Official Luthiers Forum!

So - I'm new to the forum, and I'm fairly new to the craft in general. I did build an electric guitar for my son about 12 years ago, and have since tackled one acoustic, which is functional if not the world's finest stringed instrument. I've always been a woodworker/do-it-yourselfer. I have a nice shop that serves multiple functions. It is well equipped with both a table saw and band saw, drill press, planner, etc, etc. There are a few tools I want to add soon, like a nice dimensional (drum) sander. My wife knows that my motto in life is "a guy just can not own too many clamps, it's impossible).

However, I'm getting ready to "retire" from the world of regular work and enter a new phase in life where I'll be "working" on things like gardening and all that goes with owning 40 acres of paradise in SW New Mexico, but I'm also setting aside a big chunk of time for building guitars (and maybe a mandolin or a bazouki or even an upright bass if I get so inspired).

So I'm in the process of building a purpose built shop in my barn for guitar building (and guitar playing). It's a 12 foot by 16 foot space (about three meters by about 4 meters for most of the world) with a ceiling a little over 9 feet (three meters). I have a basic plan for a work space at one end and an area for "playing" at the other end. I have a nice southern facing window along one of the long sides. What I really want to know is do any of you have a purpose built workbench for building guitars? Do you feel it's better to have a bench that is along a wall to have access to the bits and pieces or do you like a stand alone bench? Anything you have to say about work benches (or work spaces in general) for the apprentice luthier would be greatly appreciated. I hope this line of questioning can start a good discussion among many of the folks on the forum.

Handlebar Mike
Glenwood, New Mexico

Welcome aboard!

I like having one narrow island bench that gives access to both sides of a guitar. It's where I have the go-bar deck, since it provides easy 3-sided access for glue cleanup.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I have a very small, as in too small, work space. But I do have a small work bench. Mostly I use it to lay out the tools I'm using and I do have a vice on it. (A must have) I use my table saw mostly for my 'work bench'. If I had a little more room, I would love to add a troji type body clamp.

As time goes by what I need most is more storage.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I have a roubo-style woodworking bench I built that has a leg vise and a tail vise. It's solid, about 22" deep by 6' long.

I plan to get a rolling tool chest from home despot soon to use as an auxiliary workbench, and to give me more storage for hand tools.

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Blog on Making Stuff: http://www.McGlynnOnMaking.com

Getting the right bench height is very important - planing and chopping need to be done at lower bench height than assembly work, while comfortable detail work like inlay or fine finish repairs are even higher. For planing and cutting, having a bench that is palm-high (standing with arm straight down and palm flat on bench surface) is handy, while for assembly and glue-up work, something 2" to 4" higher works well, and for detailed work such as inlay, a surface 8" higher than the low bench saves backs from stooping. The shop benches here are 36" and 40 inches in height, and there are aux surfaces that raise those heights to 48" (these look like small benches that clamp between the bench dogs and are stored beneath the associated benches. An alternative used here is a 3-1/2" riser composed of slats and sleepers, which elevates the worker instead of the work.

We have a repair vise on each of the repair benches, and that can also be used with appropriate holders to bring inlay work up a bit higher, detailed surfacing work, holding carving fixtures, and even repairs! These vises are mounted to the end of the benches with a cantilevered mount that others here have found to be very handy and quick to make with an 8' x 2 x 8 plus two pieces of 3/4" plywood cut to the width of the 2 x 8 and 8" depth.

Here is a link to a thread which may be on interest:

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=47455&p=627836&hilit=vise+mount+todd+stock#p627836

The consensus in this shop is that it's better to start building that to spend much time agonizing about infrastructure, given that shop design and layout is a process of progressive revelation. You might consider getting a cheap bench together which can be relegated to less demanding duties at some later date - in other words, give yourself some time to find what works best for you. A good, inexpensive starter assembly bench is the Harbor Freight Hardwood Workbench, which is available for about $130 with a 20% off coupon (check your neighborhood advertisement flyer or sign up for coupons directly from HF), but it needs diagonal sway braces added to the back and side of the base, and raised to the correct height with shoes on the bench feet. Add a few holes for holdfasts and an offset mount for a repair vise, and it's enough to get by with.

