Compact/portable shop

Re: Compact/portable shop *LINK*

Wiley Horne

>Hi Tom,

This is in the 'any other ideas' category. There is a fellow named Harry Strasil, aka Jr. Strasil, who has made a great deal of portable and/or knockdown workbenches and other fixtures such as shooting boards, thicknessers, sawbenches, sawhorses, and many, many others. All for handtools. His things have to be movable because he goes around giving demonstrations, and has to be able to pack, unpack, set-up, pack again. Jr. Strasil is a world class craftsman when it comes to practical woodworking and toolmaking.

I have attached an example of a portable workbench that he uses. He has posted this on Roger Nixon's 'Traditional Tools' site, under the moniker of 'irnsrgn' (he does smithing in addition to woodworking). He also posts on Saw Mill Creek under the name of Harry Strasil, and recently had a series on making some great sawhorses. I'll go find that link and post it later. This man's stuff works--I have made his thicknesser, for purposes of thicknessing veneer by handplane.

Wiley


Jr. Strasil's portable workbench

Re: Compact/portable shop *LINK*

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Might be a lot cheaper to buy The Workbench Book by Landis, especially if you have a good town library. Also, you can search the book within the Amazon pages, so first look at the Table of Contents, work from there.

Pam


Landis' Workbench Book

Here's the sawhorse tutorial *LINK*

Wiley Horne

>On Saw Mill Creek.

Wiley


Harry Strasil's Saw Horse Tutorial

Re: Here's the sawhorse tutorial

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Yeah, Wiley, Jr's stuff is very interesting, especially his portable shop with all sorts of portable workstations. Plus they're all hand tools, no electricity required. I think he's posted this on Sawmill Creek, maybe here a couple of years ago.

Pam

Re: Compact/portable shop

Joe Piotrowski - Chicago Burb's

>how about renting a self storage unit where you are?

if you have land, build a decent size shed maybe.

I have been doing some home trim work with mainly hand tools. I bought a workmate bench and I am already try to add jigs for it to do specific trim work.

the Landis book mentioned earlier is a great read. it dispels the need to have a 20 x 40 shop to do woodworking. some shops are nothing but a foldout table from a closet. it really can spark some imaginative solutions to where ever you are.

one idea I like is to have a cube truck tricked out for wood working. a possible semi retirement career is to do custom built-ins, trim etc on-site and that is about as portable as you get!

It would be great to see a follow up post when solve you puzzle.

later,

Joe P.

Re: Compact/portable shop

thomd

>If you want a real workbench down the road. Just build the front half, and either scab on more wood or a tool well later. You can build in the face and tail vises on this narrow element, as indeed they geenrally are. You can make a base and either expand it or replace it when you upgrade. More often than not the length of a bench is more easily accomodated than masses of width, so I would start as proposed and add the width later.

Another approach is to concentrate for the time being on a small craft like vilins, or guitars, and just build the required fixtures for that.

Re: Compact/portable shop

Gary Tenney

>Following this thread prompted me to ask a question unrelated to the original post. It is relate to the response a bit though! I am currently undertaking a sculpted rocking chair project following the plans by Hal Taylor and am in the process of ripping the 1/8" laminates for the rockers on my bandsaw, (I do not own a table saw). I want to clean the surfaces prior to glueing them up. There are a lot of them and I do not own a jointer, at least not one with a tail. I was going to use a LN jointer, or even a smaller plane. The thicknesser mntioned in your response sparked interest, but I can't seem to find anything on the web. Do you know of a link, or does anyone have any other suggestions for getting a nice glue finish on these thin and long laminates? Sorry for the long story and not starting a new thread! Thanks in advance!

Gary Tenney

Spare bedroom

jim reed @ tallahassee

>My last shop was downstairs in the mother-in-law suite. I rolled up the carpet in the dining room and put most tools in there. I covered the double entry with plywood paneling to keep the dust down. The kitchen was for overflow project storage and grinding. When I moved, I took down the temporary paneling, vacuumed real good, got a rug guy to fix the carpet ($50) and I was done. There was no permanent damage and the new buyer never knew. Of course this is something you should check with the landlord, but their main concern is damage to the property (pets are more of a problem than a little sawdust).

My next shop was 1/3 of a garage which I shared with a truck and storage boxes. It worked well. The whole point is that you can solve this shop issue with clever planning. Good luck.

