Workbench re-do, not done, but close enough 1of 6
Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native, Presently Away
>Well, as many of you know I've been busy for the past week or so redoing my workbench. I had just built this one not to long ago, but for some reason there was something about it that just didn't suit me, but I couldn't put my finger on just what it was. After reading the article by Chris Schwarz in the June's issue of Popular Woodworking about the 10 Rules of workbenches I realized what it was---it was too wide! I had the top 6' long and 3' wide, which according to Chris they cannot be too long, but the width is quite important, and in most cases DO NOT need to be more than 24" wide. Well, the problem with this is that I had seen several narrower benchtops--Hank Knights, Mike Fitterlings, and Jim Reeds, and I always felt that they looked to be to narrow which I didn't care for. I had asked all three of the guys how they liked their "narrow" benchtops, and all three said they really liked it. Well, I finally decided to bite the bullet and try a narrow benchtop on for size, so I cut my 36" one down to 22.5". Coarse, nothing is as easy as it sounds, or goes as quickly as we all imagine it will, but after 7 days of working on it I finally finished it this evening. Well o.k., not quite finished, I still have to flatten the top again, and put a finish on it, but for all pratical intents and purposes it is finished.
One of the things I wanted to change was how my board jack fitted onto the bench. I orginally had it with a slot in the underside of the benchtop itself for the top to slide in, and a "foot" made up of a 2x4 sawed in half lengthwise sandwithched between two full width ones for the bottom of the board jack to ride in. I didn't like that foot as it had the apperance of just being stuck on as an afterthought, and I didn't like that. What I wanted was for the board jack to be integral to the base itself, and during the re-do process I went thru several design changes, and ringy-dingy-do I came up with a design that accomplishes just that.
If you look in the first picture at the bottom rear of the base you'll see the end of the foot sticking out, well that's all gone now. :~)
I did loose one row of dogholes by making the top narrower, and wouldn't you just know, the row of holes on the fron't side of the bench fell in line with the frame of the base, so I had to bore thru the 2x4 so my holdfasts would slide thru. I was concerned that with such a deep hole--5", that the holdfasts wouldn't grip, but they do, so that worked out alright. I also removed one 2x4 from the fron;t of the bench so that the wagon vise would be closer to the edge, and thusly easier and more comfortable to use. I'm glad I did that, and now I don't have to lean so far over the top to use that vise.
Also, you'll see two corners of the board jack itself are clipped, that is so I can tilt it a little when either putting it in or taking out.
I'm glad that I made the top narrower, during the rebuild I had occasion to clamp some stuff to the top for sawing and planing, and it was so nice to be able to get clamps on both ends of the wood, and it was easy to put a clamp on the backside as all I had to was reach over the top, which I couldn't do when it was 36" wide.
I hope the pics I took of the board jack, and how it slides within the base are clear enough to be self-explaining, but if not feel free to ask for more pics and info as I'd be happy to comply.
First pic is the bench before the re-do
T.O.
