Workbench

Also called: bench construction

A workbench is a sturdy table built to hold work steady while it is sawn, chiselled, planed or otherwise shaped by hand.

Holding the work

A workbench's main job is to hold the work still during hand-tool operations such as sawing and chiselling. Fitted with a vice and clamps, a sturdy bench helps secure the work so both hands are free for the tool. The bench itself needn't be elegant, but it must be sturdy and solid enough to withstand blows and racking, the twisting, skewing force that can pull a frame out of square.

A reflection of the maker

A workbench's design reflects the training of the person who built it, the kind of work they do, and the tools and materials they have to hand. One furniture maker, Klausz, is said to treat his own workbench as representative of his best work, as recorded by Landis (1987); building a traditional bench of that particular kind takes considerable effort.

Setting up jigs on the bench

The bench top also carries jigs, as a work surface in its own right. When setting up a T-square jig, a T-shaped guide clamped to the bench to keep a router running in a straight line, the jig is clamped along the bench's edge, leaving a small ledge free to support the router. Test setups for a router jig are done on the bench too, laid over scrap pieces of template and insert stock to protect the surface underneath. A through trammel cut, one guided by a pivoting arm called a trammel to cut a circle or curve, needs backup scrap placed beneath the work for the same reason.