Video: Build a Roman Workbench
With Christopher Schwarz
Roman Workbenches are the most portable, compact, inexpensive and easy-to-use workbenches available. Made from about $45 in dimensional lumber and scraps, these benches allow you to make cabinets, chairs and tables while sitting down.
These benches are ideal for apartment woodworkers – or anyone who has limited shop space (the bench can double as a coffee table). It's also ideal for woodworkers who travel, who like to work outside or have mobility issues.
This video shows you how to build this bench whether you own just a few hand tools or have a full machine shop. The bench is laminated from two pieces of pine 2x12, with red oak legs. The parts are joined with mortise-and tenon joinery. In the video, you'll learn to make the mortises with an auger bit. And you'll learn to make the tenons with a lathe, a tenon cutter or simply a saw and a chisel.
The bench is robust and will easily hold 400 pounds, yet it weighs less than 44 pounds. The overall size of the bench is 16-3/4" tall, 11" wide and 60" long, making it easy to store. The workholding is simple and effective: an ingenious stop from the 18th century (called a Hulot block). Plus an adjustable planing stop and holes for holdfasts and other accessories (such as a carver's vise).
In addition to the video, you'll receive complete construction drawings with a cutting list and sources for any specialty tools. There's also a 35-page packet of text and drawings that illustrate how to add more workholding: a palm and a homemade twin-screw vise. Plus how to simply transform the bench into a shavehorse.
The entire video is 90 minutes and is tightly edited to be compact and filled with good information – not a lot of blather and talking heads.
The video can be watched one of two ways. You can stream it (after logging into your account here at Lost Art Press). Or you can download the video and put it on any device. The video is offered without DRM (digital rights management), so the files will be easily moved to any of your devices, now and in the future.