no bull workbench

All you need to do is...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond, CA


>Fall a tree into your shop and flatten a few feet (meters) of it.

Now that's rustic...

Ahhhh... I'm no help here, but think timber-framing and thick wood.

Make sure your wood is use to your shops enviorment before you start doing damage!

Show us (me) pics!

Your's could be the... The next world's ulgyist bench! With your judges, Adam, Todd and ...

Re: no bull workbench

Thom D


>Don't remember it myself, but fine woodworking had an excellent bench article in issue 139, Called Versatile Workbench. Many people responded to the simple all constrution grade materials, the handsome practical look, and the exceptional use of clamps for holding materials.

The fall'05 issue of Woodworking had a good article on a constrution grade Roubo bench, lots on their site about that.

If you have the Woodwork issue witht he Seth Janofsky profile, he had an interesting 2x4 type bench with vice. He's a really good woodworker so one can have confidence that some amzing stuff comes from his bench.

In fact any bench design, pretty much, can be addapted to 2x lumber just use enough of it for the bench to be solid, and consider the fact that boxed core wood has to be carefully sellected and used in any furniture project.

Re: no bull workbench

Bob Hutchins in central Texas


>Howdy Les!

Some time back there was a site up about making a workbench from dimension construction grade lumber. IIRC, it was a father son team effort called "Dave and Bob's Excellent Workbench" (or somethin' close). I tried googling and got no hit, but maybe somebody knows of a wayback machine that can get you to it. It was a good bench and very good howto.

HTH,

BobH

Re: no bull workbench

Steve Wargo


>http://www.plansnow.com/wwrkbnch.html

Here's one, You can substitute the Solid core door with MDF. I built my monster of MDF and have images, PM if interested.

P.S. the Inca runs great. Thanks, and hope this helps.

Re: no bull workbench

Pete Ducklow


>I think you're thinking of Bob Key's workbench site. It's been down for a while now, but here is a link to it. Not all the pictures will load.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030604183706/terraclavis.com/bws/benches.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20030608143752/www.terraclavis.com/bws/newbenchpics.htm

I am currently building a bench based on these, some modifications, but I'm just using basic Borg lumber like Bob's simple bench

Re: no bull workbench  *LINK*

Kevin F, New Zealand



Good Fast and Cheap Bench

Re: no bull workbench

les winter


>Thankyou, everybody

Les

here is another link of construction site discards

V Parisian


>enjoy

http://www.loup-garou.net/workbench

Victor - what? Spring has returned to Houston!! :>)

Re: no bull workbench

Matti Kuikka, Porvoo Fi


>Mine is modified from Bob Keys original and has been in use for ~5 years now. Photo is from the time when it was new; now it is like in thread about ugly benches below. I have some more photos of it's construction, if You want, that I can e-mail

Matti

Better photos (no affiliation except customer)  *LINK*

Matti Kuikka, Porvoo Fi



http://www.fine-tools.com/G10015.htm

Re: no bull workbench...OLD AW

Joe Hurst


>Les-

I think you're referring to a story that David Sloan wrote for AW in the B.E. days (Before Ellis).

It's certainly a good starter bench, but there are other ones out there. PopWood featured an equally nice one a year or so ago.

If you're really interested, drop me an email and I'll see if I can convert it into a PDF for you. I'll warn you though, how-to articles have progressed quite a ways over the years. You might prefer working from a more up-to-date story.

-Joe

Plywood workbench *LINK*

Basil Biberdorf


>A recent issue of Fine Woodworking has an article on building a bench from plywood and MDF. (2.5 sheets of 3/4-inch sanded plywood, and 1 sheet of 3/4-inch MDF). I converted the first page of the article (downloadable from Fine Woodworking, see link below) to a JPG, so you can see what it looks like.

I'm building it now. Total materials cost, including the drywall screws and glue but not the vise, is around $125 for me, using plywood I bought at the local Home Depot. That's more than using dimensional lumber, I suspect, but this also feels a lot more robust. Plus, getting straight 2x4s is a challenge these days.

As a beginner myself, I appreciate the fact that this bench requires no complex joinery. Instead, the mortises/tenons are constructed by laminating plywood sheets together. Set the tablesaw fence once, and start ripping. The result is VERY sturdy, and doesn't look bad, either. The use of MDF gives a nice flat top, also.

For $5 you can get a one month subscription to FineWoodworking.com and get the plan, along with a lot of others.




Plywood Bench article at Fine Woodworking

Re: Plywood workbench

Basil Biberdorf


>Btw, that should be "deck screws," not "drywall screws" above.

