Workbench tooltray necessity aka structual solution

[tnimble]

Why do traditional workbenches have a tooltray? A necessary feature to have in able to be able to work with your tools? Or is it perhaps a solution for a cross grain joint that has the advantage of having a place to store your hand tools when they are shortly not used?

This question came up while working on a workbench design. My current workbench has a large rack shelf below, very handy to store a few items. Or what is more likely to be a pile of lots of junk of which you don't now what is in there. Or of which you know must be there but somehow the precise location keeps eluding you. No matter how hard and long you search. But what bothers me even more is that along with tiny corners and space behind heavy kit it is the favourite hide out of dust. Thus spend less effective time in the shop due to the eviction notices you have to write out.

I do not have a real desire to have a tooltray so I designed the new workbench without one. While drawing the aprons and caps I realized that the movement of the worktop was all from the front of the bench to the back. The caps are dovetailed into the apron and 'breadboard' to the top. The end of the caps cannot be fixed to the back of the top. It is a cross grain joint. The top must be able to slide along the caps.

When I add a tooltray to the bench the caps can be fixed to the back of the top. The tooltray will act as the panel in a frame and panel door. When the moisture level rises the workbench top tightens up against the tooltray's bottom, the space of the groove joints will reduce. When the moisture levels drop the tooltray loosens up in the top.

Will I stuck to a tooltray less workbench with cpas that will allow for the top to move? Or will I fit a small tooltray with a removable bottom? Or something else?

 

[MooreToolsPlease]

That's a mighty fine workbench you have designed. I've often wondered about the usefulness of a tool tray in a bench top.
I've always been concerned that the tool you need will always be underneath the work you are attempting to do.
Normally for me the tools are at the side of the bench so I always know where they are. But even then more often or not I have to move them to manouver the work. I'm looking at designing a rolling cart similar to a mechanics so that none of the tools will ever be on my bench.
I can't help with the question on workbench movement, as my bench top is a 10' x 4' sheet of inch mdf, even that isn't big enough most of the time though :lol:

 

[manso]

My workbench an "Emir" cabinetmakers with a tool tray, is set against the wall in my very small basement workshop. It also has a slot at the back along its length, I believe primarily for chisels.
I tend to use neither.
Since I'm a pretty messy worker I screwed a piece of MDF (v.approx 200mmX1000mm) to the wall behind the bench and studded it with rare earth magnets - round, supplied with a hole through, which are simply screwed through the holes into the MDF. I also attached what looks like a giant magnetic knife rack to the MDF which I made by sandwiching a number of rare earth bar magnets between two pieces of 4mm mild steel 1000mm long.
The round magnets easily hold up 1kg, the knife rack more than 3kg. While I use it to hang a range of tools while I'm using them, its real benefit is for small items e.g. drill bits, screws, scribers etc., - just the sort of things that vanish. It makes tidying up a breeze.
Hope this helps,
Regards

 

[BradNaylor]

I agree totally about tool trays or wells.

My workbench is one I 'liberated' from a school many years ago which was closing down its woodwork department . Older members will remember the type - a vice on each side and a deep tool well in the middle. A piece of 1/2" ply screwed to the top and replaced once a year makes it far more useful IMHO.

There again, I hardly ever use a hand tool! :lol:

Cheers
Dan

 

[momo]

Hah! the last and erm only bench I ever made as one of them Dan, mainly as I could only get hold of two big bits of timber for the top and I remember that kind from my course when younger.

 

[Smudger]

I agree totally about tool trays or wells.

My workbench is one I 'liberated' from a school many years ago which was closing down its woodwork department . Older members will remember the type - a vice on each side and a deep tool well in the middle. A piece of 1/2" ply screwed to the top and replaced once a year makes it far more useful IMHO.

There again, I hardly ever use a hand tool! :lol:

Cheers
Dan

We've still got them! I have tried to request one as a retirement present, but no go! They are too useful.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree totally about tool trays or wells.

My workbench is one I 'liberated' from a school many years ago which was closing down its woodwork department . Older members will remember the type - a vice on each side and a deep tool well in the middle. A piece of 1/2" ply screwed to the top and replaced once a year makes it far more useful IMHO.

There again, I hardly ever use a hand tool! :lol:

Cheers
Dan

I bought two of those recently, made by emir (School Woodwork Dept were getting new ones ). They really brought back some memories. Times seemed to have changed though as I wouldn't have dared to write the stuff that I found written on them. :shock:
Anyway the two have become one , minus tool trays.
So..... just how many nails do you think schoolkids can hammer into a bench?
Rather a lot it seems, as I discovered when I started sanding them. :shock:

 

[Smudger]

How can they not realise that they have sawed through the work and the bench hook and are now starting on the bench?

