Thread: Looking for someone to build me a workbench - Sydney

interested to see how this one pans out.

Originally Posted by bassmansimon

I just don't have the time (or carpentry skills) to construct the bench.

The time not available to build your own I can understand. But the skills ? OK .

I'm looking at the benches you like in WA . They are bolted together!! No offense mate but you have beginners taste

Nothing wrong with that . But bolted together stuff fails over time unless you only walk past it and look at it .
And there is no more a simple way of putting something together than cutting to length and bolting it together.

Maybe once you get a bench your skills are going to improve and there will come a time when you look back at what you paid for and re think a better way you could have gone.

See if someone can build for you with better joinery as well . I think it can be done.

Rob

Originally Posted by ian

interested to see how this one pans out.

I am joining the queue

Originally Posted by auscab

But bolted together stuff fails over time unless you only walk past it and look at it

Hi Rob,
Thanks for the comments and tips about joining method. I didn't think that with my taste for a hardwood bench plus my budget would extend to proper mortice and tenon joinery methods. That's where my skill level runs out for now.

Hopefully one day I will be able to make amazing and sturdy furniture that uses proper joinery methods. But for now I make small stuff (little woodworking projects), woodturning, and some furniture things (coffee tables etc) but so far these have been limited to dowels, bolts, screws etc.

If within my budget someone is able to make a workbench with even sturdier joinery methods, as far as I'm concerned the job will be theirs straight away.

Im about to post a layout of my next bench design.

It is using dried sleepers of gum.

Its design is low cost and hopefully easy to make.

Perhaps follow that and we can do a duo-build??

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Im about to post a layout of my next bench design.

Perhaps follow that and we can do a duo-build??

Will do. Thanks for the tip, and good luck with the build. I love using recycled timber, and you know it's not going to warp!

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

I would encourage you to take whatever time is needed to make your own bench. It's something you're (hopefully) going to be standing at a fair bit and you want it to be your own doing, no matter what your skill level. If, like me, you are not highly skilled you will almost certainly surprise yourself at what you can do and be proud of it, faults and all.
Not sure how to send photos with a post but I've recently finished building a heavy jarrah bench with Veritas vises, a quick release front vise and a twin screw end vise. If I didn't bother with the twin screw vise it would have cost me a bit over $1,000. It is pretty much a straight copy of a plan that is called "The Essential Workbench" on the FineWoodworking website. Didn't buy the plans, just used the article and converted imperial measurements to metric. It does have "proper" joinery but nothing that is overly complicated. The hardest aspect of making it was simply managing the weight of the thing on my own as it grew and I needed to flip it over to fit the vises. I finished up buying a cheap scissor lift trolley to help with that and future heavy projects. Not getting any younger! Have a go - you will find it rewarding and learn lots as you go.

Originally Posted by krenov

It is pretty much a straight copy of a plan that is called "The Essential Workbench" on the FineWoodworking website.

Any idea on an estimate of the number of hours the total build took?

It's hard to say how many hours my build took. Quite a few but that's always the case for me on something new. I also spent a fair bit of time at the timber yards sourcing affordable wood that I was happy with. I hand cut the large mortise and tenons in the base. Not my best decision. If I was doing it again I'd use the router and a template to guide the bit.

Originally Posted by auscab

The time not available to build your own I can understand. But the skills ? OK .

I'm looking at the benches you like in WA . They are bolted together!! No offense mate but you have beginners taste

Nothing wrong with that . But bolted together stuff fails over time unless you only walk past it and look at it .
And there is no more a simple way of putting something together than cutting to length and bolting it together.

Maybe once you get a bench your skills are going to improve and there will come a time when you look back at what you paid for and re think a better way you could have gone.

See if someone can build for you with better joinery as well . I think it can be done.

Rob

Rob is quite correct. Good joinery is important. Bolts loosen over time, especially when hand planing, and the importance of a rigid bench cannot be over stated.

Frankly, you should be using the opportunity of a bench build to hone your skills. Forget building one in hardwood. Build your next bench in hardwood. Build this bench in pine. It will still do all what you want - if the parts are thick enough and the joinery is solid. Use a router for the mortices - the wood won't care.

If it helps, there is a pictorial build-along of my bench here (near the lower end of the index): Shop Made Tools

It is an advanced bench, but the basics are there, and these are universal - mortice-and-tenon base, and laminated/joined top.

Have you considered vises?