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Any flat sturdy bench would be fine. I like having access to both sides when I glue the top and back on to really see that everything is seated well.
Two benches are great too....a cutting and carving bench and a clean assembly bench. My clean bench is a laminate top so any dried glue or finish drips can come right off. Nothing worse than a stray chip putting a dent in your spruce top.
A down draft sanding station would be great too but I haven't got there yet

paul sellers has a tutorial on youtube about building a workbench (cabinetmakers) using hand tools an store bought softwood lumber. alternatively depending on space 2 mdf 3/4in boards screwed together and a simple 2 by 4 frame will suffice for starters.

I have a small L-shaped shop area that's 20' x 18' along the outsides of the L, and the legs of the L are about 10' wide. I have two benches. One is about 6 feet long along one wall and the other is a free standing bench I designed and built. I would say that I use the free standing bench for 90% or more of the work. Having access from all four sides is tremendously helpful to me. The top is about 30" x 44" with the top overhanging on all sides for clamping and the tools I use most often are stored underneath it. It's also mounted on retractable casters so I can easily move it if needed. I've worked in two shops in which all the benches were against the walls and I find the island bench a huge improvement functionally.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

IMHO almost anything will do but I really like to have a bench that I can walk around to the other side of. In my shop I have one against a wall and one that is L-Shaped that I can walk around. I also have one I can roll out in the center of the floor if I ever choose to which is rare. It's not necessary by any means but it is nice to walk around. The benches that get most use for me are the ones I just built out of 2x4 and 4x4 and plywood. I also have a woodworkers bench, it's known as a Roubo bench, that has the end vice and leg vice and bench dogs and so on. It's another good thing to have but not absolutely necessary. In any case you need to have a bench strong enough to mount a good vice.

9ft ceilings are nice so that you can build lofts to store stuff.

Me too. And I think it's an excellent bench for guitar building. I almost always leave the center piece out so that I can clamp things through the center. I also have a foam jig for holding the guitar body in the leg vice like a Troji.

I have one of the Home Depot rolling tool benches too. They are great but limited as you can imagine. I mounted a vice to it but it does wobble a lot. Good for doing small things though.

A deep bench so that you have a lot of room to push stuff onto so you can work in the remaining 6" at the front.

Amen.

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Having fun learning every day.

Hilarious. I have scratches on my stomach from trying reach back and grab the thing that I need and got pushed to the back. That reminds me, I need to go on a diet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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OK, maybe not that deep. Don't need to draw blood more than necessarily.

Charles Fox showed us a simple modular bench made of 24" square sections of 3/4" HD particle board whatever height is appropriate and bolted together with carriage bolts. You can put shelves in the boxes for storage.

Each section has runners on the bottom with four 3/8" t-nuts with carriage bolts threaded into them to act as levelers.

Top is two layers of 3/4" material. I used Melamine for the top layer so stuff wouldn't stick to it as easily. Adding the top of the box, that is three layers of 3/4" material. Very very solid.

Best for me was an L shaped island with the go bar deck attached to the ceiling over one part and a guitar holding vise on one end.

You don't worry about drilling into it or beating it up like a really nice woodworking bench.

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I have been meaning to make a high setup bench or at least a riser for some tasks. It kills my back bending over slotting nuts

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I am happy with my free standing bench, which consists of:

A pair of Lee Valley cast iron bench legs
A 60" x 30" laminated maple bench top
A Veritas twin screw vise on one end
A pattern maker's vise on the other end (removable)
Lots of 3/4" round dog holes in the bench top

It gives me lots of access, it can be configured for specific operations, it is sturdy, and it provides just enough room to work on two separate guitar related tasks at once. With foam inserts, the twin screw vise makes a good body clamp. My go bar deck is of a knock down design, with the bench top as the bottom of the deck. I sacrifice the potential storage space below, but I gain access to the dog holes for attaching specialized jigs to the bench.

The bulk of guitar work is not like casework or cabinet work. There's a lot of sitting there fiddling with stuff like rosettes, tail wedges, fretwork, and the like. That makes being able to sit in a decent chair while you work a very nice thing.

