Workbenches are perfect for most woodworking jobs and are the mainstay of a carpenter’s workshop, whether he or she is a professional or an amateur.  Workbenches can with a few adjustments be made a lot more versatile though and able to cope with very nearly anything you may need to do.

For the most part, for example, the work you use the vice for will mostly involve working with reasonably small pieces of wood, frequently cutting mortises and tenons, drilling holes, sanding and so forth. Now and again though, you may need to work with a longer than usual piece of wood which may be difficult to hold in the vice which will stretch so far past the vice that its own weight will cause it to tilt down when planing making the work impossible.  To solve the problem, cut a six inch piece of five-eighths of an inch diameter dowling. Now drill a two inch hole at the right side of the bench, through the skirt and into the front leg.

Sometimes a piece of wood is simply too awkward to hold in the vice because of its shape or size. A bench hook is the ideal solution. To make one of your own, all you need is a piece of hardwood, eight by five by three quarter inches. Two blocks of wood, 4 inches by 7/8 by 7/8 of an inch. They should be fitted to the base of the bench hook so that one is fully to the left and one fully to the right.