Larry Frank
06-09-2009, 2:32 PM
I finally finished my combination Workbench and assembly table. I should thank all those who have posted with their ideas and their benches. I have read many taking ideas from those, books and articles. I spent a lot of time drawing and redrawing and making changes until I was pretty close to what I thought that I wanted.
120232
The picture is an overall of the workbench.
· It is about 62 inches long and 38 inches wide.
· I built it tall at 38 inches as this is comfortable for me and just a little lower than my table saw.
· I used four heavy duty double locking casters. These allow easy movement of the workbench while also being very steady when the casters are locked.
· The top is about 2-1/4 inches thick made of two layers of plywood and one layer of MDF on the top which is replaceable. Some areas of the workbench are up to 4 inches thick.
· The outside rim is made of two ¾” layers of either hard maple or red oak.
· There are two vises typical of many plans with one on the front left and other on the right end.
· The front side of the cabinet below the top has drawers and the back side which is not shown has doors.
The layout and drilling the holes was perhaps the most difficult task. The holes were spaced on multiples of 4 inches. A 2.5 inch thick piece of maple with the ¾’ inch holes drilled on the drill press was used as a drill guide. The holes were drilled with a auger type bit. All of the holes were drilled and then given a thin coat of finish to reduce effects of moisture. After the finish, I lightly sanded the holes.
One issue that I had was the cost of bench dogs and other hardware for the top of the bench. I decided to make my own as shown in the pictures. The main issue was to find properly sized ¾” dowel rods for the holes and give them a coat of finish to reduce the change in size due to moisture.
120231
I also decided to use wood threaded studs on the bench and added some threaded nuts on the underside of most of the workbench holes and secured with screws. A relatively inexpensive tap and die was used to make the ¾” – 6 threads. I wondered if these would be strong enough but have clamped and banged on them with no problems or breakage. Using this setup has provided lots of flexibility for jigs to be attached to the workbench or even long boards to use for alignment and assembly. I have some jigs to be “bolted” down to the top that have heavy duty lever clamps attached for better holding of cabinet parts.
120230
120229
I am using the bench and continue to find ways that I would change it. But for now, I think the only change is to drill a few more holes with the threaded nut on the bottom.
I would love to know how others have made bench dogs and or other devices for holding material on the workbench.
120232
The picture is an overall of the workbench.
· It is about 62 inches long and 38 inches wide.
· I built it tall at 38 inches as this is comfortable for me and just a little lower than my table saw.
· I used four heavy duty double locking casters. These allow easy movement of the workbench while also being very steady when the casters are locked.
· The top is about 2-1/4 inches thick made of two layers of plywood and one layer of MDF on the top which is replaceable. Some areas of the workbench are up to 4 inches thick.
· The outside rim is made of two ¾” layers of either hard maple or red oak.
· There are two vises typical of many plans with one on the front left and other on the right end.
· The front side of the cabinet below the top has drawers and the back side which is not shown has doors.
The layout and drilling the holes was perhaps the most difficult task. The holes were spaced on multiples of 4 inches. A 2.5 inch thick piece of maple with the ¾’ inch holes drilled on the drill press was used as a drill guide. The holes were drilled with a auger type bit. All of the holes were drilled and then given a thin coat of finish to reduce effects of moisture. After the finish, I lightly sanded the holes.
One issue that I had was the cost of bench dogs and other hardware for the top of the bench. I decided to make my own as shown in the pictures. The main issue was to find properly sized ¾” dowel rods for the holes and give them a coat of finish to reduce the change in size due to moisture.
120231
I also decided to use wood threaded studs on the bench and added some threaded nuts on the underside of most of the workbench holes and secured with screws. A relatively inexpensive tap and die was used to make the ¾” – 6 threads. I wondered if these would be strong enough but have clamped and banged on them with no problems or breakage. Using this setup has provided lots of flexibility for jigs to be attached to the workbench or even long boards to use for alignment and assembly. I have some jigs to be “bolted” down to the top that have heavy duty lever clamps attached for better holding of cabinet parts.
120230
120229
I am using the bench and continue to find ways that I would change it. But for now, I think the only change is to drill a few more holes with the threaded nut on the bottom.
I would love to know how others have made bench dogs and or other devices for holding material on the workbench.