Workbench Design (revised) w/SketchUp

If you are possibly curious in the present state of my workbench design, an abridged version of Garrett Hack's work, or would care see what a beginner can do with SketchUp, my pdf file is at the following web site:

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Mr. Hack used wedged tenons (2!) at each joint between a trestle shoe and a trestle post. Me, it's all I can do to keep up with his terminology! The tenons are not visible from the viewpoint provided (nor are the trestle tops, nor the breadboard ends...). Final dimensions, in particular the height, are also not decided (sounds like I haven't done a darn thing!).

One lingering question I have been thinking about is how to cut the (traditional) shape:

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under each trestle shoe (basically a fourbyfour). Is using a mortise attachment on a delta drill press a good way to perform this? -- I don't have either one yet but it appears that I would get a lot of mileage out of it on this project! I've been looking at the Delta (floor) DP. A router table is not available. BTW, due credit to Lew for getting me going on this project, and to Swingman and Leon for their help with SketchUp, or to everyone who taught me so much about electricity, and everyone else who puts up with my posts ! Man--I forgot to wire this bench!!! : ) Having fun...

Bill

Reply to
Bill
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How about taking out the corners with a hole saw or forstner bit and finishing with a bandsaw? Do the whole thing with a bandsaw? Drill one hole and finish the rest with a hand held frame saw?

Reply to
LDosser

any software, or paper and pencil, really gets you focused on how to accomplish all the little details that aren't obvious at first glance.

With regard to the shape of the 4 x 4 feet, and with use of power tools, this is definitely a job for a band saw and router, with jig/template.

Here's how I do the feet for trestle tables/benches:

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will be hard, if not impossible, to find a router bit/end mill with the depth-of-cut to do the 4 x 4 foot in one pass, but if you do your template carefully (with line-up marks on both pieces), you can use the same jig on each side, rough cutting the shape first on the band saw.

With regard to the joinery, a router for your mortises, and "loose tenon" joinery, if done properly, will work just fine.

Some folks find drill press mortise attachments work just fine. I've found early on that they can be problematic in harder woods, YMMV. If you're going to do much mortise and tenon joinery, either learn to cut them by hand, or get a dedicated hollow chisel mortiser ... one can be had for under $300.

Spend some money on a band saw first if you don't already own one; and, of course, a router, and arsenal of bits, is simply indispensable for this kind of work.

A plunge router, with a jig/template for the specific job, can do the work of many tools.

AAMOF, you may find that you get a bigger kick out of devising and building a jig to do something that would be impossible without, than doing the actual project. :)

Reply to
Swingman

It's a good-looking bench, and a well-done drawing!

I looked at your shop drawing, and suggest that you consider adding an under-bench shelf so you can set a tool aside without having it in your way on top of the bench or behind you on the saw top.

Some time back I took a shot (with SketchUp) to design a 2x4 and 2x6 bench (not anywhere near as elegant as yours) and incorporated a pair of shelves so I could keep tools and parts handy for the kinds of projects I like to do, and get a little more out of the area taken up by the bench:

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It looks like a job for your bandsaw. :)

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Swing has built a 4 point footing, not a pair of continuous straight line footings.

4 point is stable, doubt pair of lined ever will be.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Irrelevant to the _method_ of cutting his "shoe" profile, which was the point of my post, and including a picture as an idea of how to accomplish executing that profile with a router and jig.

He will get repeatable results using the method in the photograph that he won't get any other way.

"Stability" is left to the designer.

Reply to
Swingman

On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 03:15:15 -0400, the infamous "Bill" scrawled the following:

board. Your foot will natually migrate up there and rest at times when you're at the bench.

Then find a copy of Aldren Watson's book _Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings_ or _Glossary of Woodworking Terms_ by A.W. Lewis. Iffen you're feeling like a -real- newbie that day, get _The Complete Idiot's Guide to Woodworking_ by Reed Karen.

I used glued and pegged tenons in mine.

Roughsaw to the outline, file to suit, as it has always been done. Either bowsaur (my specialty ;) or hand saur.

