Workbench Design

[billw]

OK so very very much inspired by Dennis from Hooked On Wood, I sketched this up last night. It's not perfect but it's as good as for now. The frame is all 18mm ply, the work surface is 19mm Valchromat. It'll be resting on 72mm castors giving an overall height of 865mm and dimensions of 1200x600.

The 20mm holes are all 100mm apart centre to centre, even round from the top to the front (although why that helps I dunno). I haven't followed the 96mm Festool system because 1) I don't need to 2) it doesn't make much sense to me anyway and 3) this spacing fits the benchtop size perfectly. All the holes on the front are fully accessible, although the second row down only has 18mm of space behind it. To compensate for this there's the grooves for clamps (I've copied how Dennis did his, basically routing what looks like a dovetail shaped groove, I haven't looked at whether t-track is better) so really the only thing you need to put into the front holes are dogs.

As per Dennis, the underside is left open in case anything falls through the bench for easy retrieval. All seems pretty straight forward to build! BAse unit attaches to the top using metal corner brackets.

If anyone wants to have a play around with the SketchUp file, let me know - seems I can't attach .skp files to a post.

 

[billw]

So I've done a bit more work on this, tidying up the dodgy measurements and, I am ashamed to say, making sure components fitted together after I read how you got them to snap into place.

Also, I realised I'd pushed the legs right up against the front panel instead of being central, this meant that it was impossible to fix the top and base together along the back there was no overhang. One of those "how did I not spot that" errors.

Finally I replaced a couple of components because the cutting list add-on was picking them up as being fractionally out in one dimension, so I simply created new ones and took care not to mess too much with them.

It's possible to build this bench's base using just one sheet of plywood with virtually no waste.

 

[Ttrees]

If that bench has no overhang..
Lift the bottom panel I suggest, enough that you can get your feet under it...
Surprising how much you can use your feet for leaverage, but that's a game of how much you might value that, compared to on the other hand of getting a brush underneath,
The main thing being not hitting your toes off of it.

 

[billw]

If that bench has no overhang..
Lift the bottom panel I suggest, enough that you can get your feet under it...
Surprising how much you can use your feet for leaverage, but that's a game of how much you might value that, compared to on the other hand of getting a brush underneath,
The main thing being not hitting your toes off of it.

It's getting castors on it, apologies I have still forgotten to add them to the diagram!!

 

[marcros]

I would be concerned about losing the underneath as storage.

I think that I would probably look at a piece of t track for clamping into and not having so much overhang. I haven't seen Dennis' design (or presumably YouTube?). He probably knows far more than I do.

 

[billw]

I would be concerned about losing the underneath as storage.

I think that I would probably look at a piece of t track for clamping into and not having so much overhang. I haven't seen Dennis' design (or presumably YouTube?). He probably knows far more than I do.

Yeah Dennis just used a router groove but I suspect t-track might be a good alternative. He aso places his bench in the middle of his shop so can access some drawers from the back, I'm planning on using the underside of mine for my offcuts and box and things like my saw tracks. I have plenty of other storage options planned as well, so there won't be any shortage of drawers and cupboards.

 

[billw]

Here's the bench placed alongside my planned router table too.

 

[billw]

Well, last couple of days has been sawdust hell. However every component for the assembly (except the Valchromat) has been cut to width, I'll cut to length after some glueing to make sure that everything is fitting together as planned. I'm doing the legs first, I meant at worst at least then I can rest some ply on them to make a crude temporary bench.

This is the result of all the cutting: -

I ran every component through the bandsaw to skim all similarly sized parts in batches so at least if they're wrong, they'll all similarly wrong. Quite proud that I managed to do all of this making only one error - the very first cut I did with the tracksaw I forgot about kerf and ended up with a 68mm piece instead of a 70mm one. Never made that error again!

Saying that, there's maybe 4 or 5 pieces where I'm not 100% happy, they are maybe a mm or less out (i.e. width is under spec as a gap between the piece and the bandsaw blade was visible) but I suspect some of them will be hidden away and the slight error won't actually make a difference anyway. I have a glut of spare ply to make any replacements if it comes to that.

I made sure every part was marked with both its part number (using a cut list from SketchUp) and the proper final dimensions.

 

[billw]

Oh, and whilst I originally said you can get this out of 1 sheet of ply, it's actually 1.5 as I didn't spot my cutting list had a second page! Still, that's pretty efficient use - waste was well under 10%, and even still a lot of that can go to making things for my cleat wall.

 

[pcb1962]

Here's the bench placed alongside my planned router table too.

If the T-tracks on your router table are for the fence then I think the top needs rotating 90 degrees.

 

[billw]

If the T-tracks on your router table are for the fence then I think the top needs rotating 90 degrees.

It’s effectively a standalone unit but it can be attached to the bench to use as in/out feed in any configuration.

it does look weird on the picture Though yes.

 

[Awac]

I do like bench designs, and sketch up is a wonderful tool. How about dust extraction underneath, with all the holes kind of lends itself?

You reminded me of a pdf I had of a plywood bench, so attached it for you.

 

[DBT85]

Have you tried Avonply for the valchromat bill? They do deliver up to us and charges vary.

It would of course have made more sense if I'd mentioned them before as they do a full cutting service for you too.

Hope you're actually using purple!

 

[billw]

Have you tried Avonply for the valchromat bill? They do deliver up to us and charges vary.

It would of course have made more sense if I'd mentioned them before as they do a full cutting service for you too.

Hope you're actually using purple!

Avonply have been bought out and they're the ones who wanted £125+VAT for delivery

Yes, I am actually using purple - some other units will be blue 'cos Villa.

 

[DBT85]

Oh blimey! When I emailed them they said delivery might be £40!

 

[billw]

Oh blimey! When I emailed them they said delivery might be £40!

Yeah it's annoying because with the cutting service and their low prices I thought I was onto a winner. I can get a van for the day for £30 and fuel will probably be the same again so it might just be a case of going to collect the stuff myself. I can always pop into some timber merchants and stock up on boards whilst I have access to some transport too.

 

[DBT85]

There must be other places. Sheet stuff is a pain at times.

Of course if we were real woodworkers we wouldn't use it at all. Or cleats.

 

[billw]

One of the benefits of this design is that it's quite modular, and the glueing up can be done in sections. So for example the leg section is 3 or 4 pieces thick, so I'm glueing up the middle bits first, then I'll cut them to their exact length before they need to be glued up to a component of a different length or orientation, which themselves will have been glued up and/or sized properly. This should allow for me to ensure that the entire leg section will be absolutely on spec once fully assembled.

The base unit is quite similar, there's three internal sections that can all be assembled individually (I can use my Veritas box clamp for this to help get them all square)and then if they need trimming or adjusting I can do that before attaching all three of them together and wrapping them with the outer pieces and underside.

My "huge" supply of 7 clamps is getting used continuously and pieces left in the house for 24 hours to ensure they've been properly cooked. Eight sections already done and the ninth is in the clamps.

By the end of the weekend I should have most of the leg section done so next week I'll concentrate on the base. Getting this exactly squared and flat will be essential for the work surface dog hole arrangement so a lot of pressure.

I'll start doing some photos when anything interesting occurs!

 

[stimpy]

Love a modular design, though my missus would prefer the purple more than I ! Should look fun certainly, and looks a good design

Out of interest, how much are they charging for a sheet? I assume you are purchasing 19mm?..

 

[billw]

Out of interest, how much are they charging for a sheet? I assume you are purchasing 19mm?..

Avon wanted about £70+VAT for the purple cos they were getting rid of the stock, and yeah 19mm indeed. Usually about £10 more I think?