{"id":98,"date":"2008-10-18T19:49:43","date_gmt":"2008-10-18T23:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=98"},"modified":"2009-03-31T02:44:48","modified_gmt":"2009-03-31T07:44:48","slug":"the-most-important-tool-in-the-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/18\/the-most-important-tool-in-the-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"The most important tool in the shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The workbench <\/strong>gets my vote for the most important tool in the shop. Beyond its obvious function of holding the workpiece, it establishes a reference surface to work against and really forms the basis of a woodworker\u2019s approach to hand tool woodworking. For this reason, a craftsmen personalizes his bench even after taking great care in selecting its style and features. This refinement is bound to continue as a worker\u2019s repertoire evolves.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0beautiful board of curly red oak, above, is held both in the front vise and, with a supplementary device, at its right end. This system works for me far better than the traditional “deadman” supports because the right side of the board is not only supported from below but also secured laterally. This is done with a vertical support piece<\/strong>, held in the tail vise, inlaid with T-track which holds a sliding toggle clamp. I\u2019ve detailed this workbench upgrade and many others in an article<\/a> in the November 2007 issue of Popular Woodworking <\/a><\/em>magazine. (Back issues are available in sets on CD<\/a> or as individual downloads<\/a>.)\u00a0Each of the workbench add-ons in the article has stood the tests of time and practicality\u00a0in my\u00a0shop. Click here to view a short video <\/a>demonstration of a few of the upgrades. I hope other woodworkers will benefit from them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The workbench gets my vote for the most important tool in the shop. Beyond its obvious function of holding the workpiece, it establishes a reference surface to work against and really forms the basis of a woodworker\u2019s approach to hand tool woodworking. For this reason, a craftsmen personalizes his bench even after taking great […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jigs-and-fixtures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}