent work, I can imagine cutting those dovetails was an interesting exercise.

I have the LV vice on one end of my bench, I'm having trouble keeping the two handles "in sync". What has been your experience? Any suggestions?

I have aligned mine several times and really torqued down the set screw (I thought) but then it will get skewed again.

Jay
 
That is an incredible piece of craftsmanship!

What a beautiful pice of art.

Please write that into your will for me;) .

Seriously Chris, you are very talented.
 
Maybe I should stop the shop rehab now, and convert the shop into a dog kennel. If that's what my shop fixtures are supposed to look like, I'm in BIG TROUBLE!!
That is beautiful. Maybe I'll convert the shop into a place I can dream about building furniture like that! Jim.
 
Nice Bench Chris - can I ask about your shop? (Followed the link)

The placement of your planer seems constrained, with the jointer on one side and the tablesaw on the other. Doesn't that make it tough when planing, as you need to run from one side to the other and that does not look easy in your shop.
 
Thanks for all the kind words. I'm very happy with my bench, and I often wonder why I waited so long to build it and why I lived with this for so long...

I understand the vise needs 4.125" plus the core bench thickness for the vise jaws. What set up do you have in this regard? It looks like you have drilled through the bench apron. What is the bench thickness and the jaw size?
Oh man, did I mention I built this in 2005 and my memory ain't the greatest. I basically followed the twin screw directions, but I recall cheating by a little bit. IIRC they recommend a little more jaw thickness than you really need, and I shaved a bit off the jaws based on this. I was looking at the dimensional stackups to really dig into this. Can't remember the details any longer, but if it's important to you let me know and I'll try to rediscover what I did and why. I do remember that the slab is 2-1/4" thick and the aprons are 5-7/8" wide if that helps....

I have the LV vice on one end of my bench, I'm having trouble keeping the two handles "in sync". What has been your experience? Any suggestions?
After using the vises for a little while and learning that you don't really need both handles unless you're skewing the vise, I removed one handle on each vise. I have them close at hand, so if I ever want to skew the jaws (which I rarely need) I reinstall the second handle and skew away. It's much easier living with these vises with only one handle - no need to be concerned with phasing them in synch, and no worries about them banging into each other as they're turned.

does it have any battle scars yet?
You bet! The first few were tough to live with, but now adays I don't worry about it too much. It definately gets used.

Other than setting bowls and bird houses on it do you still use the bench?:D
Doesn't this forum have a "slap" emoticon?? Here - I'll do it the hard way:
slap.gif
Turning is a temporary insanity between flatwork projects! (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

The placement of your planer seems constrained, with the jointer on one side and the tablesaw on the other. Doesn't that make it tough when planing, as you need to run from one side to the other and that does not look easy in your shop.
It's my form of a workout! ;) I really like how I have the TS, Planer, and Jointer positioned in my shop. The only time I wish I had a bit more space is when waltzing back and forth between the in and outfeed side of the planer. It can be fun shuttling back and forth, but it's not that big of a deal that it creates a burning desire for a shop rearrangement.
 
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