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Thread: Easy Breakdown/Portable Work bench

  1. #1

    Easy Breakdown/Portable Work bench

    For the last year or so I've been trying to come up with a way to haul my tools and a work bench in the motorhome. I've built a classic style tool chest but it was way too big and heavy to use and have now settled on Japanese tool boxes as the answer for tool storage/transportation. The hangup has been a usable work bench. I ran many designs through my head but for all there was always a "yes but", until I ran across Will Myers' video on building a Moravian work bench. All the "yes buts" were answered.

    The build process is well under way. I found a nice European Beech 8/4 slab for the top and I'm using some HD construction grade DF for the base. I expect after the September Oregon trip I will re-make the base using Beech or Poplar. Once completed the bench will break down into 7 component parts the heaviest being the slab ( a 8/4 X 1500mm X 280mm hunk of Beech) heavy but still easy to manage.

    You can't tell much from this photo but here are the almost completed legs in position for measuring/marking the location and size of the long stretcher mortises.

    benchLegsWithStretcher170729dscf1898.jpg

    After chopping the long stretcher mortises I will add a short dove tailed stretcher to the leg set to finish the base.

    I have a wood screw on order for the vise, once it arrives the bench should be finished in a few days. BTW, I'm thinking about using a two tone Milk Paint finish on the base....Hide the DF don'tchknow.

    ken

  2. #2
    I like it.
    On the bench build I'm in the middle of, I'll be connecting the top with lag bolts. It is being built from 2x4 lumber, so it's heavy, but not as heavy as a hardwood bench might be. Theoretically I could disconnect the top and stow it in my van(my base is much like yours), if I wanted to move it.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Baker 2 View Post
    I like it.
    On the bench build I'm in the middle of, I'll be connecting the top with lag bolts. It is being built from 2x4 lumber, so it's heavy, but not as heavy as a hardwood bench might be. Theoretically I could disconnect the top and stow it in my van(my base is much like yours), if I wanted to move it.
    Thanks Mike,

    Just a question, why lag bolts instead of pegs? If you do use lag bolts, use SPAX brand. HD carries them. They are self tapping, although I normally will drill a pilot hole, and will not break like normal lag bolts.

    ken

  4. #4
    My bench will spend it's entire life outside, so the base will sit on concrete blocks which sit on the ground. Even so, I reckon the base will rot faster than the top, as it's closer to the ground. With the lag bolts, I can pull the top off and slip another base under it if I need to.
    And I'll check out the SPAX bolts. Thanks.

  5. #5
    Working the construction grade DF for the work bench base was a reminder of the importance of sharp tools and even more the need to have a sharpening bench close and ready. What ever the wood of all the tools and appliances in the shop the sharpening bench is second in importance only to the main work bench. Mine is located just off the left end of the main bench, just a step or two away.

    sharpeningBenchMainWorkBench170729dscf1909.jpg



    This sharpening bench was the first work bench I built. At the time I hadn't a clue about anything, I had started reading Fine Woodworking and knew I needed a wood working bench but couldn't afford a ready made. I don't know if you have seen very many Russian airplanes, if not you may not understand the reference, The bench is like a Russian airplane, if you didn't look too hard it looked somewhat like a wood working bench. I made it out of SYP because that was all I could afford, not knowing that CS would many years later make a SYP bench fashionable. Bottom line over the years it has worked well in several different shop roles, the last being as a sharpening bench.


    I've tried many configurations for the sharpening bench, just the primary stones on top of the bench, both oil and water stones on either end, even at one time having a Tormek on the bench. What I've settled on is just the primary use stones along with the primary strop, horse butt leather with green stuff, on the bench and all other stones stored in cabinets above the bench.

    sharpeningBench170729dscf1902.jpg


    In the stone pond are my goto stones a med India and a Translucent Arkansas oil stone, Sometimes I will change from the Translucent to a Hard Black Arkansas. The Translucent has a better "feel" than the Hard Black, it has a little "tooth" where the Hard Black is slicker than snot. Scratch pattern and speed between the two are about the same. Go figure. Right now there are a couple of Spyderco stones sitting between the Arkansas stones because yesterday I had to sharpen one of the few A2 irons in the shop. The Spyderco's will return to the oil stone cabinet soon. On the far right you may be able to see a diamond lapping plate, I used it the other day to lap and re-fresh some oil stones Ralph at the accidental woodworker blog was kind enough to send me. The lapping plate will also return to its place in the oil stone storage cabinet above the bench.

    The oil stone storage cabinet also stores misc junk and several (way too many) honing guides.

    sharpeningBenchOilStoneCabinet170729dscf1904.jpg

    In a separate cabinet to the right are my water stones, man made stones on the bottom shelf and natural Japanese water stones on the top shelf.

    sharpeningBenchWaterStoneCabinet170729dscf1906.jpg




    It has taken time to get to this point, the old story of kissing frogs, but for now unless I get another bright idea to try this is my basic sharpening set up.


    If interested click 'em to big 'em.

    ken

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    USA
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    If this is the video it looks like a very nice project. Where will you carry this?

