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23rd June 2013, 04:23 PM #1
The World’s most expensive work bench?
Hi all,
Following are details on the $7410 work bench! (you could say things got a little carried away...)
The idea:
I’ve had the plan to build a good quality replacement for my first – dodgy - work bench for a number of years, but had to wait for a number of factors to work in my favour, before I attempted this. Only took 8 years to come to fruition in the end. Oh well…
I had a 2004 issue of American Woodworker with a great workbench plan in it. The bench had the combination of sturdiness and practicality with lots of internal storage, which were both attractive to me.
The bench:
I needed a planer / thicknesser that was up to the task of milling a great deal of red gum timber that I had salvaged from house frames, to use as the bench top. So my HSS portable 13” planer was replaced late last year by a nice 15” spiral head TC bladed model.
With the purchase of the planer, I was right to start. I’d already purchased some 19mm ply sheets from a closing down Magnet Mart store in the region a couple of years back, so it was a case of starting to cut up the various panels for the cabinet. I made the “mistake” of cutting all the cabinet panels before I started assembly. See my footnotes as to why this wasn’t the best thing to do.
The cabinet went together pretty well with a combination of purchased materials as well as some leftover scrap I had already. (Hence the dark trim on the cabinet face frames)
Then it came to the bench top. I’d specifically purchased the spiral head planer to tackle the redgum hardwood I intended for the top. I thought about this awhile and instead decided to use Vic Ash (E. Regnans). All benches I’ve seen lately rarely had a very dense timber like redgum for the top. The bench in the mag used hard maple, which is similar in hardness to the Vic Ash. So instead of timber I already had in abundance, I splashed out on some rough sawn 150x50 Vic Ash hardwood from a nearby wholesaler.
Having timber that needed to be dressed, I decided, I’d need a new jointer to do the task. So out came the card for a Carbatec long bed 150mm jointer… (This was not originally in the plan)
Once I had the timber dressed and sized, ready for laminating into the sections to make up the top, I had a bit of a conundrum on the best was to glue up the lengths without the pieces moving too much once clamped up. I considered dowels or biscuits, but then came upon the magnificent Festool Domino jointer. Got this through Axminster.co.uk as the exchange rate (at the time) and the price difference to buying locally, too good to pass up. This, although not in the original plan either, turned out to be a heaven sent for the glue up. I originally used it to glue up the excess offcuts of Vic Ash, to make up a couple more useable lengths for the top (end to end) and then used five dominos per length to keep each length reasonably aligned while I glued up groups of three or four at a time. With the dominos in place, I didn’t have too much need for cauls to keep the pieces from misaligning.
Now I started to get a little carried away.
With the domino’s inbuilt dust shute, I had to tape on my current Ryobi shop vac, as the fitting was an incompatible size. On the Festool website, the CT dust extractors were looking pretty attractive, especially with their overhead boom arm that gets the hose and cord in a convenient place. So back to Axminster.co.uk for one of these. Could only get the vac, and will need to get the arm later, but a good purchase.
The top was more or less planed and the three sub sections glued into the final completed top. I’d been umming and ahhing about panel / plunge saws for awhile, and thought that one of these would be perfect for trimming the ends of the bench. Some research and a bit of online enquiry, got me the bees knees of plunge saws. A Mafell MT55. This is the saw, that Festool plunge saw owners have even traded theirs for. Direct from Germany, where like the UK, they’re on 240V 50Hz. All I need is the plug adapter.
So after way too many toys for the workshop purchases, the bench was completed last week, about 7 months after I began. (Having a 2 year old daughter limits my time in the workshop atm) I’m really happy with the result. And start on its first official use soon. The construction of a bed for my daughter, to replace her cot.
Some thoughts about the project:
If, you’re thinking of building this design, take note of the following observations I made.
Happily, I was able to source a variation of every single component that was used in the AW design. Bunnings even carries the same type of hinge used for the doors!
- The plan uses a three inch – 75mm – top and bottom rail for the cabinet face frame. I made the top rail, 2 inches instead. This have me 1 extra inch of height to use for the things stored inside the cabinets.
- As a result, I made the middle drawer, 1 inch higher, instead of the same height as the top drawer.
- I added 1 extra slide out shelf on the right cabinet.
- If you do this, ensure you add 1 inch to the height of the doors and face frame stiles.
- Only cut the long ply panels AFTER you’ve cut and assembled the boxes. This allows you to cut the length accurately. (after the boxes were joined up, my panels were short by a couple of mm)
- One of the “door” panels becomes the three drawer faces. Don’t cut it until you’ve added the trim. It simplifies things to cut it after! The instructions mention this, but I just cut all the panels first, making things a bit more time consuming afterward
- Measure the height of the front vice and its spacing to the bench top, as you may have clearance issues to the cabinet underneath. This is more the case if you use a quick release model that has a lot of extra space taken for the release mechanism.
- I had an imperial tape measure and dual scale on the table saw, so worked in inches, to save trying to convert every measurement. With so many parts and cuts, trying to convert, would be pretty certain to cause a miss-measure and wrong size.
- The design in the mag, uses all hardwood as well as one, “select grade” ply panel for construction. I just used CD ply all round and some pine for the door, end panel and drawer trim.
