$3 Bench Hold Steady

[Jim Koepke]

Those who have lighter benches may have this same problem; when planing the edges of long boards, the bench lifts on the tail end.
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This used a $3 bag of cement (80 pounds) set into an old soap bucket to keep the end from kicking up.

One edge was cut out to rest on the bottom cross member. The hole was filled in with a piece of scrap and the cut out piece with tape before the cement was mixed inside the bucket.
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It works great. 60 pounds of cement would likely do the job, but the 80 pound bag is only about 50¢ more.

[John Keeton]

Looks like the influence of Jr. Strasil!! Much more reliable than getting a grandkid to sit on the end of the bench 'till you're done.

[Billy Chambless]

That's pretty clever. And those holdfasts look familiar.

[David Keller NC]

There's a slightly different way to do this that's just as cheap and has one advantage - the weight doesn't have to be moved all at once if it becomes necessary to shift the bench location - play sand from the Big Box stores. It's really, really cheap, very dense (so really heavy in a small package), and you can remove several big scoops of it into a 5 gallon bucket to split the weight into two - important for those of us with bad backs.

I made a "sand box" for the lathe I weighted down this way, which has a few advantages over the 5 gallon bucket method (namely, it won't shift, and has a low aspect ratio so it's usually out of the way), but that does increase the budget a bit.

[Jon Toebbe]

Hmm, this was sure timely. Since deciding to go back to grad school, we've moved into an apartment, and my enormous, unfinished basement workshop has been replaced by a 8 ft x 5 ft porch. Hence, my only "workbench" is a homely old Workmate. I've been bracing it with a foot while planing which is... less than ideal A couple of buckets full of sand would be just the ticket to keep things from walking around.

[Jim Koepke]

There's a slightly different way to do this that's just as cheap and has one advantage - the weight doesn't have to be moved all at once if it becomes necessary to shift the bench location - play sand from the Big Box stores. It's really, really cheap, very dense (so really heavy in a small package), and you can remove several big scoops of it into a 5 gallon bucket to split the weight into two - important for those of us with bad backs.

I made a "sand box" for the lathe I weighted down this way, which has a few advantages over the 5 gallon bucket method (namely, it won't shift, and has a low aspect ratio so it's usually out of the way), but that does increase the budget a bit.

I should have taken a before picture of Hold Down 1.0.0 in use before this "improvement." It was just a 60 pound bag of cement laying on the cross member. So for others, just anyway of getting some weight is a good solution.

Hmm, this was sure timely. Since deciding to go back to grad school, we've moved into an apartment, and my enormous, unfinished basement workshop has been replaced by a 8 ft x 5 ft porch. Hence, my only "workbench" is a homely old Workmate. I've been bracing it with a foot while planing which is... less than ideal A couple of buckets full of sand would be just the ticket to keep things from walking around.

For buckets of sand outdoors, you may want to drill some drainage holes and put some cloth on the bottom so rain water can drain but the sand will stay in the bucket.

jim

[glenn bradley]

I love these kinds of ideas. A 90lb bag of ready-crete wrapped in plastic and tossed into the base of my old contractor saw sure steadied things up way back when. Great tip.

[Dave Matson]

For those so cheap they can't stand to even spring for some sand or concrete, you can always go to the local beach and take a little. I live in san francisco and got some from ocean beach to make some 'sand bags' for my little bench. There's plenty more where it came from.

[Tom Vanzant]

My plumber gave me a 53# roll of sheet lead when the codes changed. That and two .50BMG ammo boxes filled with old wheel weights (thank you, Firestone Tires) sit on the lower shelf of my bench, adding ~250# of weight. Due to a very non-flat garage floor, I shimmed three leg to different thicknesses to level the bench, and with back-to-back 60-grit under the feet, there is NO movement!

[Judson Green]

My precious!

Add some color and you've got a coveted item.

Left over concrete from my pours. I had so many I used em as cobble stones.

Buckets 7.jpg cobble.jpg

Yup, those are cured 5 gallon buckets of concrete, most with coloring add to the mix. Just the tops (or bottems depending how you wanna look at it) are you able to see in the last photo.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Judson do your market these? I know one of our local concrete companies produces retaining wall blocks and concrete barriers. I've always thought these were likely left overs from various pours. How large is that cobblestone area? It looks really cool.

[Judson Green]

No I don't/didn't market them. That was a few years ago when I was in the concrete counter top business. Had a few inquiries, but at the time it wasn't worth the trouble. The cobble stoned area was approximately 8' by 14'. Not sure if they would have made for a good retaining wall as they don't stack that well.