I'd like to build a good solid workbench that can take a real pounding. The kind I'm aiming for is something like ones in the following web sites:
Google is the answer. Try a search for "workbench Plans"
Better re-read my original post Joat, I never said you or anyone are obligated to search and provide plans (By the way, I did actually make a suggestion for plans to the person you are referring to), I simply said that you could be less condescending and sarcastic about the way you tell a newcomer how easy it is to find one themselves, much like the way Bigmike did it. I don't want to fight with you and for the most part, I enjoy your posts but I'm not going to sit back and be sniped at from a distance when what you are saying isn't true. Like last time, take the last word if you like, I don't frequent this board to give and take shots and I suspect you don't either.
Don
Now, if that'd been me posted a reply like that, I'd already have somene jumping on my case because I wasn't helpful, because I didn't provide a plan. LOL
The really funny part is, the person who would jump on me for only saying google, wouldn't provide a plan, just bitch about me. They're not willing to help, but it's OK to bitch at me for not helping more. LMAO
The only thing I would add to your response, would be the word "free".
JOAT You have two choices in life: You can dissolve into the mainstream, or you can be distinct. To be distinct is to be different. To be different, you must strive to be what no one else but you can be.
- Alan Ashley-Pitt
Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT Web Page Update 19 Jan 2004. Some tunes I like.
If you are building your second or third workbench, that is to say you already have a workbench, then I would choose a plan that you really like, and commit to learning the skills necessary to build it. If you are talking hardwood, and something fairly substantial, the cost of the plans vs. the cost of the wood is a pretty good ratio even if you are buying rough cut wood. Plus, if you are using someone else's idea, and you really like it, don't they deserve the fee? If the plans are from FWW, then buy the back issue that has the bench. They had a pretty nice one in the recent tools & shops issue.
If you are building your first/only workbench, then I recommend you look at some, decide what you can comfortably build, and grab a peice of paper and design it yourself. A first bench is likely to be wrong in one way or another - a bench is a personal thing, and it's not always really clear what will work best until you've had one in the space and used it a while. If you don't have a bench, you need one quickly. If you design it and keep it simple, you'll have a bench more quickly. It will be simpler that way, which means faster and less headaches. It may not be as nice as your typical plan bench, but to build a really nice bench you pretty much need a bench to start with ;-) It will surely be less expensive than something more elegant, and with the designer building it mistakes just become design changes. There are lots and lots of threads here with links to plans in them - check google, as well as threads on what to use for the top, and various methods of flattening the top. The workbench book, as recommended by others here is also a great book to have - and not just for workbenches.
try
-- In golf, it's not the score that counts--it's the company!
On 20 Jan 2004 01:32:41 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.comAntiSpam (NoNameAtAll) brought forth from the murky depths:
Go to your library and check out "The Workbench Book" by Scott Landis. Several plans are included, so you might even want to buy the book. It's a keeper!
- Every day above ground is a Good Day(tm). -----------
Mags has some on her website,
Plansnow.com
The bench on the first link doesn't appear to have any dog holes and only one vise. More like a table than a woodworking bench. The bench on the Rockler site has $450 in hardware, the Twin Screw vise being $221 of that total so it can hardly be called an "economy workbench"
The term "bench" doesn't describe what this tool, and it is a tool, should do - grab and hold things so you can plane, chisel, carve, scrape, drill ... What will work for you will be determined by what you want to do.
If you're going to do mainly ply stuff, face framed cabinets and shelves etc. and use mainly power tools, then a 4x8 top with some dog holes, a few hold downs and a face vise would probably do, as both a layout table and an assembly bench. A couple of layers of 1 1/8" ply, 4x4 legs,
2x6 stretchers, maybe a shelf, some bolts or maybe threaded rod and you're done.But if you're going to do solid wood furniture then having lots of ways of holding parts of various sizes in various orientations so you can work on them, AND be able to get around and to anywhere on the "bench" gets trickier. How high the bench top is becomes very important. The weight of the bench and the flatness of the top becomes important. Having a place to put the 8-10 handtools you'll be using often is important. Where. relative to other tools, it's placed is important. What your lighting is like is important.
The library should have Scott Landis's workbench book and maybe Sam Allen's workbench book. Check either or both out and really go through them so you start to understand what a bench can do. Will get you thinking about what you want to do and that will help determine what your first bench will be. And it will be only the first- there will be another if you stay in woodworking.
With all that - here's my first bench. Note that wall hanging cabinets close to it. They're full of hand tools, layout tools etc. - all a step away from the bench.
And here's the url on the bench I've sworn to finish by the middle of February - one year from start to finish!
Good luck and enjoy the journey.
charlie b
If you can get your hands on the December 2003 issue of Popular Woodworking ($4.99 USD) they have a set of plans for a bench that can be made with $180 worth of materials and supposedly under 24 hours of labor. Very solid looking.
If you can't track it down, email me direct and I'll mail you my copy. Good luck!
JP
Hey guys,
Didn't mean to open a can of worms or old wounds. I thought that by answering the way I did would encourage the requestor to do a little home work and get all kinds of free ideas. In fact, I recently did the same thing for work benches and found a lot of good ideas which can be combined into a project which meets my needs. It is amazing how much stuff there is out there if one takes enough time to run it all down and the good thing is the cost, only your time is required.
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