Working without a bench?
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Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Working without a bench?
Tagged: portable bench; workmate
New to woodworking. One of the things that I have learned from Paul is to keep things simple and use what you have available, like Piotr has done. I also do not have a dedicated bench but looking forward to building one. Last weekend I used my Rockwell Jawhorse to do some cutting and planing and worked relatively well. Holds the wood very solid but does move when you are planing and the wood catches. When not in use folds up the size of a golf bag. Just a thought.
Dave
I guess I will wade in on this one. My workspace is a ultility closet that is 40″X114″ or just over 34 square feet. On the topic of benches I have built three so far a tiny roubo (hated it with a passion will NEVER build another ever) a knock down sawhorse table and finally a 22 in X 6 foot Nicholson or english style bench by far my favorite(in is on lumberjocks under workbenches brettmcd if you are curious). I have determined that for most furniture work 6 feet is ample. I would suggest that you made an english style about this long with Paul Sellers captured wedge on the under side of the apron to make it “knock down” if you omited the tool well and did a split top the whole bench could be set up in 5-10 minutes max. Each apron should weigh around 65-70 lbs. I have found that the best benefit to this bench is that each part is not excessively heavy and yet the sum of all the parts is quite substantial. This style could easily be stored in a closet with a total of 4-5 pieces (2 aprons, 2 leg H Frames, 1 split top) STore it in the closet when not in use then set if up wherever you have space then store in the closet when you are done. This bench and a small chest and wall cabinet would allow you to make a lot of furniture if you really wanted to despite limited space. I know in this shop I have made 3 beds (1 of which was a bunk bed and several tables along with a couple book shelfs and multiple benches.)
So this was too long of a post I know but the short story is go out and build something and don’t let you space be an excuse. Best of luck
Brett