Thread: Viceless Clamping Bench

Viceless Clamping Bench

I'm a newbie to woodworking and have picked up sooo many ideas from pics in forums such as this, that maybe some of the wacky ideas that I've used may be of interest to others...

At this stage I am particularly interested in getting the mechanics and facilities in place to make any subsequent "proper woodworking" projects easier... That's the theory anyway, and I may yet find that the "proper woodworking" projects don't tickle my fancy as much as the mechanics do, but hey ho, I've enjoyed it immensely so far.

Whilst downunder in Melbourne over the last UK winter I had plenty of spare time, so built two simple workbenches and started setting up workshop(s), one each for my sons-in-law, who are relative newcomers to Aussie's fair shores.

The second bench pictured below quickly evolved to have a far better worktop than the first, but just when the basic platform was finished and it was time to earnestly get into the really exciting phase of making a few more helpful jig thingies using the built in Mitre/T-Tracks, I landed a contract back in Blighty and had to abandon things for now, as the devilish sterling beckoned...


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For a reasonable cost, I wanted a relatively flexible clamping platform that was steady and had a flat top and a flat front. Compromises, compromises. I still need to develop decent joint cutting skills, and didn't have a decent work surface to work on, so chose a design that mostly required sawing and drilling and screwing together to make it solid.

The base is a pretty stock standard post and rail construction, using cheap 7mm CD plywood as cross bracing that prevents racking. Legs are 100x100 Cypress Pine and rails are 90x45 Treated Pine. The top is made of two pieces of 1980x600 x 25mm MDF that I found in the offcuts section of a wood merchant, and glued and screwed together and this is turn supports a loose lay sacrificial top that is 12mm MDF.

The welded steel frame apron allows for sliding 19x38 extension supports, and strengthens the overhanging worktop ends particularly on the left where I have mounted a router in the worktop temporarily. But the steel apron was actually an afterthought mostly to serve as a stable platform for some T- / MITRE-TRACK for some ideas I have festering, including a Planing-Beam and Planing-Wedge(s) as per the New-Fangled-Workbench at http://foldingrule.blogspot.com/2008/02/episode-45-new-fangeld-workbench.html and a Router-Mill / Router-Planer, etc.. The MDF worktop proper sits snuggly within the apron upon a lip that runs around it's inside base.

Dog-holes - There are 108 x 62mm dog-holes in the worktop, so it seemed worthwhile getting them right. Key to the layout was using a sheet of pegboard that was clamped to the worktop while all the 4mm pilot holes were drilled at 4 pegboard holes/inches apart. I used crayon to pre-mark the shiny white side of the pegboard to know where... and more importantly where not... to drill. Then after removing the pegboard I used a 19mm Forstner bit for about the first 30mm or so and finished the holes with a 19mm spade bit. Also key to me drilling the dog-holes straight was using what I call a drill-through jig that I built around a cheap drill-press-stand thingy bought from Bunnings... It works well for this purpose, but afraid the only pic I have on hand is in it's other role, hanging from it's "docking station" on the rear pegboard, from where it is being used as a cheap drill-press.

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Clamping - Have so far used Bench-Dogs cut from 19mm TasOak dowel, Wedges, Veritas Wonder-Pups, and Quick-Clamps-with-S-Hooks. Using the QuickClamps as hold-fasts through the dog-holes works well and easily by using an S-Hook under the top. Bunnings sell 6mm S-Hooks and if you then drill out the the clamp-holes to 7mm, and centre a S-Hook in the clamp-hole the S-Hook pulls flat against the bottom of the top and works like a dream!

Various heavier tools can easily be bench-dogged and/or clamped to the worktop as and when needed : So far we use this for a mitre-box and an engineers vice, which are mounted on boards with 19mm dowels and/or holes at the appropriate (pegboard) centres.

Mobility - The bench can be moved relatively easily by levering it onto it's castors as per a design idea borrowed from http://blog.alittlegoofy.com/ . Have to admit that the final implementation of this lever system needs a bit of "tweaking" and it's hardware upgraded if it is to last a long time. The rear pegboard frame is bolted to the bench's rearwards-extending top-side rail, so is effectively part of the bench so most tools remain at hand wherever the bench is.

Materials - For the most part all materials came from Bunnings. Exceptions to this are the 25mm MDF and Mitre/T-Track - thanks to some postings on Woodworkforums - Ullrich UA1425 - Marine-Sail Track - 22mmx8mm, slot=10mm, internal-width=17mm, wall-thickness=2mm... I think the Ullrich-UA1425 and Capral-E4204 are fairly similar... So far am using Steel "T" Nuts to secure things to the Marine-Sail Mitre-Track - Think the size is 5/16" whit x 3/8" barrel, I think... but need to come up with a better solution than this.

Can't wait to get back to Aussie and the bench, but the necessity of an income rules for now...

Cheers,
Andy