An Update for 2017

Last year was incredibly busy here at Benchcrafted. We designed and released several new things. The Classic Workbench Plans, the Hi Vise, the Planing Stop and we made good progress on the new "bench seat" (still haven't settled on a name yet.) We didn't have much time to blog about personal woodworking projects (which are always in the works here in the Benchcrafted test shop) but we hope that will change this year.

You might be wondering about our swinging bench seat, which we started developing about a year ago. It's moving along. To produce this at a reasonable cost we've had to spend loads of time designing it for efficient machining, then building the fixture for machining as much as possible in one setup. We're working on that right now. The brackets that hold the swing arm to the bench are 75% done. Right now we don't have an ETA on these, or a price. That said, if you're coming to Handworks 2017 expect to see these for sale in our booth. And if they are done sooner, of course we'll get them posted.

Fall Update

We apologize for not updating the blog as frequently, but it's been quite busy here this summer what with all our new products coming down the pike. Here's what's happening at Benchcrafted.

Swing Seat 
The patterns are done and on their way to the foundry. Next week we hope to get some video of the first pour. We always run samples to check gating (how the metal flows) and such, so this won't be a production run. If the sample run looks good we'll go right ahead with a production run so we can get these produced asap. The goal on these is to have some ready for Christmas delivery.

Planing Stop
We've got the first run finished and ready for packaging. Once we update the website you'll be able to buy one. Price: $24. Includes everything you need to put one in your bench, except for the wood stock. Watch for these in the next few weeks.

Classic Workbench Plans
The plans are finished (thanks Louis!) All we need to do now is sit down and write the instructions, take some pictures and update the website. Christmastime is our goal.

Hi Vise
We've finished our first mass run of Hi Vises. This week we'll begin packaging them up. We've still got a bit of stuff to do with instructions and website copy, but we're close. We're also building the portable version this week, so look for updates on that as well.

Turbo Ecabulator
This never gets old

You Asked For It-The Benchcrafted Swing Seat

We've been a bit inundated the past few days about whether or not we're going to produce a swing seat for workbenches, after Chris Schwarz posted about his recently.

Believe it or not, this has been on our to-do list for about 5 years. Back then the industrial-look craze was gaining momentum and we watched closely as vintage cafeteria tables were popping up at chic restaurants in big cities and health-food markets in our area. Soon after a few companies started casting their own. Once we saw the prices, we laughed, then decided it was time to make our's.

These seats were used is prisons, school cafeterias, soda fountains, telephone booths, drafting tables, elevators. Illinois vise manufacturer Richards Wilcox made their own that they outfitted on benches sold by the company. The company is still in business, but like a lot of companies, they make completely different stuff now, like industrial door hardware. Sort of like Greenlee. Once know for their hollow chisel mortisers, they now make electrician's tools. Most people don't know their company logo is still the end-view of a hollow chisel.

We've got a couple swing-seat designs in the bag already, but still need to prototype and work out a few kinks. Plus, we're going to try our best to make this a reasonably priced item. $500 is just insane. There's virtually no machine work on these. Castings are still pretty inexpensive, and being woodworkers, well, we can all make our own seats by golly! We're not marketing these to Greenwich Village sushi bars. We're making them for us, dang it.

Please don't bother asking when they will be ready. We've got some other stuff already in the pipeline that we need to finish. Hopefully though we'll have something before 2016 is over.