Noden Adjust-A-Bench Anyone Using one?

[Charlie Kocourek]

Richard,

The heart of the Jack Bench design is the adjustable height base with a built in mobile base. One jack is used to adjust the top up and down and the other picks the bench up onto the mobile base. The base requires 3 sheets of plywood and about 45 board feet of lumber. I really like what Don has done using plywood in place of the solid wood inside the torsion boxes. A bonus to that is that plywood is less expensive per board foot than solid wood.

As Don mentioned, I am in the process of testing various different scissors jacks. I recommend a jack from a Chevy truck for the upper jack and until just now I recommended one from a Honda Civic for the mobile base. These run $10-$15 each at salvage yards. I am changing my recommendation on the jack for the mobile base to a motorcycle lift jack. This is a definite improvement for that application, but they go for $89. In addition to the jacks, the base requires 4-3" casters, 4-3/4" pipe clamps, and some miscellaneous hardware.

You can attach almost any bench top to the mobile base. The bench top in the plans will require about 45 board feet of lumber.

I am always willing to answer questions or to help others with their bench projects, so let me know if you would like any other information on the Jack Bench.

Thanks!
Charlie Kocourek

[richard poitras]

Allen, that’s a nice looking bench you made and designed. The robust design looks like it helps in stability. Thanks for posting.
Charlie I appreciate you giving a little more insight about your bench as well and its design. I am still on the fence in regards to what I am doing for a new bench. I know I could save buy building from the ground up but time is always a big factor in my shop.
I will keep all things in my mind as I determine my needs, time and budget.


Thanks Richard

[Jim Becker]

For those of you that have the bench have you made a cabinet for the lower part or a shelf or just left it open?

I just have a simple shelf under mine for now. I may build a cabinet in the future. BTW, I originally bought mine with the mobility kit, but ended up preferring not to use it...I kept whacking my ankles on the angles, as it were, and rarely move my bench, anyway. I made a pair of more conventional "bench feet" for mine and have been very happy with the product.

[Peter Stahl]

Richard,

That is hard to say; I've used a lot of plywood scraps around the shop to make the many torsion box pieces. As an example, I recently purchased a planer from Grizzly and used all of the crate as "innards" to build up the internal pieces of the torsion box ribs and some of the outside "skins". I have purchased a total of 5 sheets of 3/4 and 1/2 plywood, so that's about $125. I've also upgraded the scissor jacks (the original Jack Bench used two used scissor jacks from a junk yard (car parts yard) for about $10 each; I purchased two, more robust jacks from Northern Tool, so have about $110 in those. I had a bunch of oak wood from a project about 10 years ago that I never built, so I will laminate that to have a bench top. So, in my case, without the cost of the vise, I should get by with spending less than $400. If I remember correctly, I didn't want to pay the over $1,000 for the Ajusta Bench. In regards to the Jack Bench, Charlie (the inventor) is currently testing other jacks to see what is the best fit; that's where I got the idea of using Northern Tool's jacks and I also picked up some cheap casters there as well. One final word...I used plywood, even though it takes more wood glue and prep time, becasue of its stability. When finished with all of the assemblies as noted in my build pictures above, everything was flat with no twists, which is criticle. Hope this helps.

Don,

Your bench looks great so far, can't wait to see it finished. Could you tell me which jacks you bought from Northern. Will this bench be easy to get apart if you move?

[Mike Henderson]

I've thought a lot about an adjustable bench where the adjustment is done with a jack, and have a question about the use of one jack to adjust it. A single jack would have to be placed in the middle in order to somewhat balance the load. Once you adjust it, it seems that you'd have to lock the adjustment mechanism in some way to keep the top from rocking (because of the single jack point). Do these jack adjustable benches require you to lock the bench after doing the adjustment?

Or are they stable enough for use on the jack?

I've never seen one of the commercial products to see how they do it.

Mike

[Alan Schaffter]

Mike, I wondered the same thing. There must be a little flex or play in the typical screw or hydraulic scissor jack so the position of the top, especially at the ends, must change some. I think there would be significant lateral movement as well. I guess the better ones are more stable. I don't know if you can tell from my earlier bench photos, but when the pawls engage the leg ratchets, the angled pawl arms also draw the legs which have mating "V" surfaces, together and make it incredibly stable. The more weight the tighter they are drawn together.

I thought about adding a jack to my bench just to raise it, and use my ratcheting leg mechanism to support the weight once it is at the desired height. I don't change the height of my bench all that often, so I decided to forgo the jack. When it gets to the point I can't lift 1/2 of the bench top up a few inches to adjust it, it will probably be time to hang up my shop apron.

[richard poitras]

I've thought a lot about an adjustable bench where the adjustment is done with a jack, and have a question about the use of one jack to adjust it. A single jack would have to be placed in the middle in order to somewhat balance the load. Once you adjust it, it seems that you'd have to lock the adjustment mechanism in some way to keep the top from rocking (because of the single jack point). Do these jack adjustable benches require you to lock the bench after doing the adjustment?

Or are they stable enough for use on the jack?

I've never seen one of the commercial products to see how they do it.

Mike

Mike I looked at the video on the jack bench and once you raise or lower the bench with the jacks you then lock it down with the built in bar clamps to secure it from moving or racking from what I can tell.
Richard

[Doug Shepard]

Richard
I've got a Noden bench
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...8-Bench-Update
Not sure how far from me you are but if you want to check out the Noden hardware close up, drop me a PM or email sometime.

[Peter Stahl]

Mike, I wondered the same thing. There must be a little flex or play in the typical screw or hydraulic scissor jack so the position of the top, especially at the ends, must change some. I think there would be significant lateral movement as well. I guess the better ones are more stable. I don't know if you can tell from my earlier bench photos, but when the pawls engage the leg ratchets, the angled pawl arms also draw the legs which have mating "V" surfaces, together and make it incredibly stable. The more weight the tighter they are drawn together.

