Thread: What’s on the Bench.

Interesting Lance.

If your son has further interest in such things he might care to obtain a copy of "The Crossbow" by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, which was written in the late 1800s. It was re-published in 2007 so still available. I was going to link a pic, but when I went looking I found where you view the whole book!

The Crossbow: Its Military and Sporting History, Construction and Use - Ralph Payne-Gallwey - Google Books

I have a copy and found it an entertaining read. There is a section at the back on catapults, balistas and trebuchets. However, I don't know if you will have enough room in your yard for those siege engines.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by LanceC

This is my son's effort while I've been working, but it's still on my workbench



Trying to make the bow with a solid piece of Spotted Gum proved problimatic, so we ended up ripping a bunch of 3mm strips and mounted them like a floating set of car springs. I was a little doubtful, but it works remarkably well!



The traveling dog in my end vise was a casualty from test bending the solid bows. Perhaps the replacement will need to be hard wood.

Excellent effort Lance Junior !

I’m trying-hard not to question the engineering regarding the L brackets, because I know when I was young all sorts of marvellous ideas , I did have.
I even carry a large badge of honour on my left bicep because of “ideas” I had.
And boys will be boys, always building equipment for mass destruction lol.

Cheers Matt.
Hope I didn’t sound to grumpy lol




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Paul, Thanks for that link. I'm sure it will prove an interesting read. I may go through it too.

Quick edit, this paragraph form the linked book: "If one of these strong military crossbows was aimed horizontally at the forehead of a man standing at a distance of 50 yards, the bolt would not strike lower than his chin."
Holy smokes!

Matt, fair point. We may need to come up with something more suitable. I can see how at the moment it's akin to snatching a four wheel drive out of a box from the towball!

My crossbow badge of dishonour involves a primary school aged me mounting my home built crossbow pointing at the top of my loft bedroom's stairs, with an arrow I had especially created for the occasion by cutting barbs into the shaft so that if it impaled someone, it wouldn't come out without causing further damage. I then ran black cotton through a series of eye screws to form a trip wire across the door. Needless to say my parents were less than impressed when we got home from holidays and I mentioned what I had done in case a burglar broke into our house.

I hate to be a party pooper but in Australia crossbows are a prohibited weapon so just having that on the property could end up being very expensive. Penalties similar to a firearms offence. On the good news front a bow and arrows is ok to have.
Regards
John

Put a nail in it and take a pic Lance . It’s a nail gun project now .
Great Nail gun . Looks like it should work fine with a few modifications .

Rob

Bought a tail vice screw on special a while back and now it's finally being installed. It turned out to be larger than I imagined so it's taken a lot of thinking and some modification to make everything fit. Just another reason why you should listen to the wise people who say "buy the vice hardware before you build your bench".

The thicker pieces are laminated out of old meranti pelmets and the other pieces are a mixture of meranti and Tas oak. It won't be as strong as it would have been if made from certain other hardwoods but this is what was to hand and I think it will see me out.

Bench end cap replacement
IMG_20200418_220203 [800x600].jpg

Vice modification
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Where it's at today
IMG_20200427_122039 [800x600].jpg

I'm still in the process of completing my bench, but I made this base for my magnifying LED lamp. The lighting was terrible in this particular corner of the garage so this was my solution.

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Made from leftover scraps from my bench build.

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It can be clamped anywhere on the edge of the bench with either the MicroJig dovetail clamp or the Festool track clamp.

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There's 2 very powerful magnets installed on the base......

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....allowing it to be used on any of my machines (e.g. table saw, bandsaw, jointer/thicknesser, router table, etc)


The next job on the list is to make the sliding deadman for my bench. You can see the rail and board I plan to use for it on the 2nd pic.




Cheers,
Mike

Originally Posted by LanceC

This is my son's effort while I've been working, but it's still on my workbench



Trying to make the bow with a solid piece of Spotted Gum proved problimatic, so we ended up ripping a bunch of 3mm strips and mounted them like a floating set of car springs. I was a little doubtful, but it works remarkably well!



The traveling dog in my end vise was a casualty from test bending the solid bows. Perhaps the replacement will need to be hard wood.

That reminds me of my son making a little timber pistol with an elastic band that shot little darts made from bamboo skewers in my shop while I was working and I gave him a bit of a hard
He took it to school to show his mates because he was proud of his achievements. Next think my wife and I are getting hauled up to the principals office with police in tow.
He was going to be charged with bringing a firearm to school and was suspended........fun days.

Oh dear. What I didn't mention is that this was my son's tech project for school (in isolation). Perhaps it's a good thing it will be marked based on video and photos.

Well the story of the crossbow continues. My son was informed by his teacher last week that as crossbows are illegal in Tasmania, he really can't accept it as a school project (no fault of the teacher, who is fantastic), and suggested he build something else, with no penalty for late submission. Being a little wiser now, he decided to OK his next project with the teacher before he starts. He is now building a spear gun.

When I was about 15 I made a speargun.
A mate was into scuba using a so called dry suit, his folks had a place at Toukley.
I remember buying and using a Turner red plastic plane rear handle for the grip.
I also bought a trigger mechanism but being about 60 years ago I’m vaque on that.
We were also mucking around with those shotgun handspears for shark brain removal.
Im sure your son would be into one of those.
H.

The mate also made an outboard using a car starter motor, wasn’t very successful either.

Originally Posted by LanceC

He is now building a spear gun.

H'mm, talk about variations on a theme. Sounds like he's stuck in a rut Lance.

Originally Posted by aldav

H'mm, talk about variations on a theme. Sounds like he's stuck in a rut Lance.

Steve Ramsey on YouTube has a great marshmallow crossbow that might be interesting.

YouTube

Regards

Adam

At the end of each make i like to put everything away and start from scratch, but in the progress of a new make or in this case 4 new makes it all comes out again. After a disastrous March people started to spend money again in April and this month is looking good as well.
The box in the foreground is Burdekin Plum followed by fiddleback Tas Oak and the one holding the lid of the Zebra Wood open is Black Heart Sassafras.
I was made redundant from my full time job at the end of March so i'm really enjoying spending time in the workshop and not having rush things.
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