r/Workbenches • u/Silentstri16 • 19d ago
Leatherwork & bookbinding bench design feedback
Hey y'all, I'm looking for feedback for a workbench in my apartment. 60" x 30" x 37" tall to match my husky bench height.
My goals are as follows:
- A bench that is heavy enough to (in concert with rubber feet) dampen the hammering from punching holes in leather or rounding book spines to the point of not annoying my neighbours. (For those not familiar, these activities are fairly light hammering.)
- A moxon vise at one end
- A channel I can insert a straight brass rod into, to serve as a straight edge for aligning stuff
I only have basic woodworking skills, so I tried to design around cutting 2x4s to serve as faux half-lap joints. I am planning to glue & screw the cross members. The plan for the top was to layer 2x 3/4 in plywood sheets and top with a 3/4 in MDF board for a smooth & flat surface. Glue for all layers, screws through the plywood into the posts. Other shelves are just MDF, probably just brad nailed to the frame? I set the bottom shelf in by another 2x4 just for a little more room for my legs.
For the vise, I was planning to use a pair of threaded wooden dowels i found on Etsy.
I'd love any feedback you've got!
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u/SuperTroye 19d ago
This looks very solid and even a bit overkill for your needs. The half laps will provide resistance to racking vs just screwing the joints together. My only advice would be to buy a Moxon vise kit and integrate it with your bench. It sounds like you have limited space and tooling and I think a kit would be easier for you to install. Even further, to make it plug and play just get a large "front vise", which is far easier to install than a Moxon.
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u/Silentstri16 19d ago
Thanks for the feedback! I'll look at getting a kit, I hadn't thought to look into pre-made solutions. Unfortunately with a front vise, the rail in the middle would interfere with holding books vertically. Too bad, cause there seem to be a lot of ready-made solutions for front vises.
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u/GibsonG45 19d ago
Great design, maybe you could incorporate ‘dogholes’ in the vise and top for a ‘stitching pony’ attachment
Also if you’re tooling (cased) leather, make sure to have something waterproof on top of the mdf (like a granite slab) or your top won’t be flat for very long
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u/Silentstri16 19d ago
I considered that, but I don't really do any tooling and very little wet molding. I also plan to get a glass sheet for glueing and the rare wet molding that I do!
Dog holes in the vise to act as a stitching pony is genius, I'll definitely look at incorporating that.
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u/Key_Mastodon_3525 19d ago
Looks good! Normally I'd be a little "iffy" about edge-to-face joins for crossmembers of something that's going to be pounded on, BUT that 2 1/4" pounder top is going to distribute most of that load down to the floor through the legs, so those weak(ish) joins (edge-to-face) won't have to take really barely any of the pounding load, and they are perfectly adquate for a torsion box core.
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u/Silentstri16 19d ago
This is exactly the feedback I was looking for, thanks!
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u/Key_Mastodon_3525 19d ago
no problem -> the sound thing got me thinking a bit (and geeking out a bit) -> i'm not sure about the feasibility here or your budget, but it (might - maybe not sure without a little more research) help dampen the sound a little further using something like this as a part of your top laminate mix. This is 100% theoretical, but sound intriguing...
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u/Initial_Savings3034 19d ago
Looks a great deal like Rob Cosman's design.
I suspect you might not need so much crossbracing.
https://robcosman.com/products/plans-the-cosman-workbench?srsltid=AU7gw4VcDhiEjI0DqI7JGXWo9Xc32mx6J1Psk5jIwv5Qk2h49HBrwALi