Wanlock Dod
Established Member
Hello All,
I've been thinking for quite some time about building a workbench, and feel that now is probably the time to do it. No doubt spurred on somewhat by Lord Nibbo's fine, fine construction recently. So here I am to try to clarify a few thoughts that I've had and hear what suggestions might be forthcoming.
The bench will need to have both a face vice and a tail vice, although it's the tail vice (and its associated dog holes) that has caused me the most concern. It is almost certainly to be constructed largely from softwood, although I wondered whether or not softwood would hold up for the vices and dog hole strip. I am therefore pondering the possibility of using some hardwood for the front section of the bench top (i.e. dog holes and vices). Beech would seem to be the obvious choice, presumably this is down to its crushing strength/impact resistance. I'm not sure if I will be able to find beech of adequate thickness (I'm anticipating using 2 inch thick material) locally and wondered if anyone has any suggestions of other suitable timbers?
As far as construction of the tail vice is concerned I'm quite undecided. I haven't been able to find any "mechanisms" for sale here, although I did find one for sale in Germany here which looks as though it would cost about 70 notes to get hold of. The advantage over just buying a screw thread and making the rest of the apparatus from wood is that the construction is likely to be so much easier. The screw thread option would certainly be cheaper, but what if it never gets made..... I also wondered if an all wooden sliding mechanism might be subject to variable tollerances over the year, wobbly in the summer and sticky in the winter. Can anybody tell me if this is really an issue, or indeed if an all wooden mechanism (no, not the screw thread itself) is indeed all that much more difficult to construct?
Looking forward to hearing any thoughts you may have on the issue.
Cheers,
Dod
I've been thinking for quite some time about building a workbench, and feel that now is probably the time to do it. No doubt spurred on somewhat by Lord Nibbo's fine, fine construction recently. So here I am to try to clarify a few thoughts that I've had and hear what suggestions might be forthcoming.
The bench will need to have both a face vice and a tail vice, although it's the tail vice (and its associated dog holes) that has caused me the most concern. It is almost certainly to be constructed largely from softwood, although I wondered whether or not softwood would hold up for the vices and dog hole strip. I am therefore pondering the possibility of using some hardwood for the front section of the bench top (i.e. dog holes and vices). Beech would seem to be the obvious choice, presumably this is down to its crushing strength/impact resistance. I'm not sure if I will be able to find beech of adequate thickness (I'm anticipating using 2 inch thick material) locally and wondered if anyone has any suggestions of other suitable timbers?
As far as construction of the tail vice is concerned I'm quite undecided. I haven't been able to find any "mechanisms" for sale here, although I did find one for sale in Germany here which looks as though it would cost about 70 notes to get hold of. The advantage over just buying a screw thread and making the rest of the apparatus from wood is that the construction is likely to be so much easier. The screw thread option would certainly be cheaper, but what if it never gets made..... I also wondered if an all wooden sliding mechanism might be subject to variable tollerances over the year, wobbly in the summer and sticky in the winter. Can anybody tell me if this is really an issue, or indeed if an all wooden mechanism (no, not the screw thread itself) is indeed all that much more difficult to construct?
Looking forward to hearing any thoughts you may have on the issue.
Cheers,
Dod
