Need help making current bench hand tool friendly *LINK*
Wendell @ Murphy, TX
>With all the discussion of work benches lately, I am rethinking my plans for my current bench. First the history. I built a workbench from the "weekend workbench" project plans in Woodsmith #66. It is basically a solid core door on top of a frame made from 2x4's (included the link to Woodsmith #66 with bench on the cover). At the time I built the bench, I knew nothing about hand tools and just wanted a decent, fairly cheap work table. My bench has no vises, no bench dog holes , and no apron.
Since I've become more interested in doing things with hand tools, I've found the bench very limiting. I want to replace it with a proper hand tool bench someday, but for right now I would rather learn to use the hand tools I've accumulated. I have a small Record quick release vise that I was planning to use as a tail vise but other than that I've made no real plans on how to make the bench more hand tool compatible. What do y'all think the best and most economical way to make this bench more useful for hand tools is?
Re: Need help making current bench hand tool frien
Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia
>This is a perfect opportunity to experiment with what you will end up needing. Drill some dog holes. 3/4" for hold downs. Mount a vise with features you admire. If it has a dog, drill a line of dog holes to avail yourself of the vise dog. Try the new features out. At this point the accessories cost will be minor and you can retain or upgrade in the future. Later you can use the bench to build a more focused bench with nicer materials.
At least you will have a bench to build a bench...a huge advantage over a workmutt.JR
Re: Need help making current bench hand tool friendly *LINK*
>My bench is a solid core door, too, on top of a plywood box divided into cubbyholes by vertical dividers and adustable shelves. The plywood box would not have been stiff enough on its own, but since my shop is small and the bench is necessarily against the wall, it's screwed to a 2x4 lag-screwed to the studs, so it's plenty rigid.
I have a Record quick-release vise for a tail vise [mounted on the end, acting against the length of the bench; used both to push against bench dogs and to clamp short stock that I want sticking out toward me for working, like tool handles] and a row of 3/4" holes for LV round bench dogs marching down its length; and a face vise [mounted on the front and used mainly to clamp boards] at the opposite end. I've been experimenting some with the face vise, and have learned what generations of workers before me figured out long since, which is that boards touching the edge of the benchtop (even a thin benchtop like a solid-core door) vibrate less as they're being worked. You accomplish this by attaching the face vise so its back jaw is flush with the front of the benchtop. My current face vise does not have this, and I don't like it. Note that here, as elsewhere, there are differences of opinion, and some people prefer to have the back jaw sticking out from the front some.
For long boards, you need something to hold up the end not in the vise. I've been clamping a short length of 1x2 in the tail vise, sticking out the front, to achieve this; I want to make a freestanding post with adjustable-height block on it, but have been lacking round tuits.
When you're working the surface of stock and holding it between vise and bench dog, you want as much of the stock on the bench as possible. If you're going to use the Record or some other vise as a tail vise and if you're going to get LV round bench dogs or make your own from dowels, I have a couple of recommendations: 1) drill lots of holes (4" apart is not too many), including some close to the vise, and 2) get at least one bench pup (shorter than the bench dogs) that will fit in the holes close to the vise, where a bench dog that goes past the thickness of the benchtop would hit the vise mechanism. I cannot believe how many boards I find myself working that are too short for the first dog past the end of the vise works, so I wind up kluging it with little bits of wood to make it work. I found some plastic bench dogs from a Workmate at a garage sale that fit into 3/4" holes, and these, though not as pretty as the LV dogs, have been helpful for these short boards.
This was fairly quick to set up, and it's been a fairly effective hand tool bench. I built it when my sons were still at home, and I figured I needed a bench to which I wouldn't be too attached, with the plan being to build a better one after they'd moved out (tool-using children are hard on the immediate environment). I have no idea if I'll ever build the Ultimate Bench - solid maple top 4" thick, a leg structure that would cause bridge engineers to fall to their knees in awe, and so on - in fact, I'm storing a prettier solid-core door in the barn for the next iteration of this bench, after I get done tearing this one up with some of the vise-and-fixture experiments I want to conduct, and may find that this is quite enough to get me through the rest of my productive years.
Re: Need help making current bench hand tool friendly *LINK*
Re: Need help making current bench hand tool frien *LINK*
Alan Bierbaum
>I understand your thought process and what you are going though. I did the same thing for over 20 years (that is when I had the room for a real bench). After finally building my bench; I wish that I had done it 20 years ago.
My advice is to make your bench usable for building a "real" bench. If you can not afford a maple (or equal) top; use carefully selected 2x4 (and replace the top later). The difference between having a "real" bench and what you now have is hard to believe until you experience the difference.
How you use the bench will determine some of the features. I have a small shop; so the height was "fixed" to match other tools. I could not get the length that I wanted (9') so settled for 7' with the ability to clamp 7 1/2' with the tail vise. I decided that I did need (want) a tool tray. Since I build furniture and cabinetry; I needed enough depth to work on larger pieces. I settled on 35" deep (without face vice). I ended up with 84l x 35d x 35 1/2 h not counting vices. I have since added some drawers under the bench to store misc junk.
Having used "regular" vices; I decided that I needed both a tail vice and a face vise. You can use a commercial vice (with a dog) in place of a tail vice. I don't believe anything will replace a real face vice. It will hold almost anything that you can get between the jaws and does not have any kind of hardware in the opening to limit its' use. A leg vise does work but either has hardware to limit vertical depth of work or sticks up over the bench top (limiting use of the top surface).
Sit down with the Landis Workbench book (the one that Adam does not like) and try to figure out what you want to do and which bench will best fit that need. Then build it out of what you can afford to use. Treat the bench as a major project that you will use for many years and, I believe, you will be glad that you built it.
This is a major project. It needs to meet your needs (not mine). What I did works for me; it may not work for you. The build process is shown at the link below; the thought process was not documented.
Re: Need help making current bench hand tool frien
paul womack
>Any bench designed purely for week-end DIY use with power tools is too weak for handtool use.
Stock planing and morticing generate far higher forces than power tools (e.g. sabre saws and routers).
Brace the frame, either with diagonal bracing, or just some "laminated sheet material" glued over. Either solution will eliminate racking under heavy usage. In a non-braced design that moves even 1/32" under racking, the joints will eventually fail completely.
Other than that, just add work holding solutions. The only workholding that's truly hard to retro-fit is a built in tail vise. All the others are (more or less) simple add ons.
You have a golden opportunkity to experiment before specifying, designing and building your dream bench, a few years from now :-)