Workbench renovation - and a poor man's tail vise

[John Keeton]

After seeing the works of art and beauty some of you guys do with your benches, I decided to perform a moderate renovation on my workbench. Please keep in mind that I am not a Neander, and my techniques here are not worthy of this esteemed group. But I do enjoy seeing the fantastic works you guys do without electrons!

Anyway, this is it. I took the yellow pine boards, ripped them, and planned them (shamlessly with power tools!) and glued them up. Had to purchase a 2x10 to rip for an apron/band. Plugged the screw holes with walnut plugs, and finished with a coat of Danish oil.

After seeing Jameel's bench and vise, I decided to do a poor man's vise. It won't stand for a lot of hard pressure, but works fine to hold a board between dogs. Cost was about $15 in parts.

The worst part of this - before I didn't care what I did on my bench. It didn't matter if it got gouged, stained, burnt. But now, I feel compelled to treat it with more respect!

Man, I hope this Neander thing isn't catching! Seems I've already noticed some symptoms - purchased a couple of new planes, want more??!!??

[Jim Koepke]

Man, I hope this Neander thing isn't catching! Seems I've already noticed some symptoms - purchased a couple of new planes, want more??!!??

Welcome to the slope.

Nice innovation for the vise.

A couple of days ago, I needed to drill an accurate hole in the end of something that was turned on a lathe. It didn't seem the old auger & brace was going to do what was wanted. So, a forstner bit was chucked into the old drill press.

This does not seem too neander until one realizes there isn't a motor on my drill press. Just haven't gotten around to putting one on.

It worked out quite well. Just turning the pulley by hand works better than winding a rope around it and giving it a pull.

Me thinks neandering has a lot to do with how to figure out how to get the job done and not so much about relying on a fat wallet or power tools to do everything for you.

jim

[Bob Noles]

John,

Nice job on the upgrade and something that I want/need to do on mine soon.

Jim, love the story/words of wisdom.

[John Dykes]

John -

techniques here are not worthy of this esteemed group

Come on John... There is the talented "esteemed group" - and then there's me. These fellas will take in all comers. (Though fancy laser machines must needs be checked at the door!)

Nice work on the bench, I'm hoping to get my bench legs attached in the next week (with the obligatory pictures).

Also saw your post for the LV BUS... I've been agonizing over that since Berea, and needed to order before the Berea offers expired. In the end, I lost out...

It should be here 12/2 along with... errr - a few other things. (And no, not a titanium block plane).

Warm Regards for Colorado,
- John Dykes

[Dave Anderson NH]

Well John, admit it or not, you're hooked. The wagon vise you've made is just fine. They really don't need to take a lot of pressure, only hold the wood firmly. Too much pressure would just bow the board in the vise upward and give you a board that wasn't planed flat.

[Garth Keel]

I have been trying to decide on the design for a workbench/assembly table and I think I have been over thinking the project. Your design brought me back to reality. Simple, elegant and practicle. Although it looks so good I can see where you would want to be careful when you use it.

[Johnny Kleso]

Hey John,
If you redesign it I would add some keyways (grooves) to the floating jaw as the screw is fighting all of the force of lifting when you clamp soming..

Unless there is something on the bottom of the jaw stopping the floating jaw from lifting when clamping..

[David Keller NC]

Only one quibble, but it might not matter to you if most of your work is with power tools. Edge-grain glued boards (so that the face grain is face-up on the bench) that are relatively thin (meaning less than 2-1/2") have a tendency to cup, and also, depending on the internal structure of the bench beneath, may tend to flex under pressure.

One of the reasons for building a massive benchtop for hand work is for hand-planing, there's really not much need in it for routine sawing and chopping mortises/dovetails, etc... I think you may quickly find out what I did a while back - it's not possible to plane a board flat unless the surface underneath is flat and stable.

That said, everyone has to start somewhere - my bench for a very long time was an embarrassment - constructed from treated 4X4's for the legs, bolted to a 2X6 frame with an inset plywood top. I thought it was great for almost no money - until, that is, that I got into hand-planing and squaring stock. For that purpose, it was a disaster - not nearly flat enough, and flexed under the passage of a metal hand plane.

[John Keeton]

Guys, I appreciate all the comments. Johnny, I don't experience much lift as the threaded rod passes into a hole in the bench and the floating jaw rides on the rod. Of course, I don't use that much pressure either.

David, I have only recently began taking seriously my woodworking. I am creeping (running??) toward retirement, and would like to think I will have more time and commitment to quality. All of my prior benches, and there have been many, were really more for general work - repairing the lawn mower, pounding on something, etc. My vice has always been a bench/metal utility vise. This is the first attempt at an honest to goodness woodworking bench with a brand new, unused, Record vise I snagged a good deal on. The top is within a 1/16" of being flat along its 8' length. How long that will last I don't know, but I have it tied down pretty well to the understructure, which is, in turn, tied into the wall. It doesn't budge in any direction under force.

John Dykes, my future admission into the dark world of Neandering will forever be marred by my admission to you that I really wanted a laser. Oh, why can't we ever live down our past!!! Apparently, I will never make it past the confirmation hearings.

Someday, someday, I will have a much nicer bench!

[David Keller NC]

"The top is within a 1/16" of being flat along its 8' length. How long that will last I don't know, but I have it tied down pretty well to the understructure, which is, in turn, tied into the wall. It doesn't budge in any direction under force."

That's definitely what you'll need for hand-planing - a bench that moves under planing's horizontal forces is really, really irritating - I put up with it for years. As goofy as this may sound, you may well find that 1/16" orver the length of the bench isn't good enough. The reason is that with a long jointer plane (like a Stanley #8 or a Lie-Nielsen clone), you're taking shavings that measure in the low thousandths in thickness, and I think you'll find that the plane will cut on the ends of a board, but not in the middle (or, if the bench is bowed the other way, it'll cut in the middle but not on the ends). After a few passes with the plane, the board will have either a convex or a concave surface - noticeably so.

However, all is not lost. As I mentioned previously, this is the only task for which bench flatness really matters - you can chop a perfectly fine dovetail, use a shooting board, saw dovetails, etc... on a non-flat bench.

What you can do is to build a planing board. Chris Schwarz details one of these in his Workbench book, but the basics are constructing a flat frame of 2X6's, with a groove cut down the inside of the top and bottom rails, and floating cross-battens with tenons on the ends inserted into these grooves. The whole thing gets planed flat, and sits up on your bench when absolute flatness and rigidity is required for hand-planing. It's a really inexpensive solution, and it really works well - that's how I got around the flex that the crappy plywood top on my first bench had that I was so proud of when I first made it. ;-)

The only drawback to a planing board is limitations on the size of what you can plane - an 8' long, 2' wide one of these would be prohibitively heavy to lift onto the bench every time you wanted to plane the face of a board. Mine was 4' long, 2' wide, and constructed of Home Depot un-treated southern yellow pine - total investment, about $20.