To (ol) well or not to (ol) well? That is the question

[AndyT]

Just in case the consensus is swinging away from a tool well, I just need to point out:

For glue ups on leggy things, I have a couple of big squares of flooring chipboard that can go on the bench or anywhere else.

There's a tool rack behind the tool well - a long slot really. This holds a few chisels in use, a tenon saw, etc. It's the same height as the main surface, so long pieces fron to back rest level on it.

 

[MikeG.]

........ I was nearly 2" taller then than I am now. I'm shrinking......

That's an astonishing height reduction. I am about 8 or 10mm shorter than I was in my 20s. We reduce in height normally due to compression and drying out of discs in the vertebra, but I've never heard of anyone suffering this much shrinkage.

 

[Richard_C]

I wonder if the traditional tool well wasn't more important when multiple people were working in the same shop. "My bench, my tools in my tool well, don't touch".

Most (all?) of us work alone now so shelves, cupboards, side tables and so on are fine. I don't have a tool well and in the 40 years since I built it I don't recall thinking "oh, I wish I had one" but my bench is not aimed at fine detail working, it's general purpose wood, metal, mending space. I do like the idea of well + removable infill piece as a universal solution.

 

[Hand Plane]

I suppose I fall into the heretic class.

The top of my bench is mdf (18mm or 22mm ) thick. (I also sealed it on installation.)

It's nice and flat which is great when examining something on its legs eg chair; and easy to check measurements from a flat base. I do not worry if I spill anything on it; nor in the event should I miss drill or chisel into it, or hammer the daylights out of something which doesn't want to follow instruction! Very easy to sweep or vacuum clean

I have had the same piece in use for nearly 20 years and have rotated it once (horizontal plane) for a clean area; and can in due course flip it over for whole new fresh start. Easy to replace and fit if and when the time comes.

I have a shelf on the far side for tools currently in use. I see no point of a well.

 

[woodbloke66]

I filled my tool well in as well, I found that you couldn't stand something with legs on without at least one going in to the tool well, which was a nightmare on a dry run and even worse for a glue up.

I don't like glue ups clamped on the bench top as it stops you working.

Pete

In most pro' shops that I've been into, the maker usually always has two benches; a cabinet maker's bench for making components and a bigger, flat assembly table for actually putting the thing together. The assembly table also has a largish overhang all round which is very, very useful for cramping stuff to when say, for example, doing a spot of routing.

This is the current 'state of play' with the bench. It was remiss of me to mention that only three items live permanently in the tool well; a pair of mallets (lignum carving one and a small brass jobbie) and my pot of Camilla Oil. In there as of twenty minutes ago are also a pot of Osmo Raw, a jar of white spirit with a brush suspended, a pair of latex gloves and a stirring stick;

Once the lamp has been removed and half of the removable tool well is taken away, I can now easily cramp something from both sides of the bench;

The 'Tool Wall' is directly in front of the bench so when I've finished with a particular tool, it just goes back into it's slot on the wall - Rob

 

[Steve Maskery]

This is where my thought processes have got to.
I'd like my new bench to be a tad wider than my present one, which is 555mm.
I can't afford to make it much longer without having to move the TS, which I don't want to do.
I've thought of another reason for lowering it a bit. It's slightly higher than my TS and it gets in the way for some TS operations.
I use my dog holes a lot and wish I had more of them.
My current vice sits forward of the front edge of the bench. That is great for some things and a PITA for others.
I'd like an apron on the back so I have the choice of working against an apron or clamping to the bench top.
As regards a tool well, I might be able to have my cake and eat it.

If I make the well in 3 or 4 sections, I can mix and match to make a well at one end but not at the other, for example. There would be slopy bits at the ends to facilitate brushing clean, which I've not drawn in. Also a tail vice at the FR end, again, not yet drawn.

 

[colinc]

Steve,

that looks like a good compromise solution.

End vice; not sure what you had in mind, but I made mine in the style of the Benchcrafted one and it works well if perhaps not as heavy duty as theirs. After a bit of head-scratching it proved easy to make with hand tools and no special machining required. The guides are made from HDPE slotted on the router table, the screw is a left hand version of the York/Veritas one http://www.york.cz/en/workbench-spindle ... null&pid=9 ((HV-582 is the LH one) that I could only find stocked in Sweden https://www.hyvlar.se/en of course a right hand thread is ok, you just turn it in the 'wrong' direction.

I added a couple of in progress photos of the vice.

regards

Colin

 

[Steve Maskery]

That looks very nice, Colin, very drool-worthy indeed. I take it the handwheel is extra?
I must admit the one thing I don't like about my Fortune-Nelson tail vice is the way it sticks out, I just can't justify spending many hundreds of pounds on this, which is what would happen if I made my dream version.

 

[colinc]

Hi,

HDPE sheet 300mm x 100mm x 20mm is £18 off ebay for the guides, a bit of 6mm steel flat for the slider, and the vice screw is the parts list so it wasn't outrageously expensive.

