reviving old work bench

[actpilot]

I was recently given an old cabinet makers work bench by a neighbor who was moving that she said used to belong to her grandfather in Germany and was brought over from the old country. It is obviously old and has not been well maintained. For instance, when I tried to remove the side vise, the metal guides were so rusted that they would not come out with out a lot of persuasion.

Not sure what the wood is but there are several sticker still attached to the underside of the bench on the legs that are in German. I would like to try and restore this bench but not sure how I should go about it Some of the apron pieces look like they are a little loose. Should I try to completly disassemble it and go from there are should I just clean it up as best I can and continue to use it? I'm not sure how much work is involved in disassemble or if I could get it to go back together correctly.

Any thoughts?

[AAvK]

European beech I highly suspect.

Alex

[bridger]

for the rusty parts, this method is a charm:

[Cafferata Family]

Please, post some pictures in abpw.

Joe

[patriarch]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Woodworker's Journal, in one of the last two editions, had two benches built by traditional woodworkers of note. Ian Kirby and Frank Klausz. Both had good pictorials and step by step descriptions of how their favorite types of bench was built.

You could get a pretty good idea of what was involved by picking up a copy of that issue.

Patriarch

[Andy Dingley]

No. We need pictures.

I'm sure it'll be worth having though. I've not yet seen an old bench that wasn't worth having, so long as it was vaguely well made in the first place and hasn;t been attacked by termites in the meantime.

How is it fastened together ? Last old bench I restored took a lot of effort to pull its rusted-in woodscrews, but then I could replace most of them with barrel bolts and I made it easily knock-downable for future removals.

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 03:18:18 GMT, patriarch calmly ranted:

OR a copy of Landis' indispensable tome "The Wookbench Book".

[Bannerstone]

I built a traditional bench which I enjoy using very much. You might find that reproducing the bench is as rewarding as using the original. If you like antiques in your home, the old bench might be a good cantidate for a clean up and then used as an island in a kitchen or as a bar in a family room.

In any case a piece of this origin would probably suffer in value from use in your shop.

David

[actpilot]

No termite damage that I can see. Overall, it appears to be pretty solid. The legs are traditional trestle design made with approx. 3" square stock and attached to the cross beams with bolts screwed into a metal piece that is inset into the cross beam. The top is about 2" thick with a tool tray recessed on one side. It has a very heavy side vise on the left front (at least 20 lbs.) and an even heavier end vise on the right side with square bench dog holes down the front. Overall size is about 60"X28". The end caps are about 4x3" and have two metal bolts going into the bench top. It may be made to decimal measurements because nothing came out exact.

My concern is taking it apart and doing more damage than I can repair. Just wondering if others had done this and what success they have had.

Thanks for your help.

Gary

[AAvK]

At that size you have a great find. I think it is totaly worth restoring all the way. A bench like that can cost 1000's of $$$'s.

Alex

[Andy Dingley]

What's a "trestle" here ? Trestles are generally free-standing, so they have a triangular end profile. A flat top across two trestles is fine as a workbench, but it's not rigid enough for planing. Most woodworking benches use a couple of flat "frames" for legs, with long, deep rails between them for rigidity. If your bench has free-standing trestles, then I'd think about putting a rail or two between them to improve this. Lack of rigidity is one of the major causes of dissatisfaction in a completed bench.

If it's bolted, then you should have no trouble at all.

You could also just use it as it is for a while - see what you like about it, and what you don't. If it turns out that one leg is shorter than the other (common, owing to rot) then it's good to know that before you dismantle for repairs.