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sumu
7th December 2007, 11:08 AM
Hello,

I have never had so called classic workbench with tail vises/end vises and all. I have dreamed about it but now when I would have money to buy or make it, I have no space for it.

I do woodworking in a storage room. There is only 5mē for my woodworking stuff, the rest of the 11 mē space is reserved to store our things, bikes and such.

Although I had a real workbench there, I think it really would not provide me any more freedom. My bench has to be more versatile. I must be able to sink my router, circular saw, sander and dust grid, each of those in the same hole, one at the time. For the benchtop, sometimes I need cavities, sometimes it has to be flat. I work with our bicycles and garden engines there. I have numerous cutting boards made of different materials, wooden for chiselling, stone and glass for truing and sharpening, metals for soldering and hot work. Plastics for gluing and damping thwacking. Rubbers and foams for working with delicate stuff.

I have there no space for vise handles, I would hurt myself there with those. That's why I had to develop something simple to hold my workpiece. I do not know, there may be more simple ways for this, but not that many I'd believe.

In the first pic there is the stopper. It is a piece of plywood held with two Bessey clamps.

In the second pic there is tail piece and tightening wedge. Tailpiece is attached with a single screw having smooth section near the head. It is tightened, but the piece of plywood rotates.

You put the stopper for the workpiece so that there leaves space for the tightening wedge. You tap it in lightly, and that's it. Compression friction keeps it there, and if set that way (wedge in from your side), you can work the workpiece from any direction from your side of the piece. Only more permanent what you need to make is a smallish hole in the tabletop.

kippis,

sumu

munruben
7th December 2007, 11:51 AM
Simple but effective

echnidna
7th December 2007, 12:45 PM
Sumu,
that's a good workshop practise



Simple but effective

Cheers, John
Just a thought: Did Adam and Eve have navels?
I intend to live forever. So far, so good.



Na they preferred Apples instead :D

Tiger
7th December 2007, 12:47 PM
Good one Sumu, I was just looking at how I was going to hold boards down for planing. Thanks.

sumu
7th December 2007, 12:51 PM
Thanks, guys.

This and others of it's kind have held everything of that type of workpieces, including those rounded edge ones.

I guess this practice originates from those days when me and my wife started dating and moved together. We lived in apartment with no special storage room nor actual workbench.

Instead, we had a 30mm thick piece of plywood, 150 cm long and 60 cm wide. There were all kinds of such clamps and likes attached.

We used it either clamped on the kitchen table, or supported against the wall. After work I placed it back to the closet.

With it we fixed and finished all kinds of old wooden furniture for us.

kippis,

sumu