Thread: My go at "The Workbench"

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just worked out how to get the pics a better size..

So, 1 of the purposes of this bench was in conjunction with Festool tracksaw system for sheet goods. Not having (or room) for a table saw this turns the bench into a multifunction type setup.

In the 1st pic u can see i made 4 lattice subsets. I had planned to leave them as is (or bolted together) to make them easier to store. However, in practice they weren't rigid enough so i ended up screwing them together.....they are now bombproof. This is the beginnings of a torsion box type deal. Its pretty rigid (im impressed) and thats without the top and bottom skins. Just biscuits and glue in 12mm ply finish dimensions approx 2400 x 1200mm. I will definitely make (at some point) a torsion box assembly table, its dead easy, quite flat and strong.

In the 2nd pic im breaking down some 24mm hardwood ply for a cabinet in making using my new setup. Heres what i learned by this "experiment"

1....the top at 1050mm height is slightly too high. This created a small prob. When ripping that sheet down the middle...at 600mm i had to reach across. Easy done but because of this slight sideways pressure i found the guide rails had flexed slightly. This meant my board ended up being 1mm thicker in the middle than at the ends. Luckily i noticed and recut. Perhaps it was my setup (i hadnt joined them FS1400's properly?),i dunno, ill definitely be more careful next time

2....originally was going to attach cutting top via face vise to table, i didnt. i found it super useful for my other cuts to be able to slide the whole top around to suit the situation, an impossibility if the top was hard attached. Tipping was never an issue for this job

3....was originally going to close in the ends of the lattice. I will not now, super useful to not have "ends" to have more flexibility with the parallel guides and or clamps

4...storing when not in use...hmmmm. have yet to cross that bridge...Futon base anyone?