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Thread: Viceless Clamping Bench
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26th September 2010, 10:06 PM #1Intermediate Member
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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...
Attachment 148604
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.
Attachment 148605
Attachment 148606
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
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26th September 2010 10:06 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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27th September 2010, 12:00 AM #2
Sounds like you've been having fun with all this Andy. I bet your son inlaws are keen to get you back soon.
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27th September 2010, 03:26 PM #3
Thanks Andy
Loved your idea of using pegboard as a pilot hole template for dogholes. Elegantly simple.
Did I read right? Your bench top consists two thicknesses of 25mm MDF plus one of 12mm - totally 62 mm. That's hefty.
Simpler than your S-hooks on the Quickclamps is to tap out the top retention split-tube and remove the clamp handle part of the Quickclamp. Quick, easy, no drilling or extra parts needed.
At this stage I am following the KISS principle and keeping my table free of extras such as a router.
Cheers
Graeme
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28th September 2010, 07:30 AM #4Intermediate Member
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Hi Graeme,
Yep, it's 62mm thick but not strictly by design. Originally it was 25+25 which I think was plenty rigid enough for this bench and it had a sacrificial top of standard 3mm hardboard, which expanded and bowed incredibly when the humidity went up... I should probably have used tempered hardboard.
When I decided to add the steel-apron and mitre-track, on balance all the measurements worked easiest with the mitre track being laid level with the top of the existing 50mm top, and 12mm MDF gave the kind of clearance I wanted above the 8mm track.
Btw, the unsealed MDF also expands a tad when the humidity rises, but so far it doesn't seem to cause us issues... It just sits tighter within the mitre track which contains it.
Cheers, Andy
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7th October 2010, 08:19 AM #5Intermediate Member
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T-Bolts and T-Knobs on Sale
Having previously struggled to find things like T-Bolts and T-Knobs downunder, I expected that it would be a doddle finding these things in good ol Blighty... How wrong could I be!
Eventually gave up searching the UK, and placed an order for a 129-piece kit which is currently on sale at Rocklers for 40 US dollars : 129 Piece Jig Hardware Kits ($150 Value!) - Rockler Woodworking Tools
The size of the Bottom Plate on these 5/16" T-Bolts is : 9/16" wide x 7/8" long x 7/64" thick (14.3mm x 22.3mm x 2.8mm in proper english) so should work fine in the Ullrich T-Track.
Cheers, Andy
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16th June 2011, 12:40 AM #6Intermediate Member
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Think Groggy mentioned in his recent video that he still needs to drill 50 (or was it 15) dog-holes, and remembered that I had drilled 108 x 62 dog-holes (albeit only in MDF) on my last trip downunder, and who knows, some of the ideas I used that are quoted above may be of interest to him.
HTHS,
Andy in Sunny Yorkshire
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16th June 2011, 09:45 PM #7
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