workbench
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Hey guys,
about a year ago I started a very similar thread on this forums https://woodworkingmasterclasses.com/discussions/topic/workbench-the-journey-begins/
Since then my life got quite complicated with the birth of our first son, etc. besides that the wood was s***, soon I got very frustated and quited the project. Fast forward to about november, my wife opened a store, and she relied on me for making some stuff, so I began working wood again, and again realised that needed a proper bench.
Here in Spain there is very little construction done with wood, so your tipical big box store doesn’t have construction lumber. I had to buy 17 90x45x3000mm spruce from a lumber yard at about 200 euros, anyway cheaper than a bench right?.It’s been very fun to build, stressful at times, but quite an experience.
After some out of squarenessthe bench is almost completed
Dimensions are 61″x24″ and for now heihgt is 38 1/2″ and is the break down wedged version of the frame
I have 2 questions for you:
– I didn’t make the well board yet, it seems that some benches have a thinner well board without housing dados vs the youtube version, I ask that because the 3 studs left for laminating are twisted, broken and awful in general. What do you think? Should I put in a single board or try to refine the bad stock– I’ve been looking for a second hand record vise, the problem is that being so heavy almost no seller on ebay ships it out of the uk. So I pretty much decided on an eclipse new, but I don’t know the best size.
Would the 10″ be overkill for a 5′ bench? Is the 9″ enough for general furniture making? Would I miss the 4 inches difference in opening in the future.The bench is already an amazing improvement for planing and sawing just clamping the work to it, It seems bolted to the floor.
Best regards
MateoAttachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.29 April 2015 at 7:53 pm #126876Nice work! Looks like about the size I was considering making, please show us how you finish it up. Concerning vise size, I have a 10″ Morgan vice on a 5′ bench (not nearly as substantial as yours) and find it works well. I would offer that it’s better to have a little bigger now then finding yourself wishing for a larger one later. From my experience, 10″ is a good size, wouldn’t want one smaller. Keep up the good work.
Cheers
29 April 2015 at 7:58 pm #126877I’ll second that. If you see yourself continuing in woodworking for many years, then go for the larger vise. You’ll be happier in the long run.
Hey lute, I went with a 1″ thick well board. It works fine and I have been using my bench every day for about 2 months since I finished the build. I did that because I foolishly trusted my measurements would be correct and planed the well board I had laminated and it was 1/4″ too narrow. So to avoid the gap I just got a 1×8 and ripped and planed it to size. Now I just have to figure out what to do with that other well board, I’ll make something nice out of it, just don’t know what yet.
Your table looks great! Good work! Hope that helps.
jimmyb
Hey guys,
thank you very much for the answers.
It seems that it is not going to be so easy, the eclipse vise I was thinking about was at around 130 euros, but when I tried to check out and pay, handling and delivery summed up to a total of…… almost 400 euros!!!!!. NO WAY I’m spending that much.
So I turned to ebay uk, and there almost every seller says collect in person only.
I went to a store in my town and they have a cast iron vise made in taiwan that looks solid enough but the inside jaw is 60mm tall on the back side and my benchtop 81mm, so if I mount it in my bench I’ll have a gap of 3/4″ between the top surface and the metal jaws, Is that acceptable??.On the other topic, I spend the sunday evening trueing up the bad studs for the well board. They turned up well enough.
I have to thank Paul and the team again, the workbench is a perfect learning trip, I could never have done that before the experience I walked through making the bench.After boring you a pic of the bench with the tools that made it possible
regards
MateoAttachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.4 May 2015 at 5:08 pm #126978Hey, nicely done, Lute. As far as the vise sizing is concerned, it shouldn’t be a problem having the top of the vise 21 mm lower than the bench top if you screw a strong board to each of the vise faces, with the top of these boards level with the bench top.
If these boards are pine, the pressure of clamping something at the top of the vice will probably break them. So use a hard wood. And it might be important to make it a full inch thick.
Another solution would be to chisel and route a 21 mm recess in the underside of the bench top to receive the vise and make it flush with the top when installed. Actually it would probably be better to size the recess (maybe 15 mm) so that the top of the vise comes a few mm below the bench top, then attach the hardwood pieces up to level with the top. This will keep you from accidentally hitting metal when planing and allow you to flatten the top in the future without having to adjust the vise position.
