[member=56718]fotojoe[/member]
Sean, I've been studying your beautiful bench. I see you completed the project a few years ago now. If you can spare a moment I hope you could respond to some more questions:
1. Desired Changes: After living with the workbench for a while and hopefully having a chance to use it a fair amount, what would you change, if anything?
Honestly it does the things I want it to do. I built it very slowly over the course of 2 years. So I gave myself a lot of time to think before I acted. I messed up the mounting of the wagon vise a little bit, it's not as clean of a cut out as I would've liked, but other than that, no complaints.
2. Dog Holes: I see in the original sketch-up you were planning to put CNC-machined dog holes in both sides but only put them on the side with the wagon vise. Do you find you use the holes much? Are you happy with having the holes on the one side only?
I'm really happy with the choice of only putting dog holes on one side. There are plenty of them to do alignment tasks with. And having the other side be free of holes and the wagon vise comes in handy constantly. Like not dropping small parts and hardware, or being able to use the t-tracks on either end cap for a long rail task.
3. Seasonal Expansion/Contraction: Your original plan was to use 3"-thick slabs (looks like maple). I also see that you wrapped the slabs on all sides with an apron and I wonder if seasonal expansion/contraction has caused any issues with the apron joints at the ends of the slabs?
The slab that forms the top is not a solid wood slab. It is made up of rock maple, hardboard, and plywood, in that order. The total thickness of the epoxy laminated slab is 2 3/4". Then the rails wraps that. The rails have loose tenon joinery and the wagon vise end cap has double loose tenons with brass draw bores. The rails are attached to the top with 4" bolts, there are mortises on the underside of the bench every 8" that allow the nut to slide in. The holes for the bolts are bored oversized to allow for movement. I used self locking nuts, that have not come loose due to vibration or mallet blows and the likes. Because of how I built the slab, the main "field" of the top does not expand and contract very much (it's not a machining surface, it needs to be flat enough for woodworking, which varies dramatically from woodworker to woodworker based on their particular tastes and techniques.) The apron joints have held nicely visually, and any little changes have not cause problems with functionality. I'll also add that the bench lives in a climate controlled shop. If it was sitting in a garage or otherwise exposed to huge temperature/humidity changes I would probably see problems.
4. Dog Hole Layout: You mentioned that your holes are 3/4" diameter so you could use Qwas dogs. I'm assuming the holes are bored all the way through the slabs. Are they on 4" centers? Do you ever use them to index 45 degree cuts or for calibrating your miter fence? If so, I expect that seasonal movement (see #3) may throw the hole positions very slightly out of square (more movement across the bench vs longitudinally) -- have you noticed anything like that?
Sizing and spacing on the dogs is correct. I index everything off of them, miter fence, rip fence, router set-ups of all sorts. They are accurate to a degree that it does not change my workflow (as in if it is slightly different season to season, the changes are not enough to notice in my work.) This is the main reason I did not make the top out of solid wood. That being said, I am not in the habit of taking something right from a power tool to assembly. Most everything gets hit with a plane or a chisel before it forms a joint of any kind. That being said, it's accurate enough to cross cut bed rails with just a locating pin on either end of the stock. In that scenario I had no visible light when I checked the cut against a Starrett square. That is square enough for my needs.
Thanks again for sharing. I see that your build is one of the most popular on this site -- a testament to your novel hybrid design. Joe
Hope that helps Joe, Sean