Thread: Traditional work bench - let me run some ideas past you...

Originally Posted by Burnsy

I have been thinking more along the lines of three domino holes though...

I'm curious, why dominos? Strength?

How long is that vice face Groggy? My design is for a 600mm vice face.

Originally Posted by kman-oz

I'm curious, why dominos? Strength?

How long is that vice face Groggy? My design is for a 600mm vice face.

Several reasons:

• I like the idea of the hole not being real close to the edge so less chance of breakout as could occur with a 19mm dowel in a 25mm face board.
• I like the flat face a domino to clamp with (note the vises with the steel ones built in use a rectangular dog not a round one).
• Last but certainly not least, personal preference - I think it would look pretty smart.

Interesting. I've been thinking round primarily because of the ability to swivel the dogs in the holes for clamping odd shapes like chair seats or round peices. By the same token you could make several different domino shapes to this end, it just seems like more work. Would look smart though

G'day again Kman. I've been following the developments in this thread with interest.Something in your last design sketch up set me off on a path through my cluttered mind.
I dug out Issue#9 of Australian Wood Review. If you have access to this then it is well worth the reading of the article on the building of a traditional workbench. In this case the bench was made by Frank Wiesner, a Toowoomba based cabinet maker. The bench is magic! It has beautiful wooden screw vises,dog holes and a tool well.
If you can't get hold of this article then I can copy it an post it to you.

Thanks artme, I'll PM you shortly.

OK, I've overcome the few remaining problems in my design and this is the finished product:
Attachment 70888

The front vice and legs no longer interfere with the dog holes, though I had to remove one pair of holes. Unfortunately this was unavoidable due to the layout of the front vice, but I have multiple dog holes in the tail vice to compensate and enough travel in the tail vice to use the single wagon vice dog too. I've also added the dead man (aka. sliding jack board) with lots of peg holes. I'd almost forgotten about this

I've considered the tool well option in much greater depth during the design process and decided on none, in the end. Firstly, I'm almost certain that I'll end up with a rodent home rather than a usable space. And secondly, I plan to make a set of hold-downs for this bench which limits the need for extra through-clamping options, so there's no need to make a removable tool well either. If I decide I really need a tool well I can add this later also, so it's been erased from the design in favour of a larger and more sturdy work surface.

I've also scrapped the shoulder vice retrofit idea. While I can see it's value in the long term, I took heed of the advice from BobL and realised that the very little use it will likely get, doesn't really justify the exercise. In case I change my mind, I have located the critical components that might obstruct this retrofit such that it can still be performed with relative ease.

Bench Accessories:

• Wooden dogs
• Dogged (meaning made using dogs) planing stops
• Steel hold downs
• Dogged bench hooks
• Front vice parallel clamping aid (still working out how to do this)
• ... more to come

This will probably be the last installment until I actually start work. In the mean time, if anyone has any more suggestions or criticisms; now is the time! Anyone interested in a closer look at the design is welcome to PM me with an email address so I can email a copy of the drawing.

I'm thinking that a blog about the construction process might be good, would anyone else like me to do this?

Dave.

Originally Posted by kman-oz

I'm thinking that a blog about the construction process might be good, would anyone else like me to do this?

Dave.

Dave,

I love this kind of thread or blog. So 1 vote in favour!

Originally Posted by Burnsy

I have also been considering this lately for my jarrah vice face. I have been thinking more along the lines of three domino holes though, just need to find someone in Perth with a domino who would like a visit from me and my piece of jarrah

Dominos are a good option, quick to make and you can use them as the basis for an anchor for custom holding faces - quick and easy.

Originally Posted by kman-oz

I'm curious, why dominos? Strength?

How long is that vice face Groggy? My design is for a 600mm vice face.

Why the long face? Think I've heard this one....

The face is 540 x 180 x 70mm. It is a chunk of sleeper I took from my mothers place before she passed away and is a keepsake (weird, I know, but ... ).