4 May 2015 at 5:29 pm #126980In case you hadn’t seen it, here’s the “Fitting a Vise” post on the blog:
http://paulsellers.com/2012/06/making-the-workbench-15/
You will need some space between the bench and the metal jaws to allow for re-truing the bench top. 3/4″ is more than you need but I can’t see it presenting a problem, you’ll just have to make up the difference with the wooden jaws. If you want to you can cut a recess into the underside of the bench to raise the jaw closer to the surface and if you have followed the workbench series you will already have the necessary tools and knowledge to do this.
Matt
4 May 2015 at 5:34 pm #126981Huh, I see Matt posted while I was thinking and said exactly the same thing. He’s right about the material of the jaw padding being important, I have extended mine maybe 1/2″ using good quality 18mm ply without a problem but obviously the further you go the beefier the jaw needs to be.
Other Matt.
THE WONDERFUL JOURNEY OF WOODWORKING
Hello guys,
thank you very much for the ad-vise(hehe) again, the workbench is finished. I’ve decided to apply a couple of coats of tung oil with mineral spirits as finishing (not yet applied) because is what I have at home.In the end I made a recess for the vise to go into, and It ended up 3/8″ under the bench top, and now with the reclaimed hardwood jaws is flush with it.
Oh how it sucks being a beginner…
when I finished the recess I realised that the bars of the mechanism where touching the underside of the bench top and no longer moved freely, so I recessed a housing for the bars. Then the same happened with the well board of course, but by that time I was aware of it at least.
Besides I managed to split a big chunk of the inside of the apron while cutting the hole for the vise and also to marvellously let the rear jaw drop on top of my hand by accidentaly touching the quick release lever while measuring something with the vice vertically on the floor. Lucky me that it wasn’t fully opened at the time or the outcome would have been much worse than the nasty bruising I have.
In the end I’m really happy with the bench, and was a great learning experience.One last question, now It’s at 38 1/2″ and It’s pretty comfortable but when sawing it moves a little, the floor is nowhere near level because the house is old and the wooden floor is very uneven and the bench being 24″ inches wide I think it’s too much leverage, could dropping 1″ the height help with this??.
some pictures of the bench and the first project.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.11 May 2015 at 1:49 pm #127088Hi Lute,
Your bench came out great. Looks exactly like mine (he, he). It took me a bit over 4 months to build mine. Then used it without a vise for a couple of months after that. But when I finally got the vise installed it changed everything. Many frustrations gone.
The vise took me a good while to install, because you have to guesstimate the dimensions to cut the recess. And then you try to put it in, and take it out; dozens of times to make it fit.
But now the best part is ahead of you. To build with your hands and make things that will last.
Happy woodworking.P.S. You could try to pad the leg, or install leg levelers to stop it from rocking.
Video below show a DIY leveler.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NTfp7_gGxkMarilyn
12 May 2015 at 5:46 am #127107Lute, if the height is comfortable, I wouldn’t start cutting some off each leg. Try to level the bench with a wooden pad that fits snugly under the “short” leg. You may find you need to glue or tape the pad to the bottom of the leg. You also might think about adding a lower shelf and putting some weight on it to stabilize the bench. I have a couple of cinder blocks on mine to weigh it down.
Hey guys
thank you for your responses, In the end I found I spot with perfectly level ground for the bench in the room
@tctc100 actually, I used three saws
An old Spear & Jackson tenon saw 11ppi
A Disston no7 big rip saw 6ppi
And a Japanese kataba medium for cross cuttingHere are some photos of new projects made on the new bench, another cutting board made of some reclaimed wood and ebony on my first box made with the same kind of wood.
Tomorrow I’ll leave to Penrhyn Castle to assist to the nine day foundational course
IM SO EXCITED!!!See you in ten days
Regards, MateoAttachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Hi Mateo,
Good looking bench. I finished mine a few weeks ago and i know exactly what you went through. It is far from perfect, but a lot of things started to click durong the build. You created some extra storage space I see by I stalling a “shelf” on top of the leg. Is that laminated wood or just some plywood?
And hey, i am joining the nine day course as well. I’ll shake your hand on Friday. 🙂
Wesley
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