- The Groz vices both are welded a little bit out of square. As can be seen in one of the photos, I had to use a 1.5mm packer on one side to get the top of the vice parallel with the bench top.
- When I started getting carried away and making excuses for myself to buy the extra workshop power tools, I ended up buying direct from the UK (festool) and Germany (Mafell) as the price difference was just too good to look past. The purchases from Axminster in the UK took only 4 days to arrive too! Note, the exchange rate has dramatically dropped over the past couple of weeks, but you'd still save.
Materials and approximate costs:
Unless mentioned otherwise, hardware was sourced from Bunnings.
$300 19mm ply for cabinet Magnet Mart $55 Steel angle for benchtop $30 screws for construction $650 Vic Ash for bench top Britton Timber $36 Casters $230 Groz vices 7” & 9” Carbatec $12 door hinges. ITW Proline brand $50 glue $255 45kg 600mm full extension drawer runners Woodworks Book and Tool Co. Specialising in fine hand tools and wood working books - The Wood Works Book & Tool Co. $72 Extra ply and hardwood for cabinet $20 knobs for doors / drawers $2300 Planer to initially start project Carbatec Many many $$ For the other machines I bought on impulse UK, Germany I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory...
- The plan uses a three inch – 75mm – top and bottom rail for the cabinet face frame. I made the top rail, 2 inches instead. This have me 1 extra inch of height to use for the things stored inside the cabinets.
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23rd June 2013 04:23 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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23rd June 2013, 04:35 PM #2.
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Bench looks great
I especially like the contrasting woods
Following along with your line of thinking I promised SWMBO some picture frames back in early 2006.
I tried making one using my 2 x saw horse and a paper core wooden door bench top bench and gave up trying to get them square pleading lack of and poor quality tools.
Since then have made a new bench - not as nice as yours, and spent many $$ on machinery and tools, plus extending and refurbing the shed, and SWMBO still complains she has no picture frames.
I don't know what she is complaining about the fly wire doors promised in 1995 were fitted a couple of months ago.
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23rd June 2013, 10:50 PM #3GOLD MEMBER
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I'm trying to work out if this thread is for the tools and machinery your bought or for the workbench and I come to the conclusion that it's for both. Ultimately that's one bloody nice bench and one great write up. Thanks for sharing
-Scott
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24th June 2013, 12:26 AM #4
I'd like to point out a grave oversight in your writeup of this expensive and excellent bench.
You neglected to mention the url of a certain german website...
Having just watched a nifty video on youtube about the mafell saw, I want... nay, need to investigate this further.
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24th June 2013, 09:11 AM #5
A good yarn & a good result, too!
You must have a very harmonious domestic arrangement. While we, of course, readily grasp the necessity & logic of each machine purchased to build that bench, it is unusual to be able to convince the home affairs minister as easily..... Unless, of course, you have mortgaged your soul with promises of a houseful of heirlooms that are about to come pouring off the new bench?
You make me feel so much better, Bob. I promised a set of screens for the French doors onto the veranda two years ago. LOML dropped a hint a month or so back, just a casual remark that the mozzies were still coming in, but I got the drift. So I think I had better try to beat your delivery schedule!
Cheers,IW
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24th June 2013, 10:47 AM #6
Nice bench sir. Now it is time to have fun building projects on it.
Visit my website at www.myFineWoodWork.com
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24th June 2013, 11:52 AM #7
Good stuff.
I've always found that anything spent on stuff in the shed is too much, according to SWMBO.
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24th June 2013, 04:56 PM #8Retired
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Don't you hate that one simple job that turns on the purchase of Yet Another Tool to do it right?
Ah, yes, I NEED that specialised router bit. While I'm on Rockler I really should get that new scraper set. Ooo, the Kreg gear is on special, and the 4 way clamps would be usefull....so I'll..... And so goes another $40 purchase inflated to $400...
I saved on postage, HONEST!
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25th June 2013, 09:25 PM #9
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3rd July 2013, 11:20 PM #10
Nice story thanks for sharing with us
8 years to completion
I don't feel so bad about my bench build nowregards
Nick
veni, vidi, tornavi
Without wood it's just ...
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11th August 2013, 02:46 PM #11Senior Member
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I find the easiest way to convince SWMBO is to say "this new tool is safer than the old one" and I get told "well I think you should get it, any thing safer is a must, I don't want you getting hurt in the shed" oh, ok dear, no worries...!
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15th August 2013, 11:36 AM #12Retired
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15th September 2013, 04:16 PM #13SENIOR MEMBER
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What a wonderful thread! Many thanks to all you blokes. It is a beautiful bench, too, mate. Congratulations and thanks, Bill.
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8th October 2013, 10:57 PM #14New Member
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Very impressive job. I am sure you will enjoy your effort for years to come.
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16th November 2013, 09:42 PM #15
Sorry guys, I stopped receiving notifications of the thread having responses.
The website for the Mafell panel saw.
Holzbearbeitungsmaschinen Holzbearbeitung - Kirchner GmbH
The staff were very helpful. I originally looked up the saw on the Ebay.de site, and contacted them from that. They then sent me an invoice direct with the PayPal link for the purchase.
Sorry for the delay ...I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory...
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