Hi, gentlemen.
I'll be as brief as I can.
I am planning to expand from building electric guitars to also doing traditional hand building of furniture and/or anything else I might think I would enjoy. Traditional joinery, dovetails, mortise and tenon, half laps, dados, etc.
I have been building guitars for 7-8 years using a Black and Decker Workmate. I have done things with a plane like flattening the bodies, truing up scarf joints cut by hand, etc., by simply butting the legs of the workmate against a heavy steel tool chest I have out on my porch ( the tool chests you see on the back of work trucks, etc.). Not the most stable platform for planing, but it has worked so far. But if I am going to be doing more hand building, I realize I truly do need a larger, heavier, more stable woodworking bench.
My problem is that I live in a trailer, and my funds are limited. So building a shed/workshop is out of the question. I have a 10x12 metal garden shed(like the Arrow sheds, etc.) that I could put up. But the ceiling is low, and I'm not an electrician, nor do I have the cash to pay someone to run electric, or the knowledge to do it myself, deal with inspectors, building code compliance, landlord concerns, yada yada yada. I also don't want to turn the shed into a shop because I want to be able to film for Youtube, etc., perhaps a very amateur woodworking channel, and I don't think I could get the lighting right in a dark shed.
So, since I have been building outdoors on my porch for 7-8 years, I know working outdoors is feasible.
My plan is this:
Build a bench from reclaimed 2x4, untreated SPF. I don't think I'd be able to find treated 2x4 people are giving away, but I might be able to find old interior studs, etc., that people who have done renovations, repairs and such to their homes are trying to get rid of. I also don't fancy using my planes on treated wood. I know it will take time to gather, but I believe it is doable.
So, build a nice, large bench, using traditional methods, using Titebond III for glue up. If I need more weight, sandbags on a bottom shelf should do the trick. Cover the bench with Thompson's Water Seal, set the feet on patio stone, and cover with a tarp while not in use. Location would be my back yard, and I would erect the shed as a place to store wood and ongoing projects, and build a tool chest with castors that housed all of my tools, so that I could move them back and forth from my house to the bench when building.
I know that the bench will shift with seasonal changes, so I'm not likely to have a dead flat surface for very long. I could resurface from time to time, or just work around it. I know I could do this, as I have already been working around things like this for several years, now.
I also know, being untreated, even when sealed, that I'd probably only get about 5 years out of the bench. I don't have a problem rebuilding when the time comes, and in the meantime I may come up with a better option.
I will be going through some of the bench build threads here, but thought to get experienced opinions from this community, particularly those who have faced/overcome similar limitations.
Thanks in advance to all.
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Originally Posted by Jim Koepke
