Workbench advice

[juryaan]

I understand that the Japanese woodworkers(i apologize for not knowing the Japanese words , i still have alot to learn) do not use a workbench but use a beam on sawhorses and use a planing beam seperately.
Can someone give me some measurements for this please (or mayby a picture what you are using), the hight of them both is where i am the most curious about.
My plan is to sort of transform my workspace (my attic) in to a Japanese style workplace and would like to stay as close to original as possible.
I would also like to know what they use on the floor,is this something special or do they only use pillows for their knees?

[Mathieu]

There are many words for 'woodworker' In Japanese depending on the kind of woodwork being done but the one that is most referred to I think is daiku which means carpenter.

Here are some pictures of my lowest horses they are 4.5 sun or 5 sun high.

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The nice ones are made of Cherry which I wouldn't recommend because it slides to easily. The disposable horses are made of Vuren/Spruce. This Spruce was particularly fine grained and a better choice then the Cherry.

Medium height horses like these could be 1.5 shaku.

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And you don't have to make anything that is good looking it can be just purely functional as these.

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In combination with a planing beam I find it most comfortable to use high horses. No better place to find info then here.

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The planing stops of this planing beam are made of dovetail shaped pieces that where floating around the shop. I use the hole for a holdfast when working small stock. Very un-japanese.

A thick solid slab on small feet with planing stops is often used in Japan. I have seen some dai makers and they all have there setup customized to their own preferences. One of them, Inomoto, used a small pivoting stick to clamp dai to the planing stop with one foot. This was a very efficient and fast way of clamping.

I often work sitting on the ground and was taught to use my body as a clamp to hold pieces down. If it works for you it is nice way of working but I know many people struggle with it mainly because they are not all that flexible and it feels uncomfortable. I try to avoid clamping pieces to my work surface, I only do it when I see no other option. I find it cumbersome to release and tighten clamps all the time and try to avoid it. Small scale projects require a lot of clamping, large scale projects almost never require clamps.

I have been thinking of building a workbench for years and haven't been able to come up with the ultimate solution that would work for me. In the process I have considered many options and configurations including western style clamping devices and gadgetry. But in the end I always prefer the most simplistic set up.

The most important questions you should ask yourself is how you prefer to work. That means what is the most comfortable way of working wood so you can work efficiently and accurate for long periods of time without any limitations. This is not necessarily siting on the floor. You don't want to interrupt your concentrated workflow because you are getting uncomfortable when holding a small piece clamped to a planing stop with your heel. It takes a considerable amount of effort to become adequately flexible if this is not your physical constitution. I can only recommend to do what you feel is right, there is no use in blindly copying a way of working that might be very alien to us just because it is traditionally done like that.

I am curious of other members set up. This might be a good tread to share your own set up and maybe inspire others...

[djwong]

Here are a couple of photos of my workspace. My "bench", is a set of 4x6's that I have trued, but never got around to gluing up. They sit on a couple of metal sawhorses. I cut a dado on the near end that can house a stop, for planing. On the far end of my bench, sits my shooting board, as my saw cuts are not very good yet. In between are tools, waiting for me to finish my toolbox trays so they can have a home. For most joinery work, I sit on a stool next to the bench. I recently purchased a Moxon vice kit, to add more convenient work holding, especially for dovetailing.



On the other side of my garage, I have some nice machinery to assist in stock preparation (resawing, jointing, planing). The space is crowded, but I am happy just to have a dedicated space.



I intend to build a proper workbench this year. I have settled on a style using two beams with a large removable tool trough in the middle. I will probably add a face vice or leg vice, but continue to use planing stops in the rear of the bench.

Juryaan, you are some pictures be interested in...

The first I grab of a blog somewhere, showing a woodworking classroom setting.



Next is an onsite planing beam from the Takenaka Carpentry Tool Museum in Kobe.



Last is a scene from the Edo-Tokyo Metropolitan Museum.



Youtube has lots of interesting videos on Japanese carpentry and woodworking. You will see that workbench styles can be quite varied.

[Chris Hall]

This is what I use for planing:

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The beam is a 2"x9" piece of canarywood, and the post is an 8"x8" chunk of pine. I'm thinking of framing underneath the beam and putting in a nice plywood sheet with racking to hold my planes.

Otherwise, I have a pair of sawhorses that use for work. Easy to move around, easy to clamp things to, and with the addition of a plank or two on top, become a bench in short order. I've thought about making a fancier bench plenty of times but I keep finding the sawhorse arrangement very practical.

[siavosh]

Just discovered this thread, thought I'd throw in some pictures of my own setup. Living in an apartment in San Francisco is probably one of the most constrained arrangements if you happen to like woodworking. I day dream of having a dedicated place, but like many things sometimes constraints help clarify things.

I usually work off the kitchen table (a cheap ikea thing) but the surface has sagged enough to make flattening stock problematic. So I laminated some 2x4s into a a planing beam that rests on top of the table. If I'm doing very heavy planing, I created blocks on the side where I can clamp it down.

When I'm not doing a lot of planing or sawing, I tend to try to get comfortable on the ground although my back ain't what it used to be.

[Brian]

That's a cool setup! I appreciate, very much, small spaces being used efficiently. Though, my wife knows that if it ever came down to it we would eat at the workbench before working at the dining table.

[siavosh]

The spouses of woodworkers are a patient bunch indeed.

[Brian]

LOL, indeed.

Here's some shots of my workbench;


and sawbench



and some other stuff including the occasional artworks.

[Chris Pyle]

siavosh, whereabouts are you in SF? I fly in there a few times/year for work. Usually spending my days in the Parnassus/Mission Bay areas. It is truly a work of the will to have a shop there. Space is such a premium, I've never seen anything like it growing up in the midwest.

Brian,

Nice pics. I always enjoy seeing your threads.

[siavosh]

Brian, that's a great looking workbench. I love the lighting in your pictures, makes the picutres look very warm and tactile!

Chris, I'm in the Inner Richmond district (like 15 min south from the Golden Gate Bridge). Unfortunately for me, before SF I lived in NYC in an even more constrained space, thankfully I only discovered woodworking when I moved to SF. Sometimes I go on Zillow.com and look at how much space there is outside the urban areas Now if I can only convince my wife of a rural life....with a large woodshop for me