The 5" hand wheel was a luxury really as the screw come with a tee fitting for a wooden handle that I took off. The hand wheel I used came from Accu.com but I can't find it listed anymore. Alternatives are available on Ebay and cheap if you don't mind a wait for delivery from China. I did have to drill the handwheel to suit the screw, that was the closest I got to machining metal.

I did think that I should put some metal straps over the plastic guides to reinforce them, but they seem ok as-is.

Obviously this is easiest to install if you build the cut-out and slot in when you laminate the top and harder to retro-fit. Just thought it worth a mention.

I did just look up the Fortune Neilson tail vice and if I got the correct one the parts would be adaptable to make a wagon vice. I guess this is just me showing my preferred style of vice. (Well actually I have many preferred vices, but we don't need to go there).

regards

Colin

 

[AJB Temple]

A tool well is only useful to stop things falling off the back of the bench. This is easily achieved with a quickly demountable backing board.

Both of my benches (one large one smallish) have tool wells and they are a pain to clean out.

I also quite like the Rob Cosman system of having the bench height adjustable by a few inches with a folding foot design. I may well incorporate that in my home build one when I get round to it.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I'm interested in one, not so much for the tool storage itself, but for the ability to get a clamp in there.

I've bought some wood, but when I laid it out and saw it full size I decided it was time to get rid of some of those dog holes. I don't need so many.
So this is the latest iteration.

The wood I have bought is Vs redwood. Pretty decent stuff, good on straight and wind. There are a few knots and some of the faces are pretty ugly, but the edges are not at all bad and, in a couple of cases at least, I can either cut the knots off the ends or cut for a dog-hole in a suitable position.

Colinc has kindly agreed to let me see his bench, so I'm now in a bit of a quandary. I like the idea of a wagon vice, but I can't justify the Benchcrafted price when I have a perfectly serviceable Fortune-Nelson tail vice.

Part of me says, "Steve, you are 62, you've never made any money out of your woodworking hobby, there is no point in spending a shedload of money on something pretty that is not going to earn its keep".

The other part of me says, "Steve, you are 62, if you don't spend you money on your hobby, what are you going to spend it on? You can't take it with you when you go, shrouds don't have pockets."

But I need to decide before I prep the components for the top.

 

[colinc]

Just to add to your dilemma, here are the plans I used:

https://www.fine-tools.com/pdf/roubo-ho ... lan-en.pdf

Colin

 

[Steve Maskery]

Stop it!
This could bankrupt me.
No, I'm going to resist, I'm going to try to built the bestest low-budget bench you ever did see.
I'd still like to come and see yours, mind.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Make sure when you drill your holes the centres match any morticer/drill stand or anything else you might need to bolt down. Kill two birds with one stone. I can bolt my drill stand near the vice so I can swing it out to drill something held in it, and bolt my morticer down as well through existing dog holes.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I'd never thought of that Phil, good point. Both my drill and mortiser are floor-standing, but it's a very good point for anyone with bench-mounted machines.

 

[samhay]

Just to add to your dilemma, here are the plans I used:
https://www.fine-tools.com/pdf/roubo-ho ... lan-en.pdf
Colin

Seeing as you may not have quite settled on a final design:
My much less fancy Nicholson/bench-with-aprons bench is a split top of sorts, with a plane stop that is similar to that in these plans. It has the same slots for tools, etc. I don't use the tool-holding feature much as chisels tend to fall over (better to put them in an empty dog hole) and I have taken to hanging my saws from a dowel that fits in the various holes in the apron.
I do use the plane stop a lot. The gap is wide enough (~2") to take a clamp, but it's main function is as a plane stop or to butt a piece against while mortising, etc. The gap is not in the centre of the top, but rather about 2/3 of the way from the front edge.
It also doubles as a tool well of sorts as I can leave the plane stop sitting proud then put all my carp behind it out of the way. I personally don't see how a tool well would out perform this.

 

[Steve Maskery]

The good thing (well, one of many, I hope) about my design is that if I discover, that I don't really love her, I can replace the tool well with a few more 3x2s and make the whole lot solid again.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I'd never thought of that Phil, good point. Both my drill and mortiser are floor-standing, but it's a very good point for anyone with bench-mounted machines.

I've a Meddings pillar drill, but it's surprising how handy it is to have a decent drill stand that swings out over a 53e. I have an old Bosch S7 which will take a POF 50 router as well which can be useful.

 

[Orraloon]

Stop it!
This could bankrupt me.
No, I'm going to resist, I'm going to try to built the bestest low-budget bench you ever did see.
I'd still like to come and see yours, mind.

A low budget split top is how I did mine. All recycled wood I had scrounged up but even If I had bought construction pine it would still have been quite a reasonable cost. Those benchcrafted and hovitar vices look great but when all said and done they are still only vices.
Regards
John