Thread: Birth of a bench

Looks terrific, almost too good to use as a workbench.

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

Looks terrific, almost too good to use as a workbench.

Stunning effort. I would be too afraid of marking it with my hacking around......

Hafgan

I'd say you made a couple of obvious mistakes
and had better start again and redo the whole project.

out of the kindness of my heart I'll take this one off your hands


PS good lookin bench and appears to be pretty solid
Did you laminate the legs as well?

Ian,
A good looking practical bench. Will last a few lifetimes by the look of it.
The only thing I would change is the engineers vice. It will be in the way if you have long boards to work on. I had this problem so I mounted the metalwork vice on an old bit of kitchen worktop. The few times I use the metal vice I clamp the thing to the bench with F clamps. Rest if the time it lives under the bench. Helps keep the filings,oil and other gunk off the bench too.

Regards
John

Increeeedibly nice bench, a real looker . I am just damn jealous as usual when someone has both that kind of bench and enough space for it .

About engineer's vise I'd say the same as orraloon. I wonder if something like 30 cm x 30 cm and 30mm thick plate would do, unless you do some tougher bending of metals in it, or angle grinding or such. In those cases some other designated desk or stand for the engineer's vise would be more favourable, I think.

(damn nice bench...)

kippis,

Samu

Thank you all for your comments - Yeah I know it looks like a dining table but it's only a bit of linseed oil and it won't stop me from using it as it was intended. It was a good learning experience for a couple of techniques I had never tried before and my rationale was that if I stuffed them up well it didn't really matter - as it turned out I got them pretty right so the end result is quite nice. Gives me confidence for when it does matter

Sawdust - no I didn't laminate the legs. The mob I bought the timber from - Fineline in Ewing Road - only had that laminated stuff as their answer to 100mm x 100mm - I rather like it and it sure as hell won't change shape.

Sumu, Orraloon - I take your point about that big Dawn. It was freebie from a mate about 30 years ago who worked in an engineering place - waaaaay to big for most of my needs - but ..gift horse and all of that. It is almost 3 meters away from the other end of the bench, so long stuff would have to really long before its a problem and I don't do that much metal work. Anyway and it's too bloody heavy to be moving about so it stays right where it is - for now anyway- besides it adds another 20-30 KG to weight of the bench - don't want the bench moving about ya know

Regards

Ian

Nice bench Ian, that metal vice make up a little platform for it to bolt too which in turn clamps into the wood vice.

Gotta love a good bench.

Ian,
If it is not in the way then leave it as is.
And again an impressive bench.

Regards
John

Good result Ian, well done!

If you're like me you'll find a few uses for the engineers vice, nice gift that How did you mount the wood vice in the end?

Kman,
4 x 10mm x 60mm coach bolts pre-drilled to tap size of 8mm. They seem to nip up quite firmly so I'm hoping it'll be enough

Ian

Looks good, are you going to build in some cabinets? I have an old Dawn Offset Engineers vice on a seperate bench. Work was throwing it out, but I 'rescued"it Totally overkill for my humble cave, but it now does sterling service when I need it too.

Pat,
More likely a set of drawers in the left hand side - I need a spot for all the fiddly bits. That's the plan anyway. The centre stretcher in the right hand half is just right for sitting on a stool and resting my feet on it.

Ian

Congratulations on the arrival Ian.

Pretty sweet looking bench

woodcutta