Thread: Geez I Love Old School Engineering design.

I was thinking of making a bench to similar dimensions of your bench Ian. That would fit neatly into a corner of my garage. cutting the piece in half and doubling up the thickness may be a solution, so long as I can guarantee they are flat. I don't have the skills to hand plane such a large area or a thicknesser big enough. Or I just may sell it.

Here is how I use my hold fasts. I wouldn't have to do this if I had a tail vice.

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TT

TT, I was thinking about a full-sized bench, so let me retract a little - 32mm shouldn't be terribly bouncy over a short span. You only need to glue strips where you want to drill for dogs or holdfasts, and so if you cut a strip off the second half of the piece you have, that would give you 64mm which is plenty for dog holes & probably heaps for holdfast holes, too, though not being much of a h.f. user, don't take my word on that!

I'm a very strong advocate of using what you have & making it work, if you possibly can. I reckon you could build a pretty decent little bench starting with your find. Since it wouldn't be as heavy as my top, I would recommend you put plenty of beef into the undercarriage, though...
Cheers,