Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

[Erron in Arnprior [OP]]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Thanks John, Kerry, et al,

If I had the cash, I'd build a nice solid cabinetmaker's bench. I probably will one day. 3 children 6 & under, cars and mortgage etc etc. The first project I built on the bench was a Mickey Mouse mirror.

The bench is quite stable and let's me approach woodworking from a whole new perspective. Seems to make things easier. I'm very pleased with the results. (relieved too, didn't want to build another one!)

Cheers
Erron.

[BearLeeAlive]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Fantastic job, especially given your resources. That bench will serve you great for many years. Heck, you may never really have to build that solid bench you are thinking of doing in the future.

[KenL]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Erron,

Nice work!! Where in the heck did you get 1 1/2 Baltic birch ply??

Your observation that a decent bench makes the work easier is on target; the workbench is an essential tool. Funny how most of us start out with a make do and then eventually get into a decent bench. I built several benches over the years from various plans and ideas with varied results then finally built one that I really like from the LeeValley plans using their vise hardware (of course I modified it to suit my personal tastes).

Your bench is pretty cool and I rather like the hold-downs. Any objections if I plagiarize them?

Ken in Ottawa

[michaely]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Thanks Marty,

I had considered MDF for all or part of the project. It certainly would have added weight. In the end I was concerned with dents and dings and spilling the odd tasty beverage, accidentally of course. I've been known to rest my coffee cup in places I shouldn't.

Sticking with one material made things easier measuring thickness. I also could have taken the whole bench from one sheet of ply. easier in that sense as well. Everything is screwed together and made of easily replaceable parts. If a year from now things go awry, I might consider a switch.

Cheers
Erron.

Erron

A lot of thought has gone into the design. I also find it interesting that 'everything is screwed together and made of easily replaceable parts".

A question about flatness of the benchtop.
Was this an important consideration and, if so, your thoughts about the top surface staying flat or returning it to flatness? (I find as flat as possible a benchtop - or at least flat long strip at the front the bench - neat to have as a readily available 'straightedge' when dressing wood.)
Because the end caps are substantially made of plywood while the rest of the substructure of the "torsion box" is solid wood, I could see some different rates of wood movement under the baltic ply top messing up initial benchtop flatness down the road. But if the Baltic top surface is also screwed on, you presumeably could do some shimming underneath it to counter that wood movement.
How do you 'screw down' 6/4 baltic ply? I was looking to see metal inserts in the vertical substructure for machine bolts.

congratulations and thanks for posting

michael

[Erron in Arnprior [OP]]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Erron,

Nice work!! Where in the heck did you get 1 1/2 Baltic birch ply??

Your bench is pretty cool and I rather like the hold-downs. Any objections if I plagiarize them?

Ken in Ottawa

Hi Ken and thanks.

Looks like a few people have made the same mistake. I used one and a half sheets of 5x5 ply to make the bench. Not 1.5" thick ply. The ply is 18mm. Sorry for the confusion.

The clamps are already plagiarized. Go right ahead. In fact I surprised no one has given me flack for it. I quite relieved.

I had a broken bar clamp that I used for the hold-down arm. 1/4" steel. To bend it I had to hack through it half way, heat it up with my mapp/oxy torch, then bend it. Weld the gaps shut and grind to a shine.

Cheers,
Erron

[Kerry in Fort Sask, AB]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Erron

A lot of thought has gone into the design. I also find it interesting that 'everything is screwed together and made of easily replaceable parts".

A question about flatness of the benchtop.
Was this an important consideration and, if so, your thoughts about the top surface staying flat or returning it to flatness? (I find as flat as possible a benchtop - or at least flat long strip at the front the bench - neat to have as a readily available 'straightedge' when dressing wood.)
Because the end caps are substantially made of plywood while the rest of the substructure of the "torsion box" is solid wood, I could see some different rates of wood movement under the baltic ply top messing up initial benchtop flatness down the road. But if the Baltic top surface is also screwed on, you presumeably could do some shimming underneath it to counter that wood movement.
How do you 'screw down' 6/4 baltic ply? I was looking to see metal inserts in the vertical substructure for machine bolts.

congratulations and thanks for posting

michael

Michael - respectfully, you misread the original post. The whole top, tortion box included is plywood. No movement issues here.

Kerry

[Erron in Arnprior [OP]]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Erron

A lot of thought has gone into the design. I also find it interesting that 'everything is screwed together and made of easily replaceable parts".

A question about flatness of the benchtop.
Was this an important consideration and, if so, your thoughts about the top surface staying flat or returning it to flatness? (I find as flat as possible a benchtop - or at least flat long strip at the front the bench - neat to have as a readily available 'straightedge' when dressing wood.)
Because the end caps are substantially made of plywood while the rest of the substructure of the "torsion box" is solid wood, I could see some different rates of wood movement under the baltic ply top messing up initial benchtop flatness down the road. But if the Baltic top surface is also screwed on, you presumeably could do some shimming underneath it to counter that wood movement.
How do you 'screw down' 6/4 baltic ply? I was looking to see metal inserts in the vertical substructure for machine bolts.

congratulations and thanks for posting

michael

Thanks Michael, I guess there is a bit of confusion over the ply I used. I used 18mm (3/4") baltic birch plywood. I needed one and a halk 5x5 sheets to make the bench. Thicker parts are screwed together with inch and a quarter screws.

I'm not worried about the flatness. Is it flat to within 001? Nope. Does a board fresh of the jointer rock while I'm planing? Nope. Perfect. Time will tell and we'll see if there are any major warp issues next year this time, but I'm not too worried.

Cheers,
Erron.

[GolfSteve in Calgary]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Beauty of a bench, Erron. I like that you included a quick release vise on the back of the bench. That is a feature that I miss on the "traditional" cabinet maker's bench configuration that only has a shoulder vice and a tail vice.

Good luck getting any woodworking done with all those kids running around.

Steven

[Egon]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Nice Bench. Well Done!

[flairwoodworks]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

\]
The clamps are already plagiarized. Go right ahead. In fact I surprised no one has given me flack for it. I quite relieved. \

I know they are BASED ON another design and you didn't state that. Is that plagarism? Personally, I think yours look nicer. (Have I said that already?)

EDIT: MINE WILL BE BETTER!

[mreza]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Nice bench Erron. I'll keep that in mind when I decide to build mine.
Well done!

[Stephan in St George]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Very nice. Like the bench.

Stephan

[michaely]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Michael - respectfully, you misread the original post. The whole top, tortion box included is plywood. No movement issues here.

Kerry

I stand corrected.... taking a second look at third photo I can now see that it is not only the end caps but the middle and outside longerons of the torsion box structure that are also made of plywood......with all of the torsion box internal/side structure being ply, there would not be any wood movement.....thanks for the correction....

Erron,
I'm assuming that the whole bench - top and bottom surfaces, sides/internal structure - is made for 5' by 5' sheets of 3/4"/18mm baltic ply.
If so how many sheets of the stuff did you use and what is the overall length and width of the benchtop? Just curious.

thanks

michael

[tony caro]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Great work Erron, I really like your holddown, are they off a plan? I'd like to make some but have to get my head around how the mechanism works.

[shrlok]

Re: Homemade Bench, Twin screw vise and holdowns!

Big fan of your bench, some great ideas here! Thanks for sharing.