The Bench Brigade finally wrapped up making and delivering workbenches to all the 2023 PHP scholarship selectees in January of 2024. We are now preparing to start bench building for the 2024 PHP scholarship selectees. Looking at the 2024 selection list, there are a lot of selectees who live along the I-95 corridor on the east coast, particularly in North Carolina. If you are from that area, please consider joining the Bench Brigade. We need reinforcements!
The Tidewater Woodworker’s Guild in Virginia Beach and Jamie Fagel in Raleigh, NC have each built 6 or 7 benches each. They both say “keep ‘em coming” and we’re so grateful for their dedication but we really need more builders up and down the east coast to help them out.
We recently had a new Bench Brigade volunteer who asked about the feasibility of building a Cosman Workbench without a table saw and the answer is, “Yes, you can absolutely build the Cosman Workbench without a table saw.” Dean Lauppe in Houston has built two excellent workbenches with no table saw - hand tools only. Dr Jose Santiago Louisiana is the other hand tool only workbench builder. He did a beautiful job and even wrapped the workbench top in purple heart, built a tool tray and added a sliding work light!
I personally don’t use my table saw anymore to break down the plywood or MDF. I use a track saw with saw guide. It’s not quite as fast as using a table saw, but I find that the straightness of the cuts and the lack of saw marks makes ‘truing-up’ the parts and sanding much easier. If you don’t have a track saw, a plywood track for your regular circular saw works well too. I used one of these guides for years.
If you’ve not joined the Bench Brigade because you don’t have a table saw, let’s talk. It’s not as bad as you might think. Email me at Jack.Lane@ThePurpelHeartProject.org and I will send you my cell number.