Thread: Mediocrity is my Middle Name

Im not posting pics of my dodgy bench (too ugly).

Made it when I first got interested in woodwork out of radiata offcuts from the house being built next door.

Ross

Oooow!!! Where did you get those curtins????? I just have to have some tooo.

Seriously, 'tis solid & it works. I have one of those Frankensteins that came
with a shed in the back yard of a house we bought about 8 years ago.

I have since met the previous owner, he's an ex-metalworker from a shipyard.

The bench is bigger & uglier that yours, & takes 4 blokes to move it....
I guess that's why it's still there.

The top is 3 slabs of 12" x 2" hard, grey, about 5' long with splinters like daggers.

I bolted a 4" vice to it & it looks like an earing on a camel. :eek:
I bolted a 6" grinder to it & it looks like... the other earing.

I won't take a photo of it 'cos it's not worth the dose of hayfever I'll get
taking the dust off it.

Untill I finish the bench I'm making (very part time!) I'll still be using Ol' faithfull, the B'nD Workmate out in the backyard and packed away each night.

One day its a router table, next it's a spindle sander, cutting horse, finishing table, thicknesser stand, etc.

Only job it really doesn't do well is holding the timber while I hand plane it. I end up chasing the Workmate around the yard as it kicks and bucks with each swipe.

I may have exagerated that last bit, just a little.

As many of us know, you don't need a bench built like the Ark of the Covenant to produce nice furniture (phew).

But I'm sure it helps.

You know what they say, it's not how (insert describing word here) your bench is, it's how you use it.


Ben.

That Frankenstein is my kind of bench. Love it.

At least you have a workbench... I use my 1940's table saw and an old billiards table as my work surfaces

SilentC
that is truelly a work of ART

Should be in a gallery, huh?



Where's Hagrid?

Form, function and purpose. I like it!! Are you happy with the drawers under the bench? Better than say a separate cabinet above the bench?

Happy is such a relative term, don't you think?

The problem I have is a severe lack of wall space. Some parts of my shed have no walls at all. The added advantage of the drawers is that I can pull one out slightly and use it to support long items clamped in the vice.

when I bought my house the owner took his wall bolted bench with him! bastard! I built one myself out of treated pine and laminated kitchen benchtop until I build meself a real one.

Darren you should rename it "frankenbench"

I sometimes worry about what it gets up to down there at night when I'm asleep. My kids wont go in there after dark :eek:

One thing for sure is it ain't going anywhere. Looks heavy to me. Which is what you want of course.

Can't post a pic until I get one of them new fangled digital gizmos

A wood-working bench is definately high up on the list of "must do". I have what I consider a general purpose bench in my shed, which seems to double a storage rack for anything I want to put down. I'm hopeless when it comes to flat surfaces.
I also use the old Triton mark 3 extension table as a bit of a bench.

It makes little difference though as I've only been able to do one real wood working project since we moved into this house.

BTW if you put those curtains over it you could probably be able to put it in a gallary.

SC,

Love the curtains and burst out laughing at Cliffs post I like the used and abused look of the bench, it's what I see in the mirror every morning, a bench performs a function and should be used not displayed and never played with.

I have a bench built into the corner of my garage which is constantly covered in crap, I'll dig out the video camera and take a still and post it soon.

HH.