Re: thanks everyone. regards, Les

les winter

Re: Plywood workbench

Thom D


>Broadly speaking that bench looks underbuilt on the top and overbuilt in the legs. My crap looking bench has Imai legs (just a stadard detail I imagine) They are made of 2x2 with braces and are rock solid. conversely I wouldn't want to start wailing on a top that was made of 1.5 inches of ply. I mean you can support a second story on 4x4 with a 9 foot spacing in our code, about what is in those legs on a narrower spacing. No harm is a sturdy base but the top needs to be really rugged.

Re: Plywood workbench

Deirdre Saoirse Moen


>Yet Another Article That Has No Business Being in a Magazine Titled "Fine Woodworking"

While that might work for a sanding platform or a glue-up table, it isn't designed to be a traditional hand-tool bench.

Re: no bull workbench

Basil Biberdorf


>Is this the one you're thinking of, the "New-Fangled Workbench"?

Re: Plywood workbench

Basil Biberdorf


>Thom, I've never had a proper woodworking bench before, so I disclose my ignorance as to the finer points of bench construction up front.

However, the bench as given in the article calls for 3/4" MDF on top of 3/4" plywood for the top. It would seem straightforward to add another layer or two if it were called for. That aside, the top of the "New-fangled bench", which I think you're referring to above, is built out of glued up sections of 2x6 or 2x10 material, which would make it about 1.5 inches thick. I'm not 100% sure, but it seems that the plywood/MDF combination, supported by the heavy legs and aprons on the plywood design, would have a strength and rigidity on par with the new-fangled one.

I still have time to make adjustments in the top, so I'm very receptive to hearing about straightforward, low-cost alternatives. I don't have a lot of extra money (pastor of a mission parish, family of 5), so the plywood design held a lot of appeal in that regard.

Re: no bull workbench

Thom D


>That's the one from the FWW 139, and maybe one of the shop issues.

It's just a bench but it uses two pipe clamps to hold a board level with the bench hook. 2 pipe clamps for a 2 screw vice, and 2 pipe clamps for a sorta tail vise drop in vise. Quite a few people seemed to talk about building one at the time, I wonder what that experience was like?

It does look a little lightweight, and as though the alignment of 2x4s would be prone to warping. In some areas the 2x4 stock is good in others it's pretty vine like. Where I am from they are almost all have boxed core, framers love the species because it is light and strong, but it isn't doug fir or yellow pine when it comes to benches. This is the kind of thing one can easily deal with when substituting local wood.

Re: Plywood workbench

Thom D


>If you have ever made a shelf out of wood, plywood, or MDF, the kind of shelf that is supported with a significant unsuported span (no cleats on the wall or face frames, then you know that:

a) as a spar, wood is excellent because it has continuous linear fiber throughout the board (if straight grained, and good quality), your books are least likely to bow this shelf;

B) plywood is wonderful as an "element" a panel supported on all sides, but works OK as a spar because it has linear fiber on both faces;

C) MDF is sawdust, glued together under pressure, and is a core material (or for low stress applications) where the skins take the loads and the MDF is only under compresion. MDF is nasty stuff and not cheap in my neck of the woods, but if you wanted 3 or 4 layers of sheet, an MDF core betwen plywood skins would put the MDF in it's element.

That may be more confusing than a help. but what would be instantly obvious whould be if you used little 6x24" inch pieces of each material over abuttments made of 2x4s laid flat on the ground. stand on the board, the ply, and the MBF, and the structural differences are instantly obvious.

My favorite cheap top is a stress panel of plywood. Get some real plywood with a solid core and nice thick veneers, or even the HD paint grade Maple with D-Fir veneers, and rip it to the width you want at the HD saw. Get some thinner pieces 2-3 inches wide and use these as bulkheads every foot nail and glue the thing together and you will have a light, stiff, and flat worktop. I like to place a bulkhead a few pieces wide in a place where it will go over a leg to give me a good strong surface to mortice on, though the whole top is very tough.

You only need a bit of this stuff in a bench, if you want gaps for pipe clamps or tool troughs, go for it. You need an absolutely flat planing and mortising beam along the front. If you want dogs you may need solid core.

Basically a bench is just a post and beam constrution, a few solid posts (they can be dug into a floor removing the need for any stretchers, if you work outside or over an earth floor), and a really solid beam. The way the weather has been playing up recently getting free wood from fallen trees is almost a public service. So after you have a 2x4 bench, see if you can find some big slabs to put aside, in a few years you will have all the wood you need to build a really beautiful bench. It's called "lumber" because it's a pain in someone's life, so it can be free for you.