 

[woodbloke]

If you make your own bench it's worth making the tool tray removable:

...which means that you can cramp stuff to the top of the bench from the rear, an idea that I pinched of Mr C. In the shot you can also see the additional top rear rail draw bolted in place which also goes a long way to prevent 'racking' - Rob

 

[momo]

How can they not realise that they have sawed through the work and the bench hook and are now starting on the bench?

You really must meet momo then :lol: , its my kind of thing.

 

[Anonymous]

How can they not realise that they have sawed through the work and the bench hook and are now starting on the bench?

:lol: :lol:

Yes I did find evidence of the odd (hundred) sawing 'mishap'.

 

[Smudger]

One of my colleagues in the Art Department snaffled an old woodwork bench about 15 years ago and for that time it has been used in his art room for general painting and gluing stuff, random stabbing with craft knives and all the things kids do to overcome boredom. So quite apart from the scars of generations of hopeful chippies it now has the paint, glue and general abuse of a generation of axe-wielding Jackson Pollocks. It looks quite organic, rounded off at the corners and multicoloured.

 

[OPJ]

Times seemed to have changed though as I wouldn't have dared to write the stuff that I found written on them. :shock:
Anyway the two have become one , minus tool trays.
So..... just how many nails do you think schoolkids can hammer into a bench?
Rather a lot it seems, as I discovered when I started sanding them. :shock:

One guy in my class at college recently ended up with a "pozi-print" in one of the sides of his dovetailed cabinet, because some little so-and-so had clearly gone out of their own way to open the vice all the way and somehow drive a pozi screw all the way! :shock:

When I did my carpentry and joinery, it was common to the find the corners saw of the jaws of the vice or where people had used the nail heads to spell out their own names! :roll:

And then there are the chisels with "teeth marks"...

 

[Anonymous]

And then there are the chisels with "teeth marks"...

:shock:

 

[andyavast]

I'm currently undertaking an apprenticeship in Joinery and Carpentry and i am constantly surprised at the inventive (read 'brutal') ways my fellow students use the facilities at college. Ever seen the corner of a chisel being used as a nail set? That is just an example of the horrors inflicted by the very people who will one day be building our homes... what a thought. :shock:

 

[IanW]

tnimble,
Most of the replies seem to have got lost in reminiscences :lol: , so I'll stick in my 2p-worth.

I think your own answer to the question is the correct one. The tool-well makes a virtue of necessity & allows expansion & contraction of that not-inconsiderable chunk of wood forming the top, when end caps are fitted in the 'standard' way. I've seen a couple of benches made without it, which seemed to be holding up, against intuition, but I reckon they will probably crack out the rear rail in time, assuming it is fitted with the typical couple of half-lapped dovetails from the back.

I agree tool-wells can be a receptacle for endless junk - mine accumulates all sorts of bits & bobs, mostly things for for which I just don't have a convenient filing spot. I tried to short-circuit that by making some small underbench cabinets, but they quickly became the home of tools that overflowed from the main tool cabinet beside the bench. However, my tool well is very handy on occasions, & does catch the things that would otherwise roll or be pushed off the back (which often ends in their being temporarily lost in the junk, of course :roll: .

I manage to clamp things from the back of my bench, when necessary, despite having a fixed bottom in my tool well, though I can see Woodbloke's removeable bottom could be a handy feature in some cases. At least the toolwell would get a clean out once in a while. Though on second look, WB has cunningly made a split bottom so he can just sweep the junk into one end & take out the necessary bit. :wink:

Cheers,
Ian

 

[tnimble]

Thanks WB and Ian for your replys. (and the others, always fun to read one's reminiscences)

I tend more and more to have a narrow tool-well in to bench with a removable bottom. Having the bottom removable can be very handy to clamp wide things with big pressure, like when veneering a project.

So far I have this in mind:

The bottom of the tool-well consists of three removable boards that rest on a ridge along the back rail and the top.

The dovetails that hold the caps, front apron and back rail together are still oriented to allow for movement of the top (when not glued). With the added tool-well the dovetails of at least the back rack can have their pin and tail side swapped around.

I like the design with the trough dovetails. When swapping the pin and tail of the front apron it's perhaps nicer to make them half blind.

Altough
slim lines from the dovetails in the front apron may be very attractive, especially when inlaying the dovetail with for instance some jatoba.