Workbench Ramblings

[nuhobby]

I got a Christopher Schwarz book on workbenches a couple of years ago. But I haven't built one of those very fine designs. I keep using my old one I made a few years back:
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Just rambling...
A big solid bench helps hand-planing a lot! But there's another type of planing I do often: Sitting on the ground or floor, a lot like this photo from antiquetools.com (vietnam):
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There's not much more stable surfaces than the Earth.

Amateur metalworking: I have to admit, I was hammering a bent piece of metal and a bent bolt back straight again last night. My day's mental stress and high blood pressure was all relieved when I was done. I found one edge of my bench to be the best place for the job, and I didn't care if that old repurposed hardboard paneling got any nicks in it. There's no way I would have done that with a high-end woodworking bench.

How do you guys do with your benches (planned and unplanned uses)?

[eartigas]

I have a basic bench I made myself that is far from anything you see in magazines but more along the type of tables you get from Festool. Plenty of places to hold stuff.

Your photo brings me memories from my times in Cambodia and VN; I have seen electric motors re-wound, metal lathes working and woodworkers making furniture, all on the floor and over the sidewalk.

It seems the guy in your photo is doing a raised panel, isn't it?

Thanks for sharing

[ryanbp01]

My workbench came from a plan that Sutherland's Lumber from 25 years ago. Although it's doing well, I'd still like one which is more conducive to woodworking.

BPR

[frank81]

My workbench came from the shop floor at a shipbuilder I used to work at. It's a fully enclosed cabinet made out of inch and a half thick marine grade plywood and 4x4's. The top is doubled up so 3 inches. It weighs an absolute ton and can take a beating. I've had truck motors and transmissions on it and not even the slightest creak or bow. The "feet" are like a dresser where most of the piece is in contact with the ground except for small spaces cut out in the middle, never had any side to side movement. I would hate to see what all that lumber costs at retail.

When I'm done fixing up my ER I am building some heavy duty shelving and a long workbench. That's the reason the SS is finally top priority.

[charlese]

...Amateur metalworking: I have to admit, I was hammering a bent piece of metal and a bent bolt back straight again last night. My day's mental stress and high blood pressure was all relieved when I was done. I found one edge of my bench to be the best place for the job, and I didn't care if that old repurposed hardboard paneling got any nicks in it. There's no way I would have done that with a high-end woodworking bench.

How do you guys do with your benches (planned and unplanned uses)?

I have a large metal vice on the end of my bench. Think it weighs about 49 lbs. It is large enough to be used as an anvil for metal hammering purposes. But also can be multi-purposed as a vice. An anvil is also a good tool to have around;) .

[Ed in Tampa]

I mounted my steel vice to a couple of pieces of wood that allows me to put it into my wood working vise to hold it immoveable. I built the wood platform to shift the weight onto the table so all the vise does is keep things from moving. Not weight or hammering shock goes into the wood working vise. Don't want to screw my wood working vise up.

I can then do metal working as it too has an anvil and when I'm done take it out of the vise and stow it. Heavy as a brick but I keep it close at hand so I don't have to horse it around too much.

Anytime I have soemthing to do that would put lateral torque on the vise I have two holes drilled in the work bench and metal vise platform to bolt it down. That way I can really hunker a piece of metal to bend it again without putting any werid stress on the wood working vise.

One last thing the platform the steel vise is mounted on is big enough to protect the surface of the work bench should I need to weld or solder anything.

Basically a 12 inch by 12 inch sheet of ply with a short piece of 2x4 attached, the 2x4 goes into the wood vise.

[frank81]

I've got a 50+ year old 6 inch Columbia vice with a built in anvil, bolted down through the 3" workbench top with Class 10.9 bolts. That's probably overkill, but it comes in handy when I need to get the sledge and crowbar out or bend something large.