  7. #7
    Very nice. I use India and Arkansas stones when honing my chisels and planes, but I carry a 400/1k diamond plate and a pasted strop with me to the bench when I work for touch up, although I seldom need to use anything more than the strop, since I tend to refresh an edge early rather than later.
    I have a big wooden crate that used to hold industrial equipment that I use as a secondary table for keeping the tools and parts I'm not working with clear of the bench, but I intend to build a proper bench for that at a later date.
    I need to complete my primary bench and throw some Thompson's Water Seal on it first.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
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    Quote Originally Posted by ken hatch View Post
    Thanks Mike,

    Just a question, why lag bolts instead of pegs? If you do use lag bolts, use SPAX brand. HD carries them. They are self tapping, although I normally will drill a pilot hole, and will not break like normal lag bolts.
    Spax are nice, so are GRK RSS screws. Both have a few advantages:
    • They're self-tapping as you said
    • They're made of hardened/high-strength steel, so you can use a smaller-diameter screw for any required strength than with a common lag bolt. You still need depth to get good retention in the wood, of course.
    • They both use non-camming drivers. Spax are generally square-head-drive, while GRK use Torx drivers.

    With all of that said, when building something like this that will be repeatedly set up and torn down I usually go with long 1/4-20 threaded inserts (something like this) and machine screws. Traditional Neander (tm) ones, of course :-).

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Pat Barry View Post
    If this is the video it looks like a very nice project. Where will you carry this?
    Pat,

    That is the one. I'm building close to his build. The largest component will be the slab and it is sized to fit in the motorhome's forward port side storage bin. The legs, vise, tool tray, and long stretchers will also fit the same bin.

    We leave for a month in Oregon Labor Day weekend. If the vise screw makes it as advertised the bench will get its shake down run then.

    BTW, I finished one of the long stretcher mortises this morning before the heat (over 105F) ran me out of the shop. Just three more to go and the base will be finished. Because of the size of the mortise I had to chop double mortises and then chisel out the middle. It went reasonably quickly, less than an hour, I would guess a little over 30 minuets to finish what is in effect four mortises plus chopping out the middle.

    ken

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
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    Quote Originally Posted by ken hatch View Post
    The bench is like a Russian airplane, if you didn't look too hard it looked somewhat like a wood working bench. I made it out of SYP because that was all I could afford, not knowing that CS would many years later make a SYP bench fashionable. Bottom line over the years it has worked well in several different shop roles, the last being as a sharpening bench.
    The thing with Russian airplanes is that they can be ugly and poorly finished (non-flush rivet-heads, etc) but they usually are quite functional and lethal once they take to the air. There are much worse things that a tool could be compared to :-).

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Chase View Post
    The thing with Russian airplanes is that they can be ugly and poorly finished (non-flush rivet-heads, etc) but they usually are quite functional and lethal once they take to the air. There are much worse things that a tool could be compared to :-).
    Might be that he only meant "not the best"

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Chase View Post
    The thing with Russian airplanes is that they can be ugly and poorly finished (non-flush rivet-heads, etc) but they usually are quite functional and lethal once they take to the air. There are much worse things that a tool could be compared to :-).
    Quote Originally Posted by Mel Fulks View Post
    Might be that he only meant "not the best"
    Have you seen their copy of the Falcon 50, It looks like a cartoon version with tractor tires, their version of a 727 is even worse, looks like the engineers got a 30 sec peek at a Boeing 727 and then built it from memory. Of course if you have ever landed on a Russian runway you would understand the tractor tires.

    Patrick is correct in some aspects, ten, twelve years ago I watched one of the Russian vectored thrust fighters put on a show at the Paris Air Show. What a display of the impossible, proof that with enough thrust you can make anything fly.

    My bench's relationship to a "real" wood workers bench was about the same as the Russian Flacon 50's was to a Dassault Falcon 50.

  13. #13
    Chopping the mortises for the long stretchers. The mortises were sized 1 1/2 across and angled 15 degrees from top to bottom to keep the stretcher parallel. Also the mortise and tenon need to have a slightly loose fit for ease of remove and replace. I had a few options: Drill and pare the waste, chop with the 1 1/2" bench chisel, or chop a double mortise and then chop and pare the middle waste. I went with my goto pig sticker mortise chisel to chop a double mortise and then chop out and pare the middle. Works well and quickly as long as you do not go all Conan on 'em. Tap, tap lever, tap, tap, lever, takes about 30 minutes per finished mortise including wiping sweat off my face and glasses. And there was a lot of sweat, it was over 105F yesterday afternoon with high RH for the desert....Monsoon season don'tchknow.

    choppingLongStretcherMortise170801dscf1911.jpg

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
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    South central Kansas
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    I'll be curious to see the results of this build. I'm in a similar situation in that I need a workbench that is easily portable because I move frequently and will be continuing to do so for at least the next 5 years. After trying to get by without a real workbench for the past year or so I've finally learned my lesson, now realize that I just won't be able to accomplish much without a real workbench, and I have also settled on the Moravian bench after quite a bit of time looking and thinking. It'll be a couple months before I can even get started but in the meantime I'm hoping to flesh out the details of how this build will go.

    It'd be great to come up with something that I can move by myself and fit into the bed of my pickup truck but that might be asking too much. In Will Myers' article he said that his benchtop weighed 97 lbs. A bit much for one person to carry. One possible solution could be to make a split-top bench so that each side of the benchtop is manageable for a single person. Jeff Branch has a series of blog posts on a workbench he built with this idea.

  15. #15
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    Light weight and portability go against the grain of usability.
    "Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're doing."

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