Regards from Perth

Derek

I agree with Derek, if you have the time, use this as a skill building exercise. It does not have to take you a long time to get a basic bench built. My first bench was quite basic, built over a weekend, and lasted me many years.

Now I'm going to get myself into trouble, but here goes. I think that hardwood benches are un-necessary, over-rated and make life harder than it needs to be. Any timber for a bench is fine, but you will probably find it easier and cheaper to build out of softwood. As far as the top is concerned, a softwood top is preferable IMHO - softwood is easier on the timber you use in your projects, and its easier to flatten. Having said that, anyone who has taken the time to build a hardwood bench - hats off - many are beautifully made with lots of mass and are going to last aeons. I just don't thing its really necessary or advantageous (other than aesthetics of gorgeous timbers).

You don't have to spend days laminating strips together to make a top, either. Look at the design of my bench on this link - the top is made of a 300 x 75 length of Oregon, a tool well and a 150 x 75 length of Oregon at the rear. That will cost you about $100 for a very solid top. If you buy the timber from one of the larger merchants, the will run it through their jointer & thicknesser for you, saving a lot of work. When I rebuilt my bench I used laminated pine to "build in" tenons on the long stretcher, and left a channel for threaded rod. The long stretchers are dry assembled & the threaded rod pulls the assembly together. That way it can be disassembled if I ever have to move the sucker. Its easy to tighten nuts at each end if that ever needed. So far (about a year) it has not been. The left & right leg assemblies were fully glued up. It a pretty simple bench design and works really well for me. It should easily be within anyone's range of skills to build. You can use whatever cheap timber you have available for legs & bearers. If you choose to laminate it all from "Bunnings Pine" that is dressed all round, then you can "build in the mortises and the tenons, so no cutting of joinery needed. The top just bolts onto the frame with coach bolts.

By sizing everything on the larger side, you will end up with plenty of mass. If you add a bottom shelf, you can always load that up with anything on hand (tools, bricks, anvil like mine) to provide more mass if you think that is needed.

Originally Posted by bassmansimon

I'm looking for an experienced woodworker to make me a workbench.

Are there any woodworkers in Sydney or the east coast of Australia that would be interested in making me a similar kind of bench?

I'm thinking about 600mm deep, about 1500mm long. Don't need heaps of storage built into it, don't need a carpenter's well. It will be up against a wall, so a backing strip is needed so that things won't roll off. Needs to have a vice mounted to the front.

I do not need the workbench to be fine sanded and oiled - I am happy to do this - I just don't have the time (or carpentry skills) to construct the bench.

My budget maxes out for everything (hardwood bench, vice, delivery, possibly castors) at $1000. Is there anyone interested inn making this for me, or could point me in the right direction for a maker in Sydney?

Not being snarky, but

if the major impediment for you is the time required to build a bench -- and I can understand that constraint -- are you in effect asking for someone on the forums to build you a bench for not much more than the cost of the materials? Now that's a very big ask.

Your local Men's shed might be interested as a money making exercise,


BUT, you've been given lots of good advice above and the experience you will gain from building a bench, even a simple one, is invaluable.

Thanks all. The tips and links here have been really helpful. I know that as far as skill building goes, nothing would help my learning as much as building my own bench. It's the time commitment that worries me.

As far as being stingy, I'm certainly not asking for people to work for free (at least i didn't think i was!)
Having not made or bought a real bench before, i wasn't aware of the costs of timber involved. If the budget only really covers the cost of materials and vice, then I'm definitely better off taking the time and making it myself. Thanks again for the tips. Looks like I'll be getting familiar with my router and getting working on practicing my mortice and tenon joins!

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by bassmansimon

As far as being stingy, I'm certainly not asking for people to work for free (at least i didn't think i was!)
Having not made or bought a real bench before, i wasn't aware of the costs of timber involved. If the budget only really covers the cost of materials and vice, then I'm definitely better off taking the time and making it myself. Thanks again for the tips. Looks like I'll be getting familiar with my router and getting working on practicing my mortice and tenon joins!

I was trying to convey "is your budget realistic?"

About 18 months ago I priced the hardwood I would need to build a work bench. In my case I was looking at North American Ash at $7.50 per board foot. Admittedly that price included machining one face and two edges to give me a board around 45mm thick, but at the time I had no access to large machinery. Timber for the top alone would have cost almost $250, with a similar cost for the base, so I went looking at other options.