The Maker’s Bench

Emeka knew exactly what he wanted — he had been working on an inadequate folding table for three years and had a precise idea of what was missing. Our job was to build it, not design it.

The bench: 2200mm long, 900mm deep, 870mm working height. Top constructed from laminated iroko hardwood — three 75mm thick boards glued and bolted face-to-face, producing a top mass of approximately 60kg before the frame is attached. It does not move.

Frame: 50mm x 50mm mild steel box section, fully welded, powder-coated matte black. Four lower shelf rails for tool tote storage. A machinist’s vice fitted to the left end on a welded steel plate.

The bench is designed to be repaired, not replaced. Every joint is accessible, all hardware is standard specification, and the top can be surface-planed if it becomes damaged over the years.

We visited the Lafia workshop before designing anything. Three days observing their production process, measuring their most common chair frame, identifying the three operations that introduced the most variation: seat rail drilling angle, backleg compound angle cut, and stretcher centreline positioning.

The result: three dedicated jigs. Jig 1 — Seat Rail Drill Guide: steel body, two aluminium registration plates, four fixed drill bushings at 8mm and 10mm for the standard rail cross-section. Jig 2 — Backleg Angle Saw Guide: adjustable steel fence on a heavy base, set at 5° compound taper, referenced from the leg face. Jig 3 — Stretcher Positioning Frame: open steel rectangle at standard stretcher span, self-clamping to the leg pair.

All three jigs were built with replaceable wear components — the drill bushings, the fence face plates, and the clamp faces are all standard-dimension replaceable parts available from any engineering supplier.