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After three days of work, we are going to start assembling the workbenches we are building at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking tomorrow and are coming to a familiar fork in the road.
Should we assemble the benches using glue or not?
My gut says these benches don’t need glue. The legs are immobile in their mortises in the top – even during a dry fit. A couple wedges in each mortise will make them even more so. The stretchers that run between the legs will be drawbored into mortises in the legs. A drawbore joint doesn’t really need glue – if it is properly executed.
But glue makes sure that everything will hold tight. At least that is the way I was raised.
It’s a tough fight that I wage in my head. So far, the glue has always won its place in the joints in my workbenches. It is so inexpensive and I cannot come up with a downside to using it.
So check back tomorrow to see if the glue won again.
— Christopher Schwarz
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