Perfect excuse to buy a pair of Nicholsons, a #48 and a #49 cabinetmaker's rasps/files.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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A method I posted a couple of weeks ago when Bill's sketch first got posted.

Makes nice shoe shape, just not stable.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

router table? Previous home owner left me a fairly sturdy hollow door resting accross two kitchen cabinets. I could clamp it to that. I also have a "Workmate" someone discarded, but that's probably not nearly heavy enough.

The DeWalt router 2.25 HP router "kit" (DW618PK) has been on my wish list for a while. Amazon raised their price by about 10% in January (grrrr).

I bought a Delta 14" BS in January--still in the box (it's cold in Indiana in January). I picked up a 1/2" blade to help rip the SYP for the workbench top. I collected 15 Jorgensen 3/4" pipe clamps and 15 pieces of

4' black pipe nibs and 15 couplets to protect the threads on the end and my fingers (Lew said the couplets were SOP, or words to that effect--and in view of how sharp some of the threads are, I'm happy to cover them). With 15 4' pipe clamps, a guy can dream! ; )

I was thinking screwing a couple of them together to help clamp a board using the end of my garage, a brick wall, to provide the basis for a concrete repair:

| < ---garage door opening--->| ||

Reply to
Bill

Let's see: straight bits, and ones that can be used for plunging, and roundover bits (for other projects). As I don't have a router nor any rounter bits at all, I am curious what other bits come to your mind as "simply indispensable for this kind of work".

Another "template/jig" job I was thinking of was to make some custom handles for my antique Stanley planes--once I get caught up, of course... Of course, why stop at just the handle... ; ) It's been a long time since I mentioned that my original goal was to build an 1840's milstrel-style banjo... but look where it got me.

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Reply to
Bill

-Read that one, it was pretty good.

I like that idea. In his bench, Garrett Hack uses those on his "intermediate rails" (on the short sides). He uses a steel rod in a groove on each of the long sides.

I already made that plunge (towards my plan of carving a banjo neck). I think if I shaped the feet by hand, that they would end up looking hand cut... I think I may try Swingman's template/jig suggestion for the feet. Thank you for your help!

Bill

Reply to
Bill

Just fixing the diagram above. ========= is the wooden (support) board.

Reply to
Bill

Oh. So, Lew, you are of the opinion that there is still too much lateral support there on the feet. How large do the feet (on a 4by4 need to be so that there is no concern about them breaking, 2 inches?

I saved your post about the method, but lacking a router table, I temporarily set it aside. Maybe clamping (to a door laying accross two cabinets) will be sufficient?

Bill

Reply to
Bill

Again, the diagram is fighting me.

Reply to
Bill

Of course, I developed my own jig to help accomplish the 4 inch radius arcs (since I lacked a router table) . Now I'm fretting over the ones underneath.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

------------------------------------------------ You could make each "pad" square (3-1/2 x 3-1/2) and solve the problem while looking good in the shower.

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-------------------------------------------------- Use a 3' x 3' x 3/4" piece of MDF with a hole in the middle laid across those cabinets or some saw horses and you have a router table.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Yep, that sounds right!

Bill

Reply to
Bill

The last time I played with chemically-latent plywood I made myself pretty darn sick. Ditto on melamine. Haven't tried "Formaldehyde-free" plywood yet--but my local Home Depot stocks it...

Thank you, Bill

Reply to
Bill

"Bill" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news6.newsguy.com:

*snip*

Don't be afraid to shut off Sketchup and go out and make sawdust. Not every detail has to be shown, it just all has to be planned. ;-)

That's what I did on my latest project... and it's turned out acceptable thus far.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

School will be out in 2 weeks and I'll be cutting loose in several directions! In the meantime, I'm carrying a 60% higher than typical workload--but just for 2 more weeks!

If it werent' for the Wreck and everything, a "workbench" would have been a weekend project! I watched my dad assemble his. He let me pound lots of nails in the 1/4" plywood top (good memory-- my first meaningful use of a hammer). They havent' fallen out yet.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

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