Fred Voorhees
01-19-2006, 6:51 PM
Have had a nice supply of time lately to devote to my long planned benchtop upgrade in my shop. I originally built the bench top using 2X lumber and over time, well, let’s just say that 2X lumber is not exactly what you would want to use. It twisted slightly over the years and became unacceptable. My recent purchase of the new DeWalt planer moved the upgrade closer to reality since it had long been planned to build my next planer into the bench top so that the bench itself would be utilized as an infeed and outfeed table. I also had plans on working another feature into the new surface also which will be shown later in this post.
The total length of the bench is roughly around thirty two feet and is divided somewhere near the middle by a Craftsman radial arm saw that is also built flush into the benchtop. Below is the half of the bench that will house the new DeWalt planer and the area that it will be located is circled. The collection drop above that area was put in place back when I installed the system with this future planer installment in mind.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop1.jpg
Below you can see the bench stripped of its former top and pretty much ready for the adaptation framing to house the planer area.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop2.jpg
With plenty of 2X lumber available from the former tops, I was able to rip down some of them to use as 2X4’s for the framing parts. Here is the majority of the framing work done.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop3.jpg
And here is balance of the framework done and the first test fitting of the planer in place. I’ve also added some additional framing over the empty spot over where the knee wall space access door is. This will provide more support for the new top.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop4.jpg
The raising/support system was simple enough. As you can see in the previous picture, I used these 7/16” hex head bolts and epoxied large fender washers to the heads for a bigger “footprint” for stability. A nut and another washer on the upper part provided plenty of support to hold up the actual piece of ply that the planer sat on. With careful measuring during the framing process, and using the nuts on the five 7/16’ bolts, it was a simple process of adjusting the planer to be flush with the work surface.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop5.jpg
The total length of the bench is roughly around thirty two feet and is divided somewhere near the middle by a Craftsman radial arm saw that is also built flush into the benchtop. Below is the half of the bench that will house the new DeWalt planer and the area that it will be located is circled. The collection drop above that area was put in place back when I installed the system with this future planer installment in mind.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop1.jpg
Below you can see the bench stripped of its former top and pretty much ready for the adaptation framing to house the planer area.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop2.jpg
With plenty of 2X lumber available from the former tops, I was able to rip down some of them to use as 2X4’s for the framing parts. Here is the majority of the framing work done.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop3.jpg
And here is balance of the framework done and the first test fitting of the planer in place. I’ve also added some additional framing over the empty spot over where the knee wall space access door is. This will provide more support for the new top.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop4.jpg
The raising/support system was simple enough. As you can see in the previous picture, I used these 7/16” hex head bolts and epoxied large fender washers to the heads for a bigger “footprint” for stability. A nut and another washer on the upper part provided plenty of support to hold up the actual piece of ply that the planer sat on. With careful measuring during the framing process, and using the nuts on the five 7/16’ bolts, it was a simple process of adjusting the planer to be flush with the work surface.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Freddieboy/Message%20board%20photos/benchtop5.jpg