Homecoming

Nearly 20 years ago, I decided that I needed to build a harpsichord from a kit. There were two major harpsichord kit manufacturers in the US, Hubbard and Zuckerman. Both companies are still in business now, and still have a variety of kits to build. I decided on Zuckerman, and Mary Ellen and I spent a weekend in Stonington, CT, so I could attend a two-day seminar on building the kit.

It took me about three years to build, but it turned out to be a fine instrument, one that we used for a number of years with Allegro Chamber Orchestra. Here's a photo of Mary Ellen at the harpsichord in 2005:

But before it looked like that, it looked like a big box of sticks of wood. Here's a photo from December 1995, when Lew Sauders (now deceased, sadly) helped me get the kit home from the freight depot. The dog is our Golden Retriever Luke, who everybody said was the best dog ever.

For the three-year build process, I took over our guest bedroom and used it as a workshop. For such a large instrument, I needed a correspondingly large workbench, so I built one. I wanted a project that would stretch and improve my skills as a woodworker before starting on the kit, so I chose (and slightly modified) a design from American Woodworker magazine that had a large, heavy top, 2.25 inches thick, laminated from three sheets of plywood. The base was poplar, with walnut "stripes", through-tenons and walnut wedges.

At the time, my only vehicle was a Mazda Miata, so I used it as a truck to get the lumber home to build the bench. It was December, so this was a chilly drive!

Once the harpsichord was completed in 1998, we needed to reclaim the guest bedroom, and there was just no where else in our house to put an eight-foot-long workbench. I sold it to a friend at church, Dave Hollinger, who is a professional photographer. He used it as a large work surface for shots of various products.

Fast-forward to last week, when Dave emailed me and said he was reconfiguring his studio. He wanted to know if I wanted my workbench back, and I immediately said, "Yes!" We agreed on a price, and John Zimmerman and I picked it up today. Now that I have the Grant St. Garage, I have room for that big bench!

The frame is pretty massive, with legs and stretchers about 4 inches square. The legs and short stretchers are laminated from two poplar pieces, with a solid walnut piece in the center. 

This shot shows the through-tenons I mentioned. I was surprised to see how much the end grain of the poplar had darkened over 19 years. You can still see the horizontal stripe of walnut, though - that's actually a wedge that spreads the tenon and locks it into place. The mortise has angled sides to allow the tenon to expand.

Here it is with the top in place. You'll notice the notch at the right front. That's for a vise, and there's a matching notch on the other end for another. I kept the vises when I sold the table, and still have one of them mounted on another bench. I'll reclaim it and mount it here. The other vise went to Dave Russell, who died, along with his wife, in a tragic accident. No getting that one back - I'll have to buy another.

I let the workbench sit for about 10 minutes before I put it right to work. A bit of plastic sheeting to protect it, and then it was just the right size for some finishing work I wanted to get done.

Amazingly, I was able to find those original plans on the web at this link:

https://books.google.com/books?id=EfYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA33#v=onepage&q&f=false

If you follow the link and look at the initial picture, you'll see that the original design had an optional drawer box in the base that added a lot of storage. I think that would be a nice addition in the bench's 20th year!