It would be more "practical" if it was just 25mm longer than the vice plate itself and maybe 50mm thick. It can be difficult to align the face co-planar to the bench skirt when it is big like mine.

EDIT: what Jeremy said - go the blog!

Hi Dave,
I have been watching this thread with great interest. I like your design and I look forward to the blog.
I hope the build goes well.
Kev

Alright, blog it is then.

Thanks for that Groggy. I hadn't thought about the alignment issue, but having a look at the front vice hardware I don't think I'll have any trouble to be honest. The guide rods on this one are ~170mm between centres and there's no discernible play in it either. The design calls for 600mm x 170mm x 75mm with the screw centred, while the guide rods are offset to the left so I can use it like a shoulder vice on the right side. If I made it any smaller I'd be sacrificing precious vertical clamping capacity, which is one of the things I'm really missing at the moment. I guess I'll have to suck it and see, eh?

Thanks Kev The next plane I build will have to be a jointer for flattening this beast I think

I've got almost everything I need to start work now, except arguably the most vital ingredient; glue. I'm gonna need a whole stack of the stuff to laminate the top, not to mention the legs and stretches which will also be laminated.

For the tail vice and other critical joinery I'll be using TB3, unless anyone thinks epoxy will be better. But for the basic stuff like draw bored mortises and tenons, laminating the top and legs and the components that will be bolted together, I think I can get away with something cheaper.

Any advice on glue for these? I'm thinking a decent PVA will be fine, something from Bunnies, or at most some TB1. Carbatec have ~4L of TB1 for $56, while I'm unlikely to get bulk glue from Bunnies for less, so this is sounding like a good option.

The top will be held together with threaded rod and 1" dowel to minimise the need for both tensile and shear strength in the glue bonds, so Epoxy doesn't make any sense to me at all. Ignoring the fact that it'll be too expensive anyway

So, is there a better option I haven't considered? Any suggestions for glue are welcome, this is something I don't have a solid opinion about at all.

I was right about the Bunnies glue section, the next best thing to TB1 would be a cross-linked PVA and Bunnies had 4L of the Selley's PVA+ variety for $52. So unless someone has a better option I think I'll get hold of some TB1 next week.

Or am I over doing this with 4L? According to the 1L covers 5m2 rule I'll need just 2L for the top and legs, but there's always some waste. Three 1L bottles will cost more than a 4L bottle, so my reasoning is; get the big one and have plenty left over, rather than risk running out and spending more money.

Make sure you have a small roller to spread the glue quickly, this is not the time to find the drying glue is faster than you are. I nearly caught myself out on this last weekend.

Hi Dave,

Have just been catching up with your thread, (been off line for a while). Great progress mate. You have arrived at some of the same design conclusions for the bench that I have had after reading the Landis book, plus others.

So am very interested in a blog on construction, I am with Jeremy and Kev on this for sure. So thanks in advance.

Oh ! Great design by the way. Onya. And thanks to the contributions to this thread from everybody else.

Cheers
Pops (the lazy one waiting for Dave to build this very nice bench)

Originally Posted by Groggy

Make sure you have a small roller to spread the glue quickly...

Good one, I was just thinking about this today. I saw a 75mm roller and wondered if it might be useful for gluing up, I'll add that to the shopping list.

Thanks Pops. I don't think I've put this much design effort into a woodworking project before. My main issue has been distilling all of the elements I'd like into a subset that is also practical. The 80/20 rule applies here; 80 percent of the effort building the bench will be spent on something that you will only use 20 percent of the time when working at the bench. I estimate that the vast majority of work I'll do at the bench will utilise only the simplest of fixtures and elements. I guess I just had the draw a line in the sand where the effort no longer justified the result. It's been a very interesting exercise.

And as Pops said, thanks to all who've taken the time to contribute to this thread. I certainly wouldn't have come to the conclusions I have without your valuable input.

Dave.