Thread: Operation: Bench Watch (photos requested!)

This is a really interesting thread. Thanks for starting it.

I have two benches which are pretty much the same as each other about 2.4m long. I use them both. Often one becomes a storage space and the other is a work zone until the project is completed and everything is cleared away and put it its rightful spot, which is anywhere it lands providing it isn't on the benches. At the moment I am building a chest of drawers and I am finishing the components before final assembly.

One bench is keeping the finished carcass and top panel safe away from me and my tools
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Whilst the other is being used as a work surface to finish the finish and store some AWESOME pieces of s-crap that are much too valuable (a few cents) to throw out
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I also use my saw as another safe storage area away from my tools and me as I complete finishing the finish on the drawer fronts. There is some more AWESOME pieces of s-crap that I desperately NEED.
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I try to avoid making my bench look like this. Not because I dislike mess, I simply dislike the amount of work that goes into making such a mess.
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Sometimes hard to find the bench here....IMG_2436.jpg

Originally Posted by Kuffy

I try to avoid making my bench look like this. Not because I dislike mess, I simply dislike the amount of work that goes into making such a mess.
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There are some awfully sore triceps after that lot.....

I keep most of my plane shavings to use for starting fires in winter. Just cram them into a shopping bag.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

There are some awfully sore triceps after that lot.....

That's for sure. Arms were dead for a couple of days afterwards. I was dreading having to lift roof trusses the next day but luckily I don't seem to use my triceps much at work. It's all done on the legs, back and biceps.

My bench had become really weather beaten and I'd bent my Wilton 8" vise slightly by pressing bearings with it so it wasn't useful for fitting up saw backs any more. Fortunately my son in law just moved into a new house and was happy to provide me the justification needed for the purchase of a new Wilton 1780 XC. The 1780 series vises are made from 65,000 psi malleable iron, should be stronger than the 35,000 psi vise it replaces. I'll probably need to work a bit harder to bend it too.

While I was at it I stripped of the weathered layer of wood, refinished the Pexto stake plate and Record holdfast inserts and painted the pedestal.

Bench 2018.jpg

I also fitted up an Ironhorse woven polyester siliconized tarp to help protect it from the elements.

Bench 2018 covered.jpg

Having a small space, I try to stay organised and keep the bench free of clutter. Never happens in reality. It seems that unused spots become parking bays for parts. A longer, bigger bench just means more parking bays! It is all cleaned up after a project, but then the cycle starts again ...

I do not have a current picture, but here is one when I was building some drawers ...



.. and a recent one while preparing to build a couple of travishers ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

I must have been around to Derek's place dozens of times and it never seems messy. Usually he knows I'm coming but it has still been tidy the few times I have just dropped around.

My work practices are terrible. I usually pull out tools, fasteners, materials etc, and make a general mess until I start to not be able to find things, then I get out the spare watchmacallits etc. Eventually I have to stop for one reason or other (cant find a tool, need to go buy something or waiting for something to dry etc) but instead of cleaning up I often start or move on to another project - I like to have more than one project on the go at any one time. After a while I cannot progress with any project and have the big clean up. That's when I find things like the piece of wood, tool or fastener I lost on floor 3 months back etc.
Then it starts all over again.

Recently I have been trying to resist the urge of just leaving it all at the end of the day and taking a couple of minutes to tidy up at least a bit. It's sort of working but as my school report card used to say "Needs to apply himself more diligently to his work".

This is what my bench looks like today. A little bit messy but will be fine with a quick tidy up.
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It looked like this yesterday.
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Originally Posted by NCArcher

This is what my bench looks like today. A little bit messy but will be fine with a quick tidy up.
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It looked like this yesterday.
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Don't loose any of the bits lol

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

HNT Gordon are developing one.

Have you seen any pics or info on that yet? I remember seeing a tiny portion of the vice in on of their Instagram posts but haven’t been able to find any more information. I know they like to test their new products for quite a while so thinking it could be a while before it hits the market.

Originally Posted by bueller

Have you seen any pics or info on that yet? I remember seeing a tiny portion of the vice in on of their Instagram posts but haven’t been able to find any more information. I know they like to test their new products for quite a while so thinking it could be a while before it hits the market.

I've seen the prototype on Terry's bench that he uses for demo (just a few weeks ago at Sturt). He is replacing that bench with another one at any tick of the clock and I don't know if he will fit a new version (coz' the current vise is looking, ummmm, worn. It is aluminium faces (like his face vice to be seen on the website) so will be significantly lighter, and he said that it had one feature that the usual ones don't....but I can't remember what that was.

Great thread idea Vaughan.
This is typical end of job state , I'm finishing the Walnut cabinet that's on the work table, as in polishing it atm, and the bench is still covered in the last of the tools used from making that. I have a total clean up at the start of each job and lots of mini clean ups as each stage of build arrives in between .
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My work table has an Emmert turtle back which is great but it is a fragile thing .Only problem so far is where someone else broke both my cast dogs on it !! Bugger ! Ill fix them with the welder soon though . The thing I get the most use from it is the twin dogs and matching twin dogs all the way down the work table. Great for holding wider panels and things like complete doors like in the cabinet. It makes working on round tops easy as well . The tail vice on my Jarrah bench gets most of the work though . I have a thin protective ply cover over the work table most of the time for messy work . Polishing and colouring and staining or gluing up, drilling through and nailing things up as well. It came off for the Walnut work . Some of the dogs down the table have a spring in each so as I stick my hand under the top and lift the dog it stays up when I go to tighten the vice. I haven't put a spring in each yet , I do a couple each time I have needed them, some dogs haven't had much use yet . The spring is short lengths of 3/8 band saw blade fixed into the side of the dog.
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Rob

Auscab
I have been pondering for the last few days... about the skewed,
what seemingly resembles a jack plane, and not a panel raiser, plane, in which you are using.

You must have some fondness of it, that hopefully you've elaborated on in some thread?
Plenty of questions on it really...
I see the screw for the double iron
It looks possibly suitable for single handed work
Surprised there not that common

Thanks
Tom

Originally Posted by Tom trees

Auscab
I have been pondering for the last few days... about the skewed,
what seemingly resembles a jack plane, and not a panel raiser, plane, in which you are using.

You must have some fondness of it, that hopefully you've elaborated on in some thread?
Plenty of questions on it really...
I see the screw for the double iron
It looks possibly suitable for single handed work
Surprised there not that common

Thanks
Tom

Hi Tom . Fire away with questions if you like .

Its a Badger plane

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=b...w=1120&bih=571

Basically a skew mouthed One sided Rebate in timber. They show up now and then if you spend long enough hunting through wooden planes. And they come in very handy for serious rebating . I cut those panels on an electric table saw. So the circular saw marks needed cleaning off and the panel also needed fine tuning to fit the door rail and stile perfectly. I took out the blade and sharpened to razor sharp before cleaning up the panels and it was a joy to once again see this plane doing such a nice job .

Ive needed it a few times before . One job was on some large tenons for a trestle table a few years back .Once again it was great. They are brilliant planes.

Check this out as well.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhMDVLKl...brownfurniture

Rob