Thread: My multiple workbench odyssey - because it's more that a journey

I'd go long ways with staggered joints. Bloody long clamps the other way. Cross rails under the bench top and you can leave out the "woolly wood," the timber top needs to breathe from both sides. Screw top to rails from underneath, down the centre line and make all other fixings allowing for expansion and contraction of the bench top. Should see you out.

Originally Posted by rustynail

I'd go long ways with staggered joints. Bloody long clamps the other way. Cross rails under the bench top and you can leave out the "woolly wood," the timber top needs to breathe from both sides. Screw top to rails from underneath, down the centre line and make all other fixings allowing for expansion and contraction of the bench top. Should see you out.

Thanks for that, the "fuzzy" wood is all standard radiata framing as i'm still working to a budget but yeah doing the lengthwise lamination means i can leave it out..... the cross rails are there and basically mirror the bottom ... time to redraw it (again)

Woolly wood AKA MDF

Originally Posted by rustynail

Woolly wood AKA MDF

Ah gottcha Ta

Well i sort of let the thread stagnate despite doing a lot of work in pulling things out, moving things around, filling a 3M skip, thinking i probably still need another and getting sidetracked by plane challenges and router tables.

The router table may come up soon though.

The first goal ended up being a mobile bench that could be used as an outfeed table or as a general build bench and it needed some storage. This is the first time i've even attempted to do draws so fairly happy they have turned out.

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This bit of the garage wall also has the electrical sub board so getting it lined created some additional headaches, the existing bench was past it's use by date so not before time this one ends up replacing it.

Bench is 1800mm long, 800mm deep and 910mm high

Draws are 740 wide by 650 deep by 90mm high, fronts are 800mm wide
Legs are laminated 90x70, top is 2 sheets of 16mm MDF for 32mm thickness, bottom shelf is single 16mm mdf

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The top draw has these small parts containers all 3D printed and based on a 50x50 grid with various sizings up to 100x100

Might do shelving on each end bit will live with it for a while first.

Next is a mobile trolley for the shopvac and mini cyclone, that will be quick and dirty.

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The frame for the 4m long bench is sort of ready to go but i would like to Joint the laminated legs but no jointer in the shop yet so sort of dancing around this for the moment with lots of other bits that can be done.

In the essential tools thread i posted some thoughts and someone also mentioned it would be good to see some simple build stuff

Now there is nothing fine furniture about this, hell it barely qualifies for shop built but it serves a function and apart from saving some time by using optional Kreg joinery could have done and was nearly 100% done with tools i mentioned in the thread Essential tools: have your say!

I had one of the cheap and cheerful mini cyclones land in my hands yesterday so today has a build a cart for the shop vac and garbage bin
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Apart from the wheels the rest was on hand, with most of the timber from the scraps piles.

I had to reinforce the bin with a circular brace to stop it collapsing but i'm pretty happy with the overall performance.

After cutting all the MDF circles out i cleaned up the mess with the freshly setup cyclone, ended up with about 3" of dust in the bottom of the bin from the days efforts and a clean filter still in the vac... win!

It's a long time between posts in this thread, not so much because nothing is happening rather a lot is happening, just not work bench builds.

The pool stairs got finished enough last weekend to be moved out and set up so this weekend was back in the garage and frame time for what will be my main bench.

Yesterday was spent running all the legs and cross braces through the new jointer to ensure everything was flat were it mattered after sitting for a length of time, this let me square up the not so good glue up on a couple of legs.
First thing today was clear everything away from a 4M long section of wall and add some vermin proofing below the 12mm ply that sit's above the floor as this side of the garage gets water in heavy rain
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I dry assembled to check fit and then glued up the two ends and waited impatiently for the TB3 to setup enough, all joints are glued and screwed. All pieces being pulled tight by the screws had clearance holes drilled and no pilots holes in the destination timber.

Whilst the ends glued up I finished up a patio shade project and moved the new Nova Viking onto a lower workspace on wheels.

