New Fangled workbench.

[woodsworth]

I'm making a small workshop area in the house for guitars. 8.5 by 12 room and need a workbench to put in. I have no budget to speak of and have been looking at ideas on the web when i came across this little beauty.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/Workshop/WorkshopArticle.aspx?id=28530

It looks easy to build, sturdy and very versatile. Of course with the small room i'd have to make the room under it more storage friendly but I think it looks like a good idea. Has anyone else built one of these? It took me a long time to source out the steel pipe but i've finally found somewhere that sells it in 20 foot lengths.

Any thoughts... Or other ideas for a relatively cheap workbench.


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[wizer]

I've always though the NFW was a bit fussy\faffy.

 

[rileytoolworks]

That is brilliant. I'd love to see yours once you get started. Like yourself, if I were to build one of these, it would have to have storage underneath.
How much do the clamps work out at?

Cheers.

Adam.

 

[houtslager]

wqit till you use one Wizer , I hope to get mine finished with some maple I've been saving.

Somewhere here I posted piccies but I've forgotten where

 

[oddsocks]

I didn't get the 'wow' factor of the bench until I watched the video - it looks very good.

Axminster sells pipe clamps and pipe joiners so you could get the length you need. If I didn't already have a bench that works for me I'd use this design.

Looking forward to seeing some WIP with details of suppliers and costs

Dave

 

[Henning]

I think that bench is brilliant!

I am known to like over engineered stuff though

Surely it's one of the best benches for small workspaces?

I am definitely going to add this to my list of things going in my workshop when i get one. (Along with the woodwhisperer table for putting stuff together.)

 

[woodsworth]

Thanks for the replies so far. This really isn't a wow factor bench. Well not in the sense of looks. But the functionality of it is amazing. I've ordered 4 clamps from axminster and some rare earth magnets and it came to £53 . I think off hand the magnets were £10.

The pipe is a bit trickier. You either get ripped off by Axminster for their bundles of pipes or you have to really search around for somewhere that sells it. It goes by so many names and they have stopped making black pipe. It is painted red now.

I can't remember the name of the company i found it at but next time i drive by i'll write it down so i can remember. Glover or something is in the name, and i think they are a plumbing merchant. So they sell it in 20 foot lengths that are threaded on both ends for about £17 a length. You only need the threads on one end of the top. and one end on the (tail clamp?)

I think i'm going to build mine like a T shape. 12 feet long against the wall and then have a 3 foot peice sticking out so i can do guitar set ups and plane the tops and backs.

Once i get the parts i'll post a step by step as there are no measurements in the articles on hole placement for the pipe clamps.

I think i'm going to use plywood for the top and what ever wood i can get my paws on for the structure. Will keep you updated and if anyone is doing this as well Please post what details you have. I suspect I'll have mine done in a month depending on free time, weather, and motivation. Not so motivated in this weather.

 

[miles_hot]

I'm a little confused - what does the use of the long pipe clamps give that an end vice and bench does doesn't?

Miles

 

[OPJ]

I've seen this before but, I quite like it. In fact, it's given me a couple of ideas I may try and integrate to my own bench - namely the wedges and planing beam for lower support. I guess movement may also be less of an issue, meaning it'll stay 'flat' for longer.

Building the top in two halves also gives you several advantages - the glue-ups are less stressful and, when you come to flatten them, you may also find that a bit easier than flattening one wide top - in some cases, you may even be able to feed both widths through a wide sander or thicknesser.

Miles, good question. For a start, you have two clamps on the end, meaning you can secure something which is out of square, or whatever. Also, although I've never fitted a tail or wagon vice, I can only imagine the task of fitting a pair of pipe clamps is much simpler. Also, you don't strictly need a load of dog holes and dogs in your top. There may be more though, you need a subscription before you can access the .PDF file.

 

[Mike Wingate]

Both my bences have full width tail vices. A pair of guide rods and a record 1 1/"2 dia thread and mech. I use bench dogs on each side of the benck and have a solid bench top of 2" thick mahogany or pitch pine . I like his panel support idea.

 

[woodsworth]

There are no more details in the article then can be found online. On how could it be any more useful then other set ups? I only have a simple workbench that has two vices and a tool well, so i can't speak about end vices or any other for that matter.

What i can say though is that this bench covers any application i can think of and can be simply adapted to add in jigs and other features that only the limits of your imagination could put an end to.

I think if someone already has a bench the usefulness is lost. People get so used to their benches, their limitations and their usefulness and no other thought is given because it is a useless road to venture down when you've spent possibly thousands on your bench. I believe i can do this bench under £150 and will serve me for a long time to come, and when i have a need to clamp something differently i only have to use my imagination to come up with a better way and integrate it.

 

[jlawrence]

From what I remember of the video, the bench will work best if you can get to both ends of it - which rules it out for my workshop. It does have massive amounts of clamping options - many of which can be adapted to work in pretty much any scenario.
My main problem with it is that you need to be able to remove bits easily and that means that you need access from underneath. That would work for me in the first week until I fill the underneath of the bench with whatever happens to fit there

 

[head clansman]

hi all

very impressive , what it has got in it's favor is cost , when you price the pipe clamps against end vice and side vises from axminster, or indeed from elsewhere it wins hands down . hc

 

[woodsworth]

My main problem with it is that you need to be able to remove bits easily and that means that you need access from underneath.

Not sure i understand that, can you elaborate?

 

[wizer]

Looking at it again, I guess it does look useful. But I think Jon's right, you do need a lot of space around it. It looks good in their huge workshop. But in our tiny cramped workshops, it would be up against a wall with 'stuff' all around it. I wonder how well it would perform then. I'd certainly like to use one before I invested time and money on it.

In the 7yrs since that article came out, I've only heard of a couple of people making it outside America.

 

[Mike Wingate]

The expense in the bench is the hardware.

 

[grafter]

there is a few posts over at lumber jocks along with link to sketch up drawings that may be of use - looks like a useful and cheap bench build:
http://lumberjocks.com/Caliper/blog/1477


woodsworth did you get the axminster copy pipe clamps?
also what are the earth magnets for - holding the face vice pipes?

 

[woodsworth]

No i didn't get them yet!!! I was hoping they would be here on Saturday so i could get going on it. So they will come when i am at work now and the project will have to wait till next weekend.

The rare earth magnets were for something else. Just seemed like a good deal and once you have them on hand you use them.

LOL at wiser. The £150 investment would be difficult to justify wouldn't it. I think i've seen you spend more on bits and bobs just on this forum alone. Who doesn't have an afternoon to bang one if these together? Even if it didn't work to one's expectation you'd have some pretty useful pipe clamps for the shop.

The beauty of the pipe clamp is you can make it as long as you want. for next to nothing compared to sash clamps and such. I will be stocking up on them, now that i know i can get the pipe.

 

[grafter]

a pdf copy of the magazine is available for free - search google "New-Fangled Workbench" - return 3 is a pdf

 

[woodsworth]

I have the article as i have the Fine woodworking magazine collection on disk. There are so many ideas in the magazines, one could spend several months going through them and not getting bored at all.

I have several other projects i want to build that are found in Fine woodworking to. The isolating sander, and the thickness sander that seems like the best i've seen. It's not anywhere else on the web either.