Jr. Strasil's Veneer/laminate thicknesser *LINK*

Wiley Horne

>Gary,

I have attached a link. Look at the third post on the linked page, by 'irnsrgn'.

Essentially, you have two opposing wedges, each 3 or 4 feet long, or whatever is the length of the laminate you want to make. As these wedges are moved against each other, their combined height varies. The wedges are placed inside a box channel, whose top edges are rebated to just capture your favorite jointer, which runs along the top, like a train on rails. The work sits on top of the wedge assembly and is under the jointer. I can thickness down to less than 1/16" with no trouble--the jointer holds the work flat--and the variation along the laminate is in the thousandths.

If interested in making this, contact me on or off line and I can go into the details of calibrating this thing.

Wiley


Jr. Strasil's Veneer Laminate Thicknesser

Re: Jr. Strasil's Veneer/laminate thicknesser

Bruce, a MN Galoot

>KISS

This design couldn't be simpler or more ingenious. Thanks for posting this. I've been looking for something like this for a long time.

Bruce

Followup to Gary's issue

Wiley Horne

>Gary,

I wuz just re-reading your post, and there may be a simpler solution for you. Do these 1/8" laminates need to be precision thicknessed? Or are they basically OK right off the bandsaw?

If they're OK for thickness off the bandsaw, then all you're asking is how to plane the sawn side smooth prior to glue lamination. You can plane a 1/8" thick strip against a low stop on a bench with no problem. With almost any hand plane, provided it is sharp.

You would only need the thicknesser if there is too much variation in thickness directly off the band saw.

Wiley

Re: Compact/portable shop

Ernie Miller

>I have had the pleasure of using that bench several times and it is solid. I could see times when it would need to be wider. but for what he does ai demos it works great. You should see some of the hand made tools he has in that box of his. even the box is somthing to see. The two boxes he travils with has more tools than most peoples shops. he carries it all in a little 4'X6' trailer with that bench and another. Several saw hourses, Horses to hold the tool boxes up at a comfortable hight a couple stools for sitting in why he explains what he is doing a shave horse and a little two wheel push cart to get the stuff from the parking lot to where he does his demos. I really like his home made spoon bits. They work like nothing else.

Re: Compact/portable shop

Roger Nixon

>Here is a pic of Jr's shop in the trailer. Believe me, this is a fully equipped woodoworking shop that can be set up in 30-45 minutes. I haven't found a normal woodworking operation that couldn't be done with the tools and fixtures in here.

Re: Compact/portable shop

Ernie Miller

>Sure dosen't look like much when you look at it like that! But when it gets set up there isn't a job that can't be done. About half of the tools are made by him the rest are collectable. and really nice.

Re: Followup to Gary's issue

Gary Tenney

>Wiley,

Thanks for the information. I need only to get a smooth surface for glue-up, but find the thicknesser interesting anyhow. I was just thinking the strips being around 40" long, but only 1/8" thick might try to buckle. I have cut an extra blank and should have plenty material to spare so may just try planing against a stop. I also thought I might be able to use a scraper and hold the strip from behind if it buckles. Anyhow, thanks again for the assistance!

Gary

FWW 160

Jim in Burlington On

>Fine woodworking issue 160 has a nice toolcase on page 98. Neighbor 2 doors down has a 24' trailer that's laid out nicely. He has a portable power setup and has 2 fans in the side door for summer ventilation. Given the ability to buy jointed wood or S4S should make life alot easier.

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/fw_readshow_160.asp

Re: Followup to Gary's issue

Jim Crammond in Monroe Michigan

>Gary,

I've made quite a few Shaker boxes using 1/16" cherry and walnut for the bands. As you mentioned, I just clamp it to the bench and plane away from the clamp. To finish the area where it is clamped, I turn it end for end and plnae against the grain with the plane set very fine. If I still get a little tearout, I plane towards the clamp carefully. Once in a while it will buckle, but that happens mostly when I forget about what I'm doing and get over rambunctious.

Jim

Thanks all

Tom in central PA

>Many good ideas here. I should really have looked at Landis' book again before I posted. The info on Jr. Strasil's workbench and trailer workshop is inspiring. I'm going to follow up by looking for more links to his stuff.

Thank you all.

Tom,

Wiley Horne

>Jr. Strasil is very approachable, and he will tell you how to make all his stuff if you just ask him on Traditional Tools or Saw Mill Creek.

Wiley