Here is rails and ends completed.
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I actually had to notch out a section of the front face of the existing bench to have enough clearance to work away from the wall.
The rear legs are space 1M apart with a single front centre leg at this time. i'm adding 2 additional load bearing feet on the bottom front rail. and before any real load goes on the top the framing for banks of draws should go in providing all the vertical stiffness needed.

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I need to trim all the cross braces by about 2mm so this was the end of the workday, clean up and out of shoot i had to clear enough space to fit the motorbikes back in.

Still undecided were the quick release vice is going, left or right.

It's a long time between updates and the work on the big long bench is sort of paused at the moment whilst we remove the original bench that was left in the garage when we bought the house 13 years ago and who knows how old it actually was.

The plan was to just remove the old bench and slot the bench the mill is on above in it's place..... nope not to be as the bottom of that bench didn't lend itself to getting draw units installed. So a new frame was built and the near 80mm top from the other bench was going to get reused.

So on the 30th thought this will be a simple task, three days later and yeah not so simple

Step one was just to relocate the mess... nothing truer than a flat surface collects objects

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glad we had some other flat surfaces free and we got down to the old bench

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Apart from the layer of ply on top and the rather aged mdf sheet directly underneath it the rest is well matured hardwood... oh and it is hard. the self boards were all nailed down but the hardwood frame was all held together with slotted screws and shelf brackets all using slotted screws, most had rusted solidly in place.

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Upside down with most of the base removed.
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Just the last of what was the top left to be demolished.
After I failed to remove the first shelf bracket and it became clear the cutting it apart was about the best way a trip to bunnings to get the reciprocating saw for a grand total of 55 dollars (already had some batteries). The blade is a really nice carbide toothed Diablo unit... it truly is about the blades not the tools.

Can anyone guess the type of wood?

That sort of ended day 1 so much for "i'll get this done in a day"

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Day 2 dawned with the bright idea of let's frame under the window and reuse the ply top behind the shelf

Day 2 ended with most of the new frame together and a temporary place to put drinks out of the fridge for new years eve
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Day 3 - new years day after a sleep in I got the rest of the frame together and started to move stuff off the other bench so it could be pulled apart.
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Another nightmare job as it was all glued together so the demolition saw got another workout

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The reclaimed benchtop used to hold the table mounted router hence the cut out on the left. About the only sensible thing i did building that bench was to make the top layer sacrificial and only have it screwed down.

I'm left now to build the left side up 16mm then add a full mdf top.

The bench measures 2200mm x 900mm

After we get access back to the new table saw we will make some cabinet frames for draw units to go in the bottom half.

On a side note, the Ozito reciprocating saw and multitool have performed flawlessly, I wasn't prepared to pay out for the AEG equivalents for effectively limited use tools, though the multitool is already showing it's use

Another day that was productive.

Just one photo today but I have a bench i can make a mess of the top tomorrow

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Measure three times, write it down then just completely forget to reference it... glad it was too long I cut the bottom shelf out of a clean sheet of mdf and managed to make it to long and i had cut out the leg rebates as well. trivial but time wasting. I'm going to blame dropping a full sheet of 16mm mdf, edge on, to both feet this morning, threw me off my game for most of the day. It did get me to put on shoes rather than thongs

top layer and bottom shelf have both been "sealed" on both sides with Doug's magic bee's wax and boiled linseed mix. Thanks Doug. I'm finding it really good on mdf sheet so it will be interesting how it stands up over the next few years

This will be the temp home for the mill and 3D printer.

Originally Posted by Aussiephil

Another day that was productive.

Just one photo today but I have a bench i can make a mess of the top tomorrow

P1020007.jpg

Measure three times, write it down then just completely forget to reference it... glad it was too long I cut the bottom shelf out of a clean sheet of mdf and managed to make it to long and i had cut out the leg rebates as well. trivial but time wasting. I'm going to blame dropping a full sheet of 16mm mdf, edge on, to both feet this morning, threw me off my game for most of the day. It did get me to put on shoes rather than thongs

top layer and bottom shelf have both been "sealed" on both sides with Doug's magic bee's wax and boiled linseed mix. Thanks Doug. I'm finding it really good on mdf sheet so it will be interesting how it stands up over the next few years

This will be the temp home for the mill and 3D printer.

