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+-- Thread: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure (/showthread.php?tid=3058880)
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - mstens - 10-26-2007
Yea, they were $10 to ship.. might as well fill up that box!
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - msweig - 10-26-2007
Mike's number sounds about right. I asked that question over a year ago and someone said 8 3/4". Like mike said use 9.5-10" to give you some wiggle room.
Quote:
How thick is your bench CT? The Gramercy holdfast do not work in thicker benches.
Just cut a clearance to the underside of the hole. Then they will work. What you want to do is make the bench a thickness that will work in the areas you are using the holdfasts.
mark
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - Jonathan S - 10-26-2007
Looking good. Nice solution to the tenons!! That had not occurred to me.
Jonathan
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - Crooked Tail - 10-28-2007
Wow. What a weekend! I'm still all in one piece. Between parade, eating, drinking, birthday parties, rabbit hunting, shuffleboard, and general Nevada Day merry-making, I somehow managed to fit in some woodworking. Whew. Good thing tomorrow's Monday... I need to go to work to have some time to recover.
So I actually have base v. 2.0 basically finished. I am so sick of mortises and tenons.
Actually, the mortises aren't bad at all... in fact, they are sort of fun. It's the dang tenons, and/or my lack of a proper tenon saw. I was frustrated enough that I was actually getting out the credit card to fire on $400 worth of LN saws and express shipping. But, thankfully for my Christmas budget, I came to my senses just in time. Dead bug test fit:
I think the non-solution solution to the through tenons on the feet will work out just fine.
Way to many of these lately:
The holes for the bolts:
And... voila!
It so far feels much stouter and heavier than the old base. It has a slight wobble to it, so I guess I'll be planing the feet tomorrow morning. But I'll have to get the top on it to really see how it will work. Once more, I need to wait for someone to help me move the top.
There is 16" between the top and bottom stretchers, so that's the max height of my cabinets. I should have plenty of room for holdfasts, though.
I'm hoping that after a coat of finish, the poplar will match the maple somewhat more. I got some Watco Danish Oil and some Teak Oil, so I'm going to play with some scraps to see how those turn out.
Whew, man, I'm exhausted. Bed time for me.
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - FordPrefect - 10-29-2007
That is a nice looking base, CT. You did the right thing by rebuilding it.
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - Bob Zajicek - 10-29-2007
... dead bug test fit. ROTFLMAO!!!
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It has a slight wobble to it, so I guess I'll be planing the feet tomorrow morning.
That wobble may have nothing to do with your feet (the bench's
) at all. Likely, its the uneveness of your garage floor or an induced twist from the stretchers. I wouldn't do a thing to the feet yet, wait until you get the top on and just shim them as necessary. If it's a twist, it's probably going to settle out. That trestle is really looking good, BTW. I think you made the right choice building another.
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - Crooked Tail - 10-29-2007
Thanks guys! I guess the pictures must be coming up... they are timing out for me here at work... hopefully they haven't blocked my website with their firewall.
I will have to do some final clean up on the sides of the top before putting it on the new base. I'm also considering screwing and gluing an additional strip underneath to make the top 3.5" thick where the holes for the holdfasts will go. Boy, let's hope no one ever looks at the underside of this thing... it is going to really look like a hodge-podge, I-don't-know-what-I'm-doing, hack job. When I build my next bench...
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - Ted C - 10-29-2007
Funny how you go from being sick of tenons on your Sunday post and by Monday you're talking about your next bench
. I guess having a good bench would make it easier to build another bench.Great job on the bench, CT and thanks for taking us along for the trip. A truly enjoyable thread.
Ted
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - Crooked Tail - 10-30-2007
It has certainly been an incredible learning project! I understand now why it is somewhat of a tradition for beginners to build a bench as a first or nearly first project (this is my third project). Because of the various mistakes I've made, I'm sure I'll want to build another sometime down the road, but my confidence level has gone way up after learning so much here.
So anyway, here's one especially for mpphoto:
Upsy-daisey:
The top sits on the base on two 3/4" dowels, and I stuck a couple lag screws in it also.
I'm very happy with it. It is rock solid, night-and-day difference between it and the old base. I push and pull on the bench from every angle and it doesn't budge! This was definitely worth the extra time, effort, and money to rebuild it. I had my doubts for a while, but now that it's all together, I'm very glad I redid it. My only regret is that I didn't spring for the maple instead of poplar. But that also saved me about $150. I think that means I'm entitled to spend that $150 on a tenon saw.
Or a nice dovetail saw... or a shoulder plane... or... This is exciting... it means part II of the adventure will begin soon: the cabinets!
So.... does anyone want a slightly used, light duty dougfir and poplar stand...
Re: CT's Most Excellent Workbench Adventure - mpphoto - 10-30-2007
Crooked Tail said:
So anyway, here's one especially for mpphoto:
Giggle, giggle... it's upside down.
Yes, I'm easily amused
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This was definitely worth the extra time, effort, and money to rebuild it. I had my doubts for a while, but now that it's all together, I'm very glad I redid it.
That must be a great feeling. As usual, I'm very impressed. It looks fantastic and it sounds like you're now a benchmaking expert.
My bench components are all milled and dimensioned, the cabinet carcasses are made and hopefully at some point I can put all of the pieces together so I can start to use it. This thread has been incredibly helpful to me and I'm sure to many others as well; thanks so much. I
m glad you're still going to do the cabinets, I'd hate to see this thread end...
As for the old trestles, maybe you could build a smaller assembly table? Can't have too many tables in the shop.
Excellent work CT-
Michael