If timber alone cost £290 in 2019, I wonder how much that figure would be now?
I would hope so at that price.
I have to admit I looked at that sip bench and couldn't believe it for the money. I bought the Axminster in the end and I love it, but then I'm a hand tool newbie and my opinion means very little. I was just happy to have one less thing to research and build
No, it doesn't. No disrespect to the others who have kindly taken the time to reply, yours is the most relevant / pertinent for me.
Buying that bench was honestly the best decision for me and my woodwork 'journey'... I was in danger of spiralling into an ever increasingly complex web of bench research and design iterations - constantly spinning ideas in my head for the ultimate workbench (which doesn't exist) and going round in circles and never actually achieving anything other than reading more books and coming up with more (compromised) designs. Hint... They are all compromised.
Nowhere near as posh but that's similar to the one I made from glued-up scaffold boards. That had pull-out, cantilevered tables that held tablesaw and an oscillating belt and bobbin sander. I then made a scaled-down version for a thicknesser with a through support table to better support the workpiece and reduce snipe. I was really pleased with how that came out but then had very little use for the thicknesser which was purchased primarily to plane scaffold boards to make benches from!
Spot on. When I set about setting up my first workshop, I found I was spending more time making things for the workshop or modifying purchased items to make them even remotely usable. Case in point was a 'heavy duty workbench' bought off the internet. It comprised of thin folded steel sections for the frame and MDF worktop, shelves and pegboard, complete with pegs that came out of the holes far too easily. Was so badly machined lining up the bolt holes to assemble the frame was much harder than it should have been. Once assembled, one of the 'heavy duty' legs folded as I tried to manoeuvre the bench into position prior to adding the MDF parts. I knocked that back into shape and stiffened it up squar(ish) timber from B&Q and did the same for the other three legs. Replaced the 12mm MDF worktop with 18mm ply, used the 12mm MF in place of the 6mm MDF shelf which in turn was used to create routing templates. Subsequently boxed in the ends with more 18mm ply, used two more pieces to divide the rea between worktop and lower shelf into thirds, adding drawers to these which added to bench's bulk and stability and probably tripling or quadrupling its cost. Didn't bother with the backboard but created a grid from 12mm battens and attached the pegboard to that, cutting some plugs, drilled and glued onto the pegs which were then fed through the back before fitting the whole lot to the wall where it was still hanging when I sold up two years ago.
I have to admit I looked at that sip bench and couldn't believe it for the money. I bought the Axminster in the end and I love it, but then I'm a hand tool newbie and my opinion means very little. I was just happy to have one less thing to research and build
I still fancy building a roubo one day but I first need to earn my stripes and justify the need
My bench does skid a little on my smooth laminate floor if planning hard woods sometimes but you can always brace it against the wall with a simple block of wood at the feet
Martin
That would be fine in a large workshop or one with little else in it but within he limitations of a typical UK sized single-car garage, whether I like to or not, I am constantly shifting things around to either use them or get access to something else that they're in the way of!
