Since there was some interest in my little bench last week, and even a request for more info... Well, never let it be said I missed a chance to ham it up in front of my friends!

The bench is just that.  A regular workbench in a small size. The top measures 3 1/2" X 9", but really, this is not that critical.  It would depend on the scale of work you were doing.  I once made one around 18" X 6" for a friend because his scale was larger.

Now, this bench has been down the road. It's around 15 years old now so any polish or smoothness it once had is long gone.  It's a used bench after all.  Plus I might have gained a little skill, I hope, since I made it.

I tried a lot of different ways to hold small work before I built it, and came back to tradition in the end.  As the pix show, I put it "up on a pedestal".  The column (roughly 2 1/2" square) brings the bench up close to my face when held in my regular bench vice.  If you look at the bottom you can see 2 wing looking things.  These are pads for me to put under my legs when sitting in a chair and it beats nothing for supporting the bench.  This way I can bring work into the house and play while watching TV or something if I want to.  It's really not quite as stable but for light work it's fine.

This next is a close up of my new vice.  It's kind of a patternmakers/English carvers pattern.  The swivel pads on top can hold weird stuff and they just slip out when I don't need them. 

This is the second one of these I've made for myself.  The first one was smaller and actually a bit cuter to look at, but it was plumb wore out!  This time I started with a piece of thicker angle and added 1/4" of brass to it for supporting the guide rods.

The moving jaw is 2 pieces of the 1/4" brass sweat soldered and riveted together. All the brass came from an old beam scale that was broken. I used a 5/16" bolt for the screw and some barely bigger than 1/8" stainless rod that was kind of harder than a nail for the "crank".  I tried a regular vice handle first, but the crank really speeds up opening and closing the vice . It's sitting on a flanged washer that they always give you new ones of when you change your shock absorbers (I'm a scrounge and that's a fact).

There is a big homemade toggle nut underneath so I can swing the whole shebang around anyplace I want and tighten it fast.  The main jaws and the swivel pads are both lined with mystery wood.  One time someone (help me here?? Awful memory sometimes) sent me a little piece of weird wood to identify.  I never could.  It almost looks like mahogany except it's darker.  But it's really hard, tough and heavy even with it's large grain.  It smells like dog p--s when you cut it.  And I'm down into the middle of it now so the smell goes all the way through.

Well, Brian uncloaked his fantastic Dietrich's patent saw tote for us all to drool over. That cherry burl looks unbelievable, don't you agree??  It's just a museum piece and nothing more to say.  And just wait, Wayne is about to let loose with the coolest miter plane you ever saw, guaranteed.  Man this thing is sexy.  He's out there in a league of his own now.  More museum material.

So, not to be totally left out, and to earn my place in the Pep Boys of homemade tools, I just had to work up a little something.  A very little something.  I'm not sure if it's the smallest working saw ever made or anything, but it's in there.

I tried rosewood, broke 5 of them. Went to cocobola, didn't hold up.

Had to go to boxwood. When you get down this small, wood grain gets mighty critical.  Adam sent me a little stick last week in a Galoots wood swap (we send each other some pieces of wood we weren't likely to find anyplace else to play with) so it went right to work.

That boxwood is some tough stuff!

Without further ado, here she is sitting next to the mini tenon saw I showed you last time.  It's a dovetail this time.

yours, Scott