70 days ago
by Marty5965 |
10 comments »
BASIC WORKBENCH DESIGN
This entry outlines my basic workbench design concept. It contains ideas from 3 different traditional style benches; Roubo, English, and Holzapfel inspirations. It is made from inexpensive Southern Yellow Pine and Douglas Fir with some hardwood accents (vice chop for example).
The overall dimensions are 6 feet long, 33 inches high, and just over 2 feet deep. The split top is designed to facilitate leveling the top after construction and provide an area for ...
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138 days ago
by grfrazee |
9 comments »
I was fortunate enough to be able to take off Christmas week and get a good start on my workbench. I’ve had the idea to build one in my head for a few months now, and have been slowly accumulating the parts and hardware necessary. My intention was to make it possible to take the bench apart and move it with relative ease since I will be moving it from my dad’s shop once I have a shop of my own (side note: apartments suck).
I used southern yellow pine, special ordered from Men...
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808 days ago
by JasonD |
10 comments »
I got some time in the shop tonight and was able to get the sliding board jack made and installed.
To make the V-groove at the bottom, I first made two cuts down the center with a rip panel saw. Then I cut a 45-deg kerf from the front / back that met those first two cuts in the middle. Finally, I chopped out the middle section and pared it flat with a 1/4” chisel and cleaned up the slopes with a paring chisel.
Here’s a picture after the first 45-deg cut:
After the sec...
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810 days ago
by JasonD |
0 comments »
Just a quick update tonight. I got the shelf completed and also made / installed the track for the sliding board jack. I chose not to nail the shelf boards down. They are joined with shiplapped rabbet joints; no glue. This way, I can easily remove the shelf to sweep it off, sweep under the bench, etc.
I also decided to forgo screws to attach the track for sliding board jack. I made some v-grooved cauls with 2×4 scraps to clamp it during the glue up. I made the 45-deg chamfers on eithe...
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813 days ago
by JasonD |
5 comments »
I spent the evening cleaning up and rearranging my shop the night that I got the top flattened and the leg vise installed. For the first time since I moved into this shop, it actually feels and looks like a work shop. Everything is actually in the proper place, as opposed to being thrown randomly some where in the hectic scramble to get our house remodeled so that we could move in last year.
After getting everything cleaned up and organized, I started working on some of the remaining acces...
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818 days ago
by JasonD |
7 comments »
What can I say…when the bug bites, it bites hard! I had about 1-1/2 hours after work before I had to be at the gym for Karate. I got busy with my “scrub” plane (heavily cambered iron in an a modern Stanley #5). I spent about 45 minutes in the shop, got the bench almost entirely roughly flattened, and still had enough time to clean up and get to the gym on time.
Well, things went great at the gym (I got promoted! :) ) and came home pretty pumped up. So, I got busy with my ...
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819 days ago
by JasonD |
8 comments »
It’s funny that no matter how many hurdles I’ve tackled so far in building this bench, I still find myself “paralyzed” with fear when I come fact to face with a big new task….even if it’s a task that I’ve already accomplished in the build.
My next major task for the workbench was to flatten the top. This shouldn’t be too hard. For one thing, the boards were fairly close to lined up when the top was glued up. I purposely didn’t spend tim...
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820 days ago
by JasonD |
1 comment »
I didn’t quite get as far as I’d hope today, but I did make some good progress. I set a goal of getting through my list up to flattening the top, but I decided to put that step off for another day; partly because I put in almost 12 hours of shop time yesterday and my body is HURTING today.
My son and I flipped the bench back upside down. Then, I marked out the location of the sliding board jack trench, grabbed my drill and chisels, and got to work. It wasn’t hard, but it ...
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821 days ago
by JasonD |
6 comments »
The day started with me cutting the vise chop into shape. I cut the straight cuts with my rip panel cut (as seen in the first pic below). Then, I cut the curved cuts and glued the chop together. I didn’t have any 8/4 stock, but I did have some 4/4 hard maple and red oak left over from previous projects. So, I hand planed them flat / square and decided to cut the shapes out before the glue up. After letting it sit in the clamps over night, I’m going to clean up the sides of the ch...
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828 days ago
by JasonD |
4 comments »
FINALLY!!! After several weeks of little to no shop time each day, I finally hit another major milestone. The base is complete; glued up and sitting in the clamps for the night. The past few weeks have been crazy for me: new projects at work, a battle with the flu, getting 15 of my students ready for a competition, etc. I was able to manage about 30 minutes of shop time every other night at best.
It was 14 days of knocking out one little task after another until it all came to fruition. I ...
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