Alf
Established Member
Never one to let a new fad pass me by :wink: , I took some old door frame like this:
Planed it up like this, for the base:
For the top, some 6" x 2" beech from British Hardwoods:
Jointed the edges like this:
Pausing only to point out why just being able to "match plane" two edges at once isn't enough in some cases - the blade simply isn't wide enough:
Found my Titebond bottle had got gummed up, but just about managed to squeeze out enough:
And clamped up using the ever-useful, and often over-looked, clamp heads. Alas looks like the Plano clamps are a no-show under the tree this year
A bit of saw, chisel and router work to create a couple a few simple notches and I have a top and base:
Time to consider vices. Drinking, gambling and, in this case, ah hum, screwing. :roll: (MayIbeforgivenforthatone [-o< ) A little work on the lathe and some potential screws and the 3/4" screw box waiting to thread them.
Not wholely successfully. Mucho breaking of threads - it seems the older curtain rail I'd used successfully in the past was quite a different animal from these more modern off-cuts. Blast. Back to the lathe, this time with some beech.
Imagine that bit while I cut straight to tapping the threads in the rear jaw; who says having more than one small square is unnecessary?
Rear jaw clamped up onto the edge of the top. To make lining it up a bit easier, I planed a shallow rebate in the back of the jaw to register it on the edge. It also helped me avoid boring the screw holes in the wrong place... You may notice one beech screw is a trifle "thread challenged" at the end - would you believe a split appeared in the blank? Well I wasn't doing another one, so I decided to just see how it went. The vice is only intended to open a little way for dovetailing and such anyway.
All put together - eventually. I must have adjusted and re-tapped with that screw box half a dozen times to get the threads working a little more smoothly. Still not perfect, but time and wear should help. Anyway, the view from below:
A little staged dovetailing. The holdfast alone can grip it to the bench securely at this end, plus it's out of the way of most of the rest of the main bench.
The dog holes aren't in the perfect locations; should have finished the top before making the base really. However, as planned, they're near the edge, which is a help when using a fenced tool on a narrow workpiece. I expect I'll probably be adding more as I go along, but we'll see how it pans out, rather than what I think will be the case. I'm reluctant to put dog holes in the vice and use that to hold things simply because I have some doubts over whether the 3/4" screws will be up to the task.
FWIW, I'm 5'10" and with my arms relaxed by my sides, my wrist is 900mm/35" from the floor. The bench is 920mm/36" high, and the bench-on-bench is another 6" on that. That seemed to be about the right height for me, but the base is merely screwed together should I need to alter it.
Overall size 610mm/24" wide, 387mm/15.25" deep including the vice jaws.
At last I can stop feeling guilty; I've made a workbench! Just keep the size to yourselves... :-$ :wink:
Cheers, Alf
Planed it up like this, for the base:
For the top, some 6" x 2" beech from British Hardwoods:
Jointed the edges like this:
Pausing only to point out why just being able to "match plane" two edges at once isn't enough in some cases - the blade simply isn't wide enough:
Found my Titebond bottle had got gummed up, but just about managed to squeeze out enough:
And clamped up using the ever-useful, and often over-looked, clamp heads. Alas looks like the Plano clamps are a no-show under the tree this year
A bit of saw, chisel and router work to create a couple a few simple notches and I have a top and base:
Time to consider vices. Drinking, gambling and, in this case, ah hum, screwing. :roll: (MayIbeforgivenforthatone [-o< ) A little work on the lathe and some potential screws and the 3/4" screw box waiting to thread them.
Not wholely successfully.
Mucho breaking of threads - it seems the older curtain rail I'd used successfully in the past was quite a different animal from these more modern off-cuts. Blast. Back to the lathe, this time with some beech.
Imagine that bit while I cut straight to tapping the threads in the rear jaw; who says having more than one small square is unnecessary?
Rear jaw clamped up onto the edge of the top. To make lining it up a bit easier, I planed a shallow rebate in the back of the jaw to register it on the edge. It also helped me avoid boring the screw holes in the wrong place... You may notice one beech screw is a trifle "thread challenged" at the end - would you believe a split appeared in the blank? Well I wasn't doing another one, so I decided to just see how it went. The vice is only intended to open a little way for dovetailing and such anyway.
All put together - eventually. I must have adjusted and re-tapped with that screw box half a dozen times to get the threads working a little more smoothly. Still not perfect, but time and wear should help. Anyway, the view from below:
A little staged dovetailing. The holdfast alone can grip it to the bench securely at this end, plus it's out of the way of most of the rest of the main bench.
The dog holes aren't in the perfect locations; should have finished the top before making the base really. However, as planned, they're near the edge, which is a help when using a fenced tool on a narrow workpiece. I expect I'll probably be adding more as I go along, but we'll see how it pans out, rather than what I think will be the case. I'm reluctant to put dog holes in the vice and use that to hold things simply because I have some doubts over whether the 3/4" screws will be up to the task.
FWIW, I'm 5'10" and with my arms relaxed by my sides, my wrist is 900mm/35" from the floor. The bench is 920mm/36" high, and the bench-on-bench is another 6" on that. That seemed to be about the right height for me, but the base is merely screwed together should I need to alter it.
Overall size 610mm/24" wide, 387mm/15.25" deep including the vice jaws.
At last I can stop feeling guilty; I've made a workbench! Just keep the size to yourselves... :-$ :wink:
Cheers, Alf
