Thread: The Outdoor Workbench

I can imagine thtat lot put through its paces and then polished to a nice lustre!! Yum!!

Reminds me of when we had the driveway paved. I said to the paver chap that I'd like one of them open drain thingies between the shed and the paving. "Nah you don't need one there!"
He was right until the big rains a few weeks ago,



... and very nice looking curly jarrah

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

... and very nice looking curly jarrah

I was a bit slow upstairs connecting the dots, but there is a story attached to that wood and some other here that I'm going to stack next to it.

A painful story ... that dates back to the same time as when Derek was building his current workbench and needed a bit more Oak for the top.

I'll spill those beans when I can.

Can. Haha! Can! Get it? ... beans? ... can? ... ohhhhh.

Originally Posted by pmcgee

I was a bit slow upstairs connecting the dots, but there is a story attached to that wood and some other here that I'm going to stack next to it.

A painful story ... that dates back to the same time as when Derek was building his current workbench and needed a bit more Oak for the top.

I'll spill those beans when I can.

Can. Haha! Can! Get it? ... beans? ... can? ... ohhhhh.

Grooooooaaaannnnnnnnnnn.

Originally Posted by artme

Grooooooaaaannnnnnnnnnn.

Sad really

Originally Posted by artme

I can imagine the angst later when, inevitably, what has been done is demonstrated not to
be sufficient.

That is the most painfully poignant DIY forum pull-quote... ever.

Sorry, no in-process photo's. The steel including the 5/8" threaded rod, about 100 lb.total, came from a local scrap yard at $0.25/lb. The plates and tube are all 3/8" thick. The wood was given to me as well as the older vise to the right. Nice and solid but it does ring a bit - got to add some stiffeners to damp that out.

new workbench.jpg

Rob - what was the centre section before?? Did you make that part or re-purpose it?
Looks like a find!
Cheers,
Paul

Originally Posted by pmcgee

Rob - what was the centre section before?? Did you make that part or re-purpose it?
Looks like a find!
Cheers,
Paul

Hi Paul,

I mistakenly placed this in the wrong thread and I don't want to hijack it. The green plate in the center of the bench is a Pexto stake tool plate. I have a set of stakes that go with it. My original design did not include the stake plate but then I realized that the bench would be ideal so I changed the top, prior to laminating fortunately, and made a recess for it. They are used for working sheet metal.

Cheers,
Rob

I promised beans ... but probably closer to gruel here ...

As I said, I remember this semi-coinciding with Derek's roubo bench build ... and some memory has trickled back through the finely-tuned-although-run-over-by-a-truck sieve that currently serves as my brain.

Derek was posting in january 2012, so I would have bought the curly jarrah and some 'english oak' at the last Harvey auction for the year in 2011 ... which would have probably been early december. Oak was very unusual for these auctions. I'd never heard of it at Harvey before - which sells timber from around the state that was cut for whatever reason and not gone to power poles or whatever. It is virtually all green wood - from boles to 4m jarrah/karri/marri slabs to sandalwood.

I was very interested to buy it ... and pretty much no-one else was ... yay! ... so it might have cost maybe $75 ??
for 6x 120mm x 40mm, 1x 320mm x 40mm, 2x 70mm square - all about 2.1m long.

As anyone reading this would have picked up, I like to keep my surrounds immaculately clean <COUGH> so it was probably a bit of a challenge getting the wood down the drive from front-of-house to back at the time ... in any case the jarrah and the oak was stacked along the walkway from our driveway to our front door in one pile.

We would have walked back and forth past it every time we entered or left the house for a month or so until the eyebrow-indicator registered 'move-it or lose-it' ... at which point in time I beat a path clear from the front to the back of the house and started to make some room for it.

I have mentioned before that the suburb is sorta one big termite mound and that it is always in mind around the property. Protect the house, generally keep wood off the dirt, and keep a weather-eye out for signs. Well this pile had 'signs' ... great flashing neon signs that I had passed by obliviously for no doubt at least a couple weeks. I knew as soon as I reached for the first board ... nawwwwww ...

The call went out to Lois to prepare the kettle and the large urn for the charitable dispensation of boiled water to at least have some revenge on these little white so-and-sos.

Termite mound you say. You do have a lot of work to be for ever watchful.

This was all on a brick-paved area, but we'd seen them there before so I should have been aware of it.
The jarrah boards were wider than the oak, and were stacked vertically. The oak was mostly next to or on the jarrah, stacked horizontally. The little buggers had started up between a vertical jarrah board and the stacked 120mm oak planks.

One thing I make sure of now is not to have a board resting on a board. They love that close interface and usually start up between the two, with hardwoods. Especially with jarrah they are often more *on* the boards than *in* the boards, viz ...

20140119_032752 (Medium).jpg 20140119_032817 (Medium).jpg

but green oak proved to be a little less daunting for them. In fact, they we into it like a tornado in a trailer park.
Just shows the environmental fitness. It might be a different story now it has dried ... (and curled!)

The damage ... at least they know about grain ... probably killed about 25% of the 120mm boards.

20140118_184630 (Medium).jpg 20140118_184640 (Medium).jpg 20140118_184716 (Medium).jpg

They got into 5 out of 6 120mm boards. They didn't get to 70mm square or the 320mm board ... but to add insult to injury ... when I moved the wood I stacked it vertically like I have a lot of other green wood.

The other woods ... jarrah, karri, blackbutt ... have been fine. No so our oaky friend the 320mm wide board
It has dried like pasta. I wasn't sure the photos would do it justice, but I think you'll get the idea.

20140118_184815 (Medium).jpg 20140118_185156 (Medium).jpg 20140118_185301 (Medium).jpg 20140118_185329 (Medium).jpg

So ... that's how you learn stuff. Doh.

Originally Posted by rob streeper

Hi Paul,
I mistakenly placed this in the wrong thread and I don't want to hijack it. The green plate in the center of the bench is a Pexto stake tool plate. I have a set of stakes that go with it. My original design did not include the stake plate but then I realized that the bench would be ideal so I changed the top, prior to laminating fortunately, and made a recess for it. They are used for working sheet metal.
Cheers,
Rob

Very cool. This thread is like a school bus that has turned into an octopus ... impossible to derail 'cos no-one knows where it is/was headed.