Old family workbench

[Paschale]

I was recently given parts of an old family workbench that once belonged to my great uncle Arvid. (What a name!  All my great aunts and uncles were named as if they were still back in Sweden:  Walfred, Arvid, Iver, Elna, Ebba.  I always gotta kick out of that when I was a kid).   ;D  Anyway, Arvid lived his whole life on the old family homestead, much like that guy in the documentary, with no running water or electricity, though he at least had contact with people.  Most of his working life, he did horse logging.  He was a great woodworker, and did everything by hand, often from tools he improvised and made from scrap metal.  This is the remnant of his workbench.  Now, I don't know if my great grandfather ever used it, but it's possible.  Regardless, it's a cool thing.   8)  I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate it into a workbench for my shop.

Here's some pictures.







You can see in this one it's seen some use!  I'm trying to figure out how to treat the wood.  It'd be nice for a workbench to be as dead flat as possible.  This has a slight curve in it, but I don't think I really want to plane it out.  Any thoughts?

[Paschale]

I this pic, you can see remnants of a fire that nearly took out his workshop years ago.




Here's a close-up of the tail vise for the bench dogs.




Here's the tail vise flipped over, to show the workings of the vise.



Here's a close-up of some of the hand-chamfering he did on the bottom of the tail vise mechanism.



I'm thinking of leaving the top as is, as much as I can.  I'll need to rebuild part of the vise mechanisms.  As far as attaching this to some new wood for the workbench, I want to be sure I can easily disassemble it, in case down the road a better idea comes to mind.  Right now, I'm thinking of screwing a board to the side (lengthwise), so that any jointing to the rest of the workbench will be done on this sacrificial board.  I'd add some hide glue (I think) to both that board, and the board I'd join to the new "sacrificial" board so that I could fairly easily remove the boards if I ever need to.  I've never used hide glue, but I hear it's very easy to reverse.  

Any ideas though on how best to incorporate this into a workable, new bench?  I'm willing to sit on this for awhile, because I don't wanna mess it up!

Dan

[Gilman]

If you were my great nephew and that was my old bench, I'd want you to put it to your best use.  It's a workbench and was made to aid a woodworker. Planing it flat again won't be as much work as you think.  If you use a portable belt sander and sand across the grain with 40-60 grit it won't take you long.

As far a rawhide glue I probably wouldn't bother, getting it back apart when you are gluing 3-4" wide by ~8' isn't going to be easy to steam apart.

It looks like it is missing its tool box portion of the table.  You put that back on and you've got a good functional bench again. I'll look around for a photo of what one looks like and post it.

[Bro. Noble]

The pictures look like the main body is made of small laminated boards.  I have made work benches for schools where I worked and for a neighbor and plan to make one for myself.  The way I go about it is to use full length pine boards and drill a hole in them about a foot apart.  I then bolt them together using allthread.  As they dry out,  the allthread is tightened.  Instead of planing the surfaces level,  I put them on my woodmizer and shave the top and bottoms even.  

You might be able to incorperate your piece into a larger bench this way,  or you might want to level it on your 'new' saw.  The top and bottom both need to be flat or the supports underneath will cause it to deform.

That's a really neat looking piece of work.  I sure admire the workmanship and pride that many of the old-timers had.

[Tom]

An old workbench.  That's great!

I get stupid when I get hold of stuff like that.  I would probably frame it and hang it on the wall. :D  

I have a 2 foot long piece of heart pine from Folkston, Georgia's old 100+ year-old courthouse standing in the corner of our pantry.  I'll exhibit it one day.  I may be the only one around with a piece of that old building.

Yep, I just get plain stupid.  I attach notes and dissertations with peoples names and events too.  Just so they won't be forgotten.:D

[Furby]

That's pretty cool  8) 8) 8)


Don't worry about it Tom, I was thinking it would make a great fireplace mantle, myself.  :

[Paschale]

Thanks for the replies.  You guys sorta sum up the issue:  it's either a museum type piece for display, or else it's something to be used again.  I was at first leaning towards display, or adapting it for some piece of furniture, but I think I'll find more satisfaction by turning it into a usable workbench again, and, like Gilman said, I think that's what my great uncle would probably enjoy the most.  Plus, the cousin who gave it to me sort of implied, "this should go to a woodworker, who will use it."  

I do need to make a tool section for it, in the front.  As far as the boards, though it does appear to be laminated, it's one solid chunk of wood.  Any wood that I would add, though, I think will be laminated.

I do have a buddy with a 12" jointer, which I suppose could work to flatten the top again, but there's probably tons of minute pieces of crud that would wreak havoc on the blades.  The WM idea might be a good idea, though I'd want to get some experience under my belt before I took blade to wood on something like this!   :

It'd be hard to do, but I think Gilman might have it right on:  it was made to be used in woodworking.  I tend to be far too nostalgic as it is--I suspect my great uncle would much rather see this workbench doing what it always did for him, as opposed to being on display, gathering dust.  Gathering sawdust I think would make him more happy!   ;)

Dan

[Gilman]

I look forward to seeing what you do with it Paschale. I really like quality woodworking like that table.  It lasts for generations and when it finally needs a little help, it is worth the effort to rebuild and last for another few generations.

October's issue of  Woodworker's Journal has a feature on European style work benches and plans to build one.




http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/index.cfm/currentissue

[Paschale]

Thanks for the link, Gilman.  Already saw that at HD, and picked it up!   8)

The one on the cover is almost too nice to do any work on.  I won't make mine that fancy, but definitely something sturdy to work with.  Cool thing--this workbench came from my dad's mom's side of the family, and I'm going to use some ash from my dad's dad's old family homestead site to finish it off with.  A linking of the two sides of the family, so to speak.   8)

Hopefully, remants of this workbench might just be passed on after I'm gone myself.   ;D

[woodmills1]

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