Adjustable legs for hand tool bench

[Ben Darrah]

So some of you in this forum may hate me for what I am about ask, and the project I am making. I am planning out my next few projects while my back heals from surgery yesterday. I want to build a hand tool work bench which will also double as the out feed table for my tablesaw/router combo. I am going to permanently attach it to my saw. I have thoughts and plans for the top and sides. I plan on doing a 4+ inch thick southern yeller pine top bordered in hard maple. The legs will be flush with the edge with 2 removable leg vises on 1 side also made with glued up SYP. The legs will be SYP, the leg vise maple. I am also putting a tail vise at the end. Being this is going to be attached to my TS permanently, I want to be able to adjust each leg individual to perfectly level it with my saw. I want to use traditional style feet and stretchers for good floor contact.

My thoughts at this point are to use 1 thick threaded rod (around 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch) in each leg right above the stretcher, counter sunk into the top and bottom with two nuts (One affixed to the lower leg.) I would attempt to drill the holes as tight as possible.

I am asking for all thoughts, comments, advice, criticisms etc... If some of you have already conquered this issue, I would love to see you solutions. Sorry if this is a little incoherent, blame it on the meds.

Thanks
Ben

[justin sherriff]

How do you feel about leveling feet? https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Heavy-Dut...-/132779986250
You could notch out the bottom of the legs so less of the feet would be visible.

[Ben Darrah]

I'm looking for something that would be rock solid and not want to move during heavy planing. I'm afraid the normal feet would move/slide too much from past experience.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Derek shared a post a few weeks back on what to do with a broken scissor jack. The guy turned it into what he called an end vice. I think it was more like a wagon vice. That got me thinking about this adjustable bench height idea. What if the legs were assembled of well fitted sliding members similar to the parts in a table that takes leaves, only beefier. Then a couple of well positioned hydraulic jacks or scissor jacks could be used to raise the bench. Perhaps the legs could be pinned at various intervals to hold the height? Just a concept; I doubt I will pursue the idea myself, but it seems to me that an adjustable height bench should be easy to adjust and support a variety of heights.

[ken hatch]

Ben,

Make an outfeed table and a separate workbench. Swiss Army knifes will do a lot of jobs but none as well as a tool dedicated for the job. BTW, keep both simple and lose a couple of the vises on the bench. A simple workbench is a good work bench and will not drive you to barking at the moon mad after working on it. Of course YMMV.

ken

[Jim Matthews]

If you're not permitted to lift while bending, the Noden bench design is just the ticket.

http://adjustabench.com/about.asp

[James Pallas]

We always seem to work at the bottom. Put folding wedges between the bench top and the top of the legs. Then just affix the top with lag screws or bolts. That will hold the wedges tight. If you must work on the bottom you need something substantial to resist the torque like channel iron.

[Phil Mueller]

You don’t say what overall size the bench will be, but I would think a bench permanently attached to a table saw isn’t going to move much.

[Ben Darrah]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I think the the wedges between the frame and top would be the simplest and most stable. I would also be able to adjust them later if needed. I was going to through tenon the legs into the top but will change that. I'm looking to make it around 6' long and 3.5' wide. I'm running tight on space in my shop which is why I want to combine the two.

[Curt Putnam]

I am opting for a bench at hand planing height - which for me is as low as it ought to go. I will use appliances such as Moxon vises and bench-on-bench on the occasions when it makes sense for the working surface to be higher.

[Tom Bussey]

I just checked the height is a grizzly cabinet saw and it is 34". I did a lot of trial and error to find the right height for me and it is 35". If I go lower I get back pain real quick. I don't do as much hand planning as I used to but with the aount that I do I think I could make do with 34". If you wanted it lower just make a extr top the right thickness when using it as an outfeed table. anytime a person has to make a lot of adjustments they get tired of the adjustments in a real hurry

[Tom Bender]

I agree with Ken but understand your space limitations. You might make it detachable. The folding wedges are a good solution to fine tuning the height.

It's good to have the ability to clamp around the edges so you might want to keep that Maple border to the thickness of the bench. If you make a base with legs and apron then attach the top via wedges it will give you a gap for clamps if you make the wedges a couple of inches thick. Put corner braces in the apron and run the fasteners up thru slots in the wedges. Add guide blocks to manage the wedges.