I Need A Storable Planing Bench or Work Surface

[Richard Line]

I'm somewhat limited on permanent work space. My shop area is only 6' x 11', which has a workbench (5' x 20") fixed to the wall, storage for tools, supplies (some), the portable TS, MS (on a folding stand), the water heater and my bike. I've built a cabin at 1 end of the space for tool/supply storage, and a new workbench (about the same size as the existing one) is in the planning.

When I'm working on a project, I can often move a car out of 1 space and work in that space. I've often laid a flush panel door on a pair of saw horses for a larger work area/assembly table. That works nicely, until I try planning, such as smoothing out a glued up table top. Then that assembly table isn't rigid enough.

I've been thinking of getting a solid core door and bolting it to the saw horses, plus clamping a couple of horizontal braces (e.g. 2x4's) between the legs of the 2 saw horses. Dog holes and planning stops can easily be incorporated. I'm not too worried about holding the work in place. But will this thing stay in one place. I don't know if that will be stable and rigid enough to work.

Any thoughts and suggestions. The contraption must be readily assembled and taken down, and then stored along a wall (except for the horses).

[Brian Kent]

The main planing force is right to left. I read one suggestion of bracing the table top against a left-hand wall. The writer had a 2 x 4 clamped or bolted between the wall and the table so that the wall keeps the planing surface from moving to the left while planing.

[Joel Goodman]

I have heard of light benches that were bolted to a piece of plywood that you stand on while planing. The bench then weighs 170 lbs (if you're my weight!) and whatever it's weight is. Otherwise I think you need some way of anchoring it to the floor or wall to keep it stabilized. A traditional bench relies on it's weight to stay in place.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Lot of folks build torsion-box style top[s] - even a pair of narrow ones, so that you only have a wide bench when you need one. Pretty doggone sturdy for the weight - I have a 50" x 14" planer sled built that way, and even I was impressed by its rigidity v weight ratio [not that there actually is such a metric :p]. Either set on saw horses, or....not clear from your description...could perhaps hinge it to the wall, so it folds up or folds down, onto supporting legs that fit in place, while still attached to the wall.

[Tony Shea]

I also would consider building a torsion box style bench top that was hinged to the wall. The weight of the torsion may not be enough to combat the forces of planing therefore attaching it to the wall would be the answer.

[Terry Beadle]

Another alternative is to make a customized Japanese inspired planing plank. Takes little room and can be use effectively.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Before I moved, my "workbench" was a variety of surfaces attached one way or another to my porch. Of course, now that I've moved, I've realized that not every porch is conducive to this method. The sturdy railings and support beams that I could butt against worked pretty well with a bit of jury rigging. Course, that porch was pretty overbuilt.

[Shawn Pixley]

I took a defferent approach than others. I built a heavy top and vise and move it atop sawhorses after I move cars out of the garage. Top is 2-1/2" thick (24"x48") with wilton quick release vice. It work pretty well.

I have tried to figure out ways to anchor to wall to provide even better stability and not wrestle ~130 lbs around each time I need it. But have yet to find better solution.

[Jim Koepke]

My thoughts are along the same lines as Terry's.

A solid 4X8 or bigger 8 or 10' long. Make a trestle base for it somewhat like a saw horse. I would go for about 10º leg spread to the sides and 15º towards the ends. You might be able to make the work side with the legs straight to enable using them to hold wide work. Then you would want the back legs splayed out a bit more.

Sliding dovetail joints for the legs into the beam and tusked tenons to hold the stretchers side to side and end to end. There are also other methods to make the joints to accommodate the knock down ability.

It wouldn't be too difficult to use planing stops and maybe even some hold fasts to hold the work. Doing flat faces wider than the top wouldn't work, but this could likely be one answer for edge and face planing of most boards.

jtk

[Johnny Kleso]

Two Black & Decker WorkMates or off brand will do..

[Chris Vandiver]

Another alternative is to make a customized Japanese inspired planing plank. Takes little room and can be use effectively.

Plus one to what Terry suggests!

[Richard Line]

Wow, a lot of good replies. As I suspected the real problem is reacting the planning forces into something. Getting to any walls to bear against them is a problem - to much junk stored all around. There is a post in the middle of the garage that I can readily get at. I could simply bear the top against the post and hope it doesn't move, I don't see any real lateral connections to the post, so not the best structural solution. Probably I need to carry the planning forces down to the post's concrete base. I'll need to think a little on how to do that and still be easy to set-up and store.

Thanks for the help.

Oh, can anyone direct me to a picture of the Japanese planning plank.

[Joel Goodman]

How about drilling two holes into the garage floor (for the front left and right rear leg of you "porto bench") and setting a short piece of narrow pipe or metal tubing in each (flush with the floor) with the epoxy stuff used to set anchors in concrete? Then have small pegs (sized to match the pipes) on the bottom of those two legs to drop into the holes. The same concept as the dowels that keep a bench top from sliding on the base of a workbench. The pipe sleeves would be flush with the floor so when the bench is removed no issues with the car.

[Prashun Patel]

I also think you should look into "Japanese Planing Beams".

[Chris Vandiver]

Quote by Richard line; "Oh, can anyone direct me to a picture of the Japanese planning plank."

"The Workbench Book" by Scott Landis has a very good section on Japanese beams and trestles.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I also have a small bench, 5' long; but planing is no problem, don't really know why. As an experiment I added a planing beam (just 2 2X4's stacked with carriage bolts). Here are two photos, first one horizontal beam, second raised beam. Works great. Please note that I don't use it at that angle, which is only to demonstrate the ultimate difference.

Pam

[Richard Line]

Thanks for the photos of a planning beam. I can see how they would be useful for some tasks. I may need to think about them. For now my workbench, though small, handles nearly all the individual pieces as I prepare them. Its when I've go a sizable glue up, such as a table top (60 x 30) that I run into trouble. It doesn't look as though a planning beam would help out then.

I may very well pick up on the idea of setting something into the concrete floor, either the pipes to serve as 'dowls holes' or maybe threaded inserts to pick up all thread hold downs from the saw horses. If I get anything that works reasonably well, I'll probably show it off.

Thanks for all the good ideas and info.

[Jim Matthews]

Now that's clever.

Yet another, "Why didn't I think of that?" moment on Lumberjocks.

Just when I congratulating myself on smarts, I find myself coming up short.

[Jim Matthews]

I have two "VIKA" workbenches purchased from Woodcraft.

They fold up flat and are surprisingly sturdy.
If you have something to lash the legs, you might have an easy solution.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Resources/video.aspx?id=800195490

[Wilbur Pan]

The main planing force is right to left. I read one suggestion of bracing the table top against a left-hand wall. The writer had a 2 x 4 clamped or bolted between the wall and the table so that the wall keeps the planing surface from moving to the left while planing.

That may or may not have been me that you read (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?85596-Who-needs-a-400-lb-workbench-when-you-have-a-scrap-piece-of-1x4&highlight=), but that is what I did with my first temporary workbench (http://giantcypress.net/post/567995425/building-a-workbench-without-a-workbench-ii-or-who). That workbench worked so well that I used it for a lot longer than I had planned.