I thought about adding a jack to my bench just to raise it, and use my ratcheting leg mechanism to support the weight once it is at the desired height. I don't change the height of my bench all that often, so I decided to forgo the jack. When it gets to the point I can't lift 1/2 of the bench top up a few inches to adjust it, it will probably be time to hang up my shop apron.

Ask the inventor Charlie Kocourek, he posted in this thread. Click on his name and go to his web site, he has a real nice video.

[Mike Henderson]

Mike, I wondered the same thing. There must be a little flex or play in the typical screw or hydraulic scissor jack so the position of the top, especially at the ends, must change some. I think there would be significant lateral movement as well. I guess the better ones are more stable. I don't know if you can tell from my earlier bench photos, but when the pawls engage the leg ratchets, the angled pawl arms also draw the legs which have mating "V" surfaces, together and make it incredibly stable. The more weight the tighter they are drawn together.

I thought about adding a jack to my bench just to raise it, and use my ratcheting leg mechanism to support the weight once it is at the desired height. I don't change the height of my bench all that often, so I decided to forgo the jack. When it gets to the point I can't lift 1/2 of the bench top up a few inches to adjust it, it will probably be time to hang up my shop apron.

I looked at your video and I understand how your bench works. It's a good design. When I build mine, I will probably use some of your ideas. Thanks for posting that.

I didn't understand how the jack assisted benches work.

Mike

[Don L Johnson]

Peter,

I purchased the Torin Scissor Jack, 2 ton, 20" lift, that will be used to lift up the bench top; the one I got to lift up the base so the whole bench can be mobile is the Torin Jacks Lift Table - 1,100 lb capacity model #TRE4101. In regards to tear down, it can be broken down into several pieces. The bench top is separate, the upper legs assembly, two separate lower legs, and then the four bar clamp spacer assemblies, upper shelf and lower shelf assemblies. I don't think Charlie mentioned, but there really is a lot of ease in making the benchtop larger, smaller, wider, longer...you get the picture. Hope this helps.

[Will Blick]

Charlie, brilliant design, great web site....
I own two Noden benches, they work very well, but had I seen Charlies design, I would have opted for his plans instead...
mainly for two reasons....
Noden Benches are often on Casters, you must lock each wheel for stability.... time consuming and not very stable....
Noden benches are not very solid vs. a bench like Charlies...
oh, and the obvious one, I have wrenched my back lifting my Noden bench to move it down.....
I always wanted a power drill option for up/down and wheel raising.... but was too lazy to design and conceive the task, was just too busy...
your plans with all the bugs worked out is a steal for $30... kudos to a job well done.....

[Peter Stahl]

Peter,

I purchased the Torin Scissor Jack, 2 ton, 20" lift, that will be used to lift up the bench top; the one I got to lift up the base so the whole bench can be mobile is the Torin Jacks Lift Table - 1,100 lb capacity model #TRE4101. In regards to tear down, it can be broken down into several pieces. The bench top is separate, the upper legs assembly, two separate lower legs, and then the four bar clamp spacer assemblies, upper shelf and lower shelf assemblies. I don't think Charlie mentioned, but there really is a lot of ease in making the benchtop larger, smaller, wider, longer...you get the picture. Hope this helps.

Thanks for info Don.

[Charlie Kocourek]

Charlie, brilliant design, great web site....
I own two Noden benches, they work very well, but had I seen Charlies design, I would have opted for his plans instead...
mainly for two reasons....
Noden Benches are often on Casters, you must lock each wheel for stability.... time consuming and not very stable....
Noden benches are not very solid vs. a bench like Charlies...
oh, and the obvious one, I have wrenched my back lifting my Noden bench to move it down.....
I always wanted a power drill option for up/down and wheel raising.... but was too lazy to design and conceive the task, was just too busy...
your plans with all the bugs worked out is a steal for $30... kudos to a job well done.....

Thanks for the compliment, Will! I had many criteria when I designed my bench. It had to be:

• A "Real" woodworking workbench (bench dogs, lots of verisitility, etc)
• At least 12" of height adjustment. With the right jack there is 14" of adjustment.
• EASY to operate. I reasoned that I might not adjust it unless I could do it quickly and easily. Since I knew it would be heavy I wanted some mechanical advantage to adjust it.
• Solid. NO rocking, moving, bouncing, etc.
• Mobile. Again, this had to be easy.
• Access from underneath for hold downs.
• Good toe clearance.

I had it for a year before I realized I could operate it with a drill. Truthfully, it works so well with a crank handle that I rarely use a drill.

[Charlie Kocourek]

• I don't have one, but have seen them at WW shows. The Adjusta-bench is well made, but it isn't cheap. The most expensive parts of any WW bench are the top and vises. If you go with top dollar stuff like Bench Crafted vises, the cost can be considerable when you add expensive legs. But, if you want/need an adjustable bench, don't mind the cost, and don't want to spend the time building one yourself, Adjusta-bench is the way to go. American Woodworker did a review of it a few years ago.
  
  For me the cost was way too much, plus I like challenges, so I designed and built my own adjustable bench. I spent less on the entire bench than it would have cost me for the Adjusta-bench leg system alone. It adjusts in 1" increments, is very stable, and works great. It is made mostly from hardwood and uses inexpensive home center hardware for the mechanism. I was going to offer the plans for sale but never got around to smoothing up the SketchUp drawings. Here is a link to a video tour that shows how it adjusts.
  

Alan, I saw your article in American Woodworker when it came out. Congratulations on that! I hadn't seen your video until now, and I have to say that I am very impressed with your craftsmanship. I especially like the way you installed the twin screw vise; very clever!