Designing a Workbench (around available scrap)

The design of my last bench was heavily influenced by Scott Landis's The Workbench Book. It is an inspiring read to see how work tables evolve to suit the needs of different traditions or different individuals. It gives good insight into how to anticipate your own needs from a bench.

Before starting my next bench, I read Chris Scwarz's Workbenches. This book focusses on two different styles of workbenches, and takes a vey different approach than the Landis book. The piece I love about Schwarz's book is the emphasis on building with locally available and inexpensive materials. Well in San Francisco that means sidewalk shopping.

This junker yielded 15 - 2x6x8' boards of (surprisingly) dry Doug Fir. I'm now committed to spending less than $40 for the whole bench so I'm keeping my design very flexible. There will be some stripping and planing this weekend for sure and I'm looking forward to using my latest Alameda Flea Market purchase to remove some of the nails.