Starting the new year in the new shop, I am in desperate need of work surfaces. This simple workbench was the first thing on my DIY projects list for this year. I even added some bells and whistles to make it more versatile and useful.

I don't particularly need a workbench for hand tool woodworking, but the idea of bench dogs always seemed useful, even just for clamping purposes. So I decided to add them and an inset vise as features to this workbench, and maybe someday they will come in handy if I ever get into hand tools.

The pop up bench dogs make this a self-contained workbench with all the appropriate pieces right there and ready to go. I considered using 3/4" wooden dowels to make the bench dogs, but I had some 3/4" brass rod that I thought would work well and look great.

And hey, space for some clamp storage to boot, I'll take it!

Off camera, I did add some bracing to the back to give some more rigidity in the side-to-side direction, but honestly it's plenty solid as it is, and cheap enough to build since it's all southern yellow pine. I didn't want to break the bank and use maple, I don't mind the dings and scratches that will inevitably happen to this table. It's meant to be used and abused!

I built the bench that I need and that I will use. There are definitely more things that would make this more useful for somebody else, and some things I added on here that may not seem appropriate at all. I knew that my basic use case for this just required something large and sturdy. Feel free to duplicate or alter its design in any way you need to make a workbench that would work best for you!

The two vises I used for this build are the Veritas Inset Vise and the Yost 750E Rotating Vise. For the pop-up mechanism, I'm sure you can find some cheaper alternatives (google around for "push latch" or "cylinder push latch"). I got these because the shape didn't require modification to slip into a drilled hole: https://www.westlunddistributing.com/...

Sorry for the brief hiatus. I needed to catch up a little bit after the move to Texas. I finally feel like I'm back in the swing of things, so 2019 should be a pretty good year and I should be pretty consistent with videos! Thanks for all your support!

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► GIF image gallery of the build here:
Coming soon!

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