Thanks for the link & I've bookmarked the site. It is damn pricy but maybe I could swing it by just getting the legs & building my own top. I have a couple of good friends, both serious craftpersons, who messed up their neck & backs by constantly hunkering over their work. Both had to have surgery and now have lingering neurological problems. When I'm working, I often lose track of time and will spend sometimes an hour or more hunched over. Afterwards my neck and back just ache. I'm coming to the conclusion that it's smarter for me to spend my meager funds on a really fancy bench that'll save my spine than go through surgery or - worse - give up on my sculptures/wood work.
Don't know about a really fancy bench, but if you're seriously concerned about injury and comfort when doing your woodworking, I'd look into an adjustable height bench.
Perfectly square top with many holes for the screw and dogs, and the top adjusts different ways, a good view of one that is sold on this site:
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sculpter's bench, kind of like a really big single hinged "knee" with a dimensionaly small but heavy platform on top, in "The Workbench Book" on pages 202-203.
| I just moved into a new house and the basement is basically a blank | slate. I would like to make a bench approx 6ft long for working on | and miscellaneous things. I am not a carpenter by any stretch of the | imagination, so I am wondering if anyone has any plans for a very | basic work bench for a beginner carpenter.
Jon...
I built a simple sturdy 6' bench that might serve your needs. It requires an 8' 2x4 and two and a half 12' 2x12 boards. You'll need a saw (I used a circular saw), a carpenter's square, a power drill, and a pocket hole drilling jig. I used a Kreg pocket hole jig and recommend it strongly. You'll want some #8 2-1/2" square drive washer head screws and a #2 driver.
I've posted side and front view drawings to news:alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking that show how the parts are cut and assembled. If you'd like more info I can take photos and post them; but the drawings may be sufficient.
Assembly time (working on the garage floor without a plan or sawhorses) was under an hour.
On Sat 13 Aug 2005 08:14:13a, "Tyke" wrote in news:V9Wdnefz snipped-for-privacy@ptd.net:
Those guys had a booth at the Twin Cities woodworking show a couple years back. I was impressed. Looked like a good, solid framework. You're limited to the increments built in, but I'd be happy with that.
In one of Frank Klausz' videos he talks about bench height. It's supposed to be just high enough so if you let your arm hang at your side fully extended, then bring your hand up at 90 degrees, you hand should just rest on the bench without bending or stretching your arm. So when I built my bench, that's what I aimed for and it ended up about one inch higher than that.
THEN, I find a transcript of an internet chat with Frank when I was looking for something else, and in it he says he's building a higher bench because he doesn't like bending over to get at stuff any more.
So all the people who said "It's up to you and the stuff you do and what makes your feel comfortable" are right. My bench works fine for now but now that I've used it for a while, I've got a pretty good idea how I'm going to build the next one. :-) It just might have that adjustabench frame on it, I'm not sure.
A good one can be daunting, a simple one is really easy. The first one I ever made was simple enough to describe in words, so I'll just describe it.
Cut three 2" x 4"s as long as you want the bench to be, call these "A" Cut four 2" x 4"s as wide as you want the bench to be, call these "B" Cut four 2" x 4"s as tall as you want the bench to be, call these "C"
Lay two A's next to one another, then two B's on either end so they make a rectangle. Put a framing square inside of each corner, then screw them in place (two screws per corner works). Set the C's on end in each corner, get them plumb using the framing square and drive a couple of screws into them from the outside of the rectangle you made in the last step to hold them in place.
Turn the whole thing on it's side, and put the last A across the back two legs (about halfway between the top and the floor works) Check for squareness again, then screw into place.
Turn the whole thing on it's end, and put one of the B's across the side just like you did with the last step, repeat this for the other side.
Flip the bench frame up onto it's legs, and cut a peice of plywood or MDF to fit the top frame. Nail or screw the top into place.
This isn't a classy solution, but it makes a stable table, and sometimes that's what you need to get started. You can always build a better one later, after all. Mine is still good after 5 years or so, and it's now the dedicated table for my lathe chisels and accessories after making a better bench for myself.
Try an ROS instead of a palm sander, it actually is a bit faster- and bearing down doesn't seem to help much. You might be able to cut some of your pain down a little by just letting the weight of the sander do the work.
I like to get the area where I'm working right at or a little above elbow height, keeps me from slumping, and works pretty well for me. Good light helps, too- that way you're not bending over and squinting to see what you're doing.
On Sun 24 Jul 2005 01:27:12p, nospambob wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Good Lord. I've been using mine for a couple years and applying what I thought was pretty hard pressure now and then, and haven't had any trouble with the pad.
Just how hard were you pushing that thing, and what were you doing?
One of the magazines just had an article about using ROS and pushing is defeating the workings and takes longer. I can't imagine enough to melt the Velcro.
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