I do almost ally guitar work on an old heavy veneer over particle wood office desk. It's a solid 2 1/2" thick on the top and leg sections. It weighs 250-300 pounds... So it's got plenty of weight and it's stable.

Ironically - it's also almost the perfect height for scraping, sanding, and sawing...

I like my island bench I can set up the go bar deck on one end and it's long enough that I can still work on another guitar on the other end. It also has 2 drawers under it that are big enough to hold a guitar. That lets me put one in a drawer with all the parts and work on another. Not sure who I stole that idea from but I do like it, thanks who ever.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Small bench with storage, Bogdanovich.
https://www.jsbguitars.com/drawing-downloads/

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

* I like to have my most frequently used tools immediately accessible. For me, this means having my rolling tool chest right next to my bench.

* If I were to make a new bench, it would have my Stew-Mac vise at the end, exactly like Woodie described. Another vise I really like is the vise that Hesh has posted about from time to time. If you search for "Hesh vise" I'm sure a thread will come up.

* I have a Moxon vise that I really like. If I didn't, the Lee Valley twin screw vise on the opposite end would be fantastic. Lining the jaws with suede would be great. I use my Moxon like a troji (troji is idosyncratic term to guitar making - you may need to look it up)

* 2'x6' is plenty for me. 30"x7' would be luxury. We all like luxury, so if you can, why not?

* I can't echo Woodie's comment about height enough.

* I also want it to be heavy so that it doesn't rock. I don't think a solid hardwood top is necessary. A bench made of the following sandwich is more practical IMO because you won't need to worry about screwing it up (I always feel better eating a meatball sub in a T-shirt than in my suit): 3/4" ply, MDF, MDF, 3/4" ply. You can cap the edges with a pretty wood to make it more appealing.

* Bench hooks aren't technically part of the bench, but I consider them to be. My shooting board and sharpening well are both bench hooks.

I have many benches. I have one that is 6 feet by 8 feet for assembly of doors and cabinets, some that are dedicated to power tools, one that is an outfeed table for my table saw. I DON'T like a bench against a wall for guitar work. I DO like a small bench just large enough to hold a guitar body that is free standing so I can walk all around it. It turns out I do 95% of my guitar carving and assembly on a Black and Decker Workmate, believe it or not. It has a top that has holes in it for clamp pegs and is a vise so I can clamp my body mold to it, I can put my neck carving jig in the vise, I can walk all around it, I can move it around, I can store it somewhere when I am not using it. It is somehow the right height for both heavy work standing or fine work sitting in a chair. My router table sits on top of it and is clamped to it with it's top-vise. It is just frigging awesome.

I have MDF for the tops of my benches. I also have a sheet of hardboard (perfboard without the holes) on top. Can still scrape off glue, it gets drilled into on occasion, easy enough on edged tools. When hacked up enough I unscrew it (couple of screws just to hold it in place) and replace it with a new piece.

I don't like working on mdf / plywood / particle board or what have you, with the idea that these are "disposable" work surfaces. You can get nice solid wood counter tops from places like IKEA for not much more, and they are so much nicer to work on, especially with hand tools IMO. I have 40 mm beech tops on most my benches, which is a traditional material for woodworking benches here in Europe, with good reason; stable, dense, strong. I don't baby them at all, l cut, screw and drill into them, but they can be repaired, filled, leveled etc instead of replaced. The difference is that after a while the solid wood bench-top will be well used with an awesome patina and fully functional all the time, whereas the disposable one will just look beat up and cheap. If you have the room, a traditional Scandinavian "høvelbenk" (planing bench) is nice if you do a lot of hand planing, and a dedicated area for sharpening is always a good idea.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

+1.
I've used exactly that for a couple of my workbenches. (I have a "U" arrangement with a central island coming out from it)

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Mike,
These are all great points, but there are two points that I think are also pretty important. How are you addressing humidity (and temperature) control? You may have pretty consistent humidity where you live, or not, but you definitely wan t to ensure that you have some sort of a plan for measuring and moderating the humidity in your shop. More guitar backs and tops have been turned into potato chips by a swing in weather.

Second thought is dust removal. If this is to be a full service shop, with power tools as well, you'll want to think about dust removal.

Best,