Kiwi workbench

**Kiwibrucee** · 17th April 2005, 12:03 AM

Yea Gidday

Heres a couple of pics of my bench so far. Its a combination of the plans from Woodsmith No.19 and this plan from plans now with a few mod's to fit the timber I had on hand .

http://www.plansnow.com/wrkbenchsn.html

If anyone is interested I can probably email the plans if you PM me your email address.

I used the plansnow version for the joinery, which called for a set of vertias bench bolts(bolts and big cross dowels)and some steel pins to replace the more traditional mortice and tenons used in the woodsmith plans.
The reason for this is that I have scottish ancestors and was therefor too tight to go out and buy timber for the frame

. However the timber I had (some sort of fir or pine from europe) was quite soft and after reading about the likelyhood of the joints working loose if softwood was used I decided the bolts were better as I could nip them up if things worked loose in the future.
The ends are Mdf panels set in dado's with false rails glued on for the same reason.

The top is made up of 3 sheets of 19mm MDF laminated together with a 6 x 2 brushbox apron around the edges. Its 900mm x 2400mm and weighs a ton (or somewhere close to that).
I drilled the dog holes on the front apron to use with both vises(Twinscrew tail vise comming in lee valley shipment)and the bottom holes line up horizontally with the shafts of the record vise to allow support of long boards.(See second Pic)

I drilled the dog holes in the top using a 75mm thick guide block clamped to the surface and a spade bit( forstner would be much better but didn't have any at the time)

Made the bench about a year ago and havn't quite got around to building the bank of drawers to go underneath yet.

Over all pretty happy with the result,maybe next time make the top layer one that just sits in so it can be replaced if needed, and use 1st grade MDF instead of seconds as there are a couple of spots on the top that arn't dead flat.
Total cost so far about $100 for timber and $150 for vise and draw bolts.

The vertias bench dogs and wonder dogs make it really versatile and you could probably get away without the tail vise but there was this great offer on shipping from lee Valley.... and I've already drilled the holes for the screws

.

Have a good one

Kiwibrucee

**Groggy** · 17th April 2005, 12:11 AM

That's a heckuva bench right there. You know, that Record vise mounting looks strangely familiar too!

It's going to be a mean mutha with the LV slapped on the other end.

**Kiwibrucee** · 17th April 2005, 12:13 AM

Long board supported on dogs in front apron

**Kiwibrucee** · 17th April 2005, 12:15 AM

Originally Posted by Groggy

That's a heckuva bench right there. You know, that Record vise mounting looks strangely familiar too!

It's going to be a mean mutha with the LV slapped on the other end.

Mine looks unfinished compared to yours - gonna have to recess vise jaw into front block now.

**Kiwibrucee** · 17th April 2005, 12:17 AM

The vise end.

**Pat** · 17th April 2005, 07:52 AM

Very nice bench, I especially like the oversize front face on the vice, I'll have to do that to mine now.

**NewLou** · 17th April 2005, 10:01 AM

Well done bruce you've done a top Job!!!!.......................

REgards Lou

**goat** · 17th April 2005, 10:20 AM

very nice bench top job

**ryanarcher** · 17th April 2005, 02:30 PM

Looks pretty flash! I like the replacable mdf top. function and utility at it's best. very very well done! Why no tool tray?

**derekcohen** · 17th April 2005, 02:47 PM

Beautiful bench Bruce. Now we have to do something about that power sander ...

Regards from Perth

Derek

**Kiwibrucee** · 17th April 2005, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Beautiful bench Bruce. Now we have to do something about that power sander ...

Regards from Perth

Derek

After reading a thread about hand scrapers a while ago I have the vertias scraping set comming in the lee valley order

so theres hope yet!!
Like most people I'm sure, sanding is one of my least favorite woodworking tasks, so anything to reduce sanding has got to be worth a go.
I have a foot firmly in both hand tool and power tool camps ,I just use whatever will get the job done with the greatest accuracy(and usually in the shortest time).

Ryan - no tool tray as my last bench had a well in the middle and I found it just kept filling up with crap, perhaps if my bench was against the wall I might look at putting one in ,but its in the middle of my shop and I find it useful to be able to work on all sides of it which you could'nt do with a tool tray in 1 side.Also do a fair bit of power tool work and they don't roll off the bench.

**TassieKiwi** · 18th April 2005, 11:30 AM

Affordable, practical and versatile - and a looker to boot! Choice eh bro'. I will be very interested in your upcoming experience wiith the retro LV twin screw fitting. I agonised over adding one to the list, but decided to use the bench a bit more before any changes. D

**Kiwibrucee** · 29th May 2005, 04:58 PM

Yea Gidday All,
Got my Twin screw vise (which arrived with my clamps) fitted today. Everything pretty much went according to plan except that my burly relatives who helped me lift the benchtop into place origionally wern't available today so I had to buy a bottle jack to lift the top as it weighs 100kg or so.

Tassie- it wasn't so much of a retrofit as I'd planned to add 1 when I built it, but I think that as long as you could make a new end skirt for your bench it should'nt be too hard to retrofit one.

The screws have a little bit of resistance when fully extended but I think thats mainly due to the large heavy front jaw on my vise. They are very solid screws and its quite strange to see the other handle spinning around as you wind it in or out.
Don't know if I really "needed" it as I could already clamp lengthways on my bench using wonder dogs but now that I have it I'm sure I'll find a host of uses for it (just hope that SWMBO dosn't see that last bit).

Got to go and play with the rest of my new toys now.

See Ya Bruce T.

Thread: Kiwi workbench

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Kiwi workbench

using dog holes in front

Twin Screw Vise Fitted

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions