Woodworking

 Making things out of wood usually requires a means of holding the wood steady while you remove all the bits that do not look like the finished piece. Over the years there have been many systems to do that. From as simple as a low bench with a "butt" vise to as complex as some work benches I've seen with a vise of some kind on each corner and one or two in the middle. BTW, I find simple tends to work better than complex, less is more.

For the last couple or three years I've been working on my "Unicorn" system of work holding that is simple, easy and cheap to build, will hold your work solid with little monkey motion, will break down with no more tools than a mallet, can be broken down and put back together in less than five minutes by one person (actually takes about a minute if all the parts are close) and can be stored in a space no larger than a motorhome's sub-bins. One more criteria, nothing, no module requires more than one average old fart to to take apart, move, or put together. 

I've come up with three pieces that fit the bill. A Moravian based workbench, a Shavehorse and a Shavemule. I've four Moravian benches in my shop ranging in size from one that works as a "Workmate" and is stored in a corner when not in use to a full sized Roubo bench replacement. The full sized Moravian bench which weights and costs little more than half the cost and weight of a Roubo is as stable as the Roubo and the joinery is much simpler, easily within the ability of a first time builder using nothing more than a hand saw, a few chisels, a couple of planes and a drill. The only advantage of the Roubo is the "hoot" factor, great for bragging but the Moravian is a better bench for today's world.

A Moravian Workbench with an early shavehorse in the foreground and a French style bench in the background:

Shavehorse:

Shavemule:

The workbench was the easy one, I just expanded on Will Meyers work with few changes. The Shavehorse was a PITA, not so much making a shavehorse but making it meet the criteria of coming apart with nothing but a mallet and storing in a small space yet still function as a full sized shavehorse took a bit of butt scratching. With the shavemule the base problem was solved with building the horse and all that was left was stealing the mule module and adapting it to the base. Of the two modules the horse module was pretty straight forward once I settled on a deadhead mechanism for holding the work. The mule module is really simple and easy to build but, there is that "but" that usually shows up, it was fiddly to get the clamping sticks, the shape of the hole in the table and the spacers all working together. 

Any of the three are perfect for folks that want to work wood but have limited space and for that matter money. 

I'm here to help if anyone wants to build any or all three,

ken