MTDreams

OK - feeling sheepish. When buying the 4x4's I asked the BIG BOX checkout girl what the usable width was. She said "our 4x4's are always cut to exactly 4x4" with such authority that I believed her. Also cut the threaded rods to length.
:-)

The plans are right on and the desk is as solid as could be. No wiggle at all.

It is darn near impossible, or maybe just really relly uncomfortable, to do this without some sort of bench or table. Therefore I put the top together first, then threw it (upside down) onto some saw horses - voila! a bench to build on.

FINISHING: I used a dark Danish Oil throughout (thanks to FWW members) and put a Howard’s Bees Wax conditioner on the top to make clean up of glue and the like easy. Now that the wax is on, it is a little moist for my liking. I am concerned it might rub off on hardwoods, we'll see. (Johnson's paste wax is not readily available in Montana and I was too impatient to order it). I mounted a Jorgensen 9" Rapid release front vise. I Drilled 4 rows of 3 dog holes off of this. I attached a sheet of ¼” ply under the top to keep things from falling onto the screw through the dog holes. I also extended the Top to 68" so that I could add an end vise (ETA TBD). Being 68” worked perfect as dog holes spaced every 6” lined up perfectly with the Face holes.

Thanks FWW for a great plan that is easy and solid.

DESIGN ISSUES! Ok, so how come only ONE person sited the fact that the diagram uses 3.5 inch supports while the Parts list says 4x4?

ALSO - why doesn't the parts list show the 4 - 24" 3/8 screws needed for the small supports?

Am I wrong? If not, is there anything else that any of you have found missing?

For a beginner bench I'm surprised! Luckily I was cautious enough to watch the videos several times and compare them to the diagram.

For those considering this remember to buy the screws I site PLUS, remember your small supports will have to be 1 inch shorter (16 inches).

HELP! This looks almost perfect for me. I would like to add a vise on the far right end. I am not astute enough to know what modifications I would need to make in order to do so. Any ideas? Pictures from under (if you have done this)?

Can't wait to build this over the weekend!