Phil.
The bench looks good and sturdy, I see it’s cleverly put next to the fridge.
For which I assume it is used to keep stuff like super glue from going off of course very clever[emoji6].

I do feel your pain of trying to rearrange a shed full of stuff, it can feel like ground hog day sometimes.

Once the 3D printer is set up will you just push the enter button for the other bench’s.?

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Phil.
The bench looks good and sturdy, I see it’s cleverly put next to the fridge.
For which I assume it is used to keep stuff like super glue from going off of course very clever[emoji6].

I do feel your pain of trying to rearrange a shed full of stuff, it can feel like ground hog day sometimes.

Once the 3D printer is set up will you just push the enter button for the other bench’s.?

Cheers Matt.

Hey Matt

I'll grab a photo of the fridge open later, sure i can find some glues in there somewhere... i do actually keep araldite in there

Ground hog day for sure except I keep bringing new stuff in as well, plus i'm now down one full bench for a while, oh well.

It would be nice to just press enter and have the printer spit out the other benches.

This one is actually the fourth bench i've built now, three are against the wall style, two are movable but only one is truly movable. So the score currently is.... removed two, built (building) four. At the end i will have added just under 4 meters of bench space.

Cheers
Phil

Today's photo's ....

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The fridge is used to store glue.. well at least the repair glue for the vinyl pool

Besides moving the mill to it's temp home today involved knocked 2mm off the top edge of the front bench edging with the ROS and cleaning up the front and then applying some more beeswax mix.

The saw outfeed table / router table got some new castors and we shuffled more stuff around.

It's time to go and investigate the contents of the freezer compartment

I don't dare show the rest of the garage yet as it's a complete mess.. (again)

Cheers
Phil

I don't have room for a fridge in my shed so it lives on the back veranda.
It's a 1/2 fridge/freezer.
The freezer contains dog food, eg chicken frames, beef bones, and up to 14, 1kg packs of frozen roo mince.
The fridge door is mine and SWMBO uses the rest for drinks.
In the door shelves I store various glues and sealers.
Sealants like silicone last a lot longer in the fridge. The tubes of High Temperature Silicone I use for electric motor modification last for about 6 years as opposed to about year outside the fridge.
I also store concentrated tannic acid (rust removal) and 10% hydrogen peroxide and working solutions of H2O2 and salt for bluing.
The other thing I store is deionising cartridges for water purification.

Well if anyone reads this they can have a chuckle at my expense.

This morning started with "let's build some basic frameless cabinets for at least one side of the bench". Noble goal for the day but you should always pack up and have a beer after you make the first mistake of the day...

I have an internal measure story type stick that lets me set the internal measurements and then measure on the bench (yep you can see where this will go). Measured the opening at the front and got 925wx586h, great, checked twice and measured on bench using a digital measure... went inside and entered sides and stretchers into cutlist pro and hey i have a cutlist for the sheet.
Grabbed a sheet of 16mm mdf out of the container and dropped it onto the cutting trestles, cut the sheet about 10mm oversize so it could be trimmed to final size on the table saw.

Sides, center and stretchers all cut accurately to the cut list and first half screwed and glued ..... checked it would slide into the space for height and got they 2mm allowance I had cut for ......

back on to the bench and the second half was screwed and glued, cup of coffee made and consumed, down off the bench and positioned to slide in.....

it doesn't fit, it's a fraction too wide.....

Despite writing 925 down the actual space was 918 ..... got the height absolutely right got the width wrong

The first mistake of the day was trimming the initial panel on the table saw, carefully inspected it and wrote "fence" on it to make sure that edge went to the fence.... wrong edge, discovered after i measured the offcut as it looked too small and it was.

Here's to hoping the drawer units go a whole lot better tomorrow.