Building a sawbench
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Hi George,
David has the detail of levelling the bottoms of the legs covered, but – if I may add – should the legs be uneven in length you can measure each leg from the base of the platform/seat to find the shortest leg measurement and reduce each leg to match. Â Then pursue David’s description (Although a table/bench top can also be pressed into service as a level base) and scribe around the foot of each leg, but plan to remove as little material as possible, or reduce leg length to suit your planned saw horse/ table / chair finish height.
I just finished this saw bench and thought I would post a couple pics. My plan is to add a folding appendage to my work bench to support longer boards instead of making another saw bench to save space.
@tim That’s a lovely looking bench! Is it just 2x timber? Really interesting grain contrast and colours.
George.
"To know and not do is to not know"
Nice job Tim, It looks great
Awesome bench Tim!
What wood did you make it from and how did you finish it? Love the rustic look 🙂
Located in Jönköping, Sweden.
Thanks for the compliments, the legs are from an old rope bed and the rest from leftover framing lumber. I finished it with a generous coat of boiled linseed oil.
Love the way it turned out Tim, one of these days I’ll get around to applying the BLO to mine.
One trick that I like for leveling legs on projects like this is to use a couple of old decks of playing cards for spacing under the feet prior to marking/trimming to length. Almost infinite thickness possibilities, cheap (usually go for less than a quarter at garage sales and for this you don’t have to worry about not getting all 52), and easy to “shuffle” between legs when leveling.
Washington State, USA
My own humble blog:
http://toolsofourfathers.wordpress.com/
Moving slower than a turtle but now it is actually ready for finishing!
I ended up doing a bit more complex joints for the short stretchers do to my mistake to chamfer the legs a bit to soon.
Unable to learn I did the same error on the short stretchers but I did not recess the long brace, not very visible but annoying non the less.
Enough of the complaining, I’m really happy with the result and all the things I’ve learned. This is my first project milling the stock by hand plane and using only hand tools. Also the first time I’ve done joinery more serious than a butt joint with glue and screws 😉
Some pics before the linseed carnage begins! Enjoy.
Located in Jönköping, Sweden.
Hi Jesper
Nice bench I think it looks better with the short stretches set into the legs,
I have now filled the screw holes in mine  with a mix os sanding dust and PVA will sand down at the weekend and give it a few coats os Danish oil
David
Wigan, Lancs. England :
Looks great Jesper.
Still have to put some finish on mine.
Lopik - Netherlands
Thanks for the help on levelling the legs. I’ve done it now and the saw bench is complete aside from trimming the ends of the stretchers flush (waiting for a flush cut saw from Santa!).
Richard Maguire blogged about his saw donkey yesterday. It’s an interesting design. Have a look here:Â http://www.theenglishwoodworker.com/?p=673
George.
"To know and not do is to not know"
I like those saw donkeys! 🙂 Thanks for sharing that link George.
Texas, USA
I was looking at the saw donkeys also, I could fancy making them. For anyone else after making them here you go.
Check these out. Similar to the saw donkeys.
Workhorses
http://makeprojects.com/Project/Workhorses/572/1?singlePageTexas, USA
After building a Chris Schhwarz designed  saw bench I decided I did not have room for second one , but that two saw benches would be hanndy , so I built a smaller bench that would stack on top of the first one . See attached phot
David
Wigan, Lancs. England :
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