shop

My original shop was in a

small 8x8 room. I built a

small (36”x28”) collapsible

bench with two cupboard

drawers that open to provide

support for a swing up router

table. A swing up shelf holds

a Ridgid oscillating sander.

My original shop was in a

small 8x8 room. I built a

small (36”x28”) collapsible

bench with two cupboard

drawers that open to provide

support for a swing up router

table. A swing up shelf holds

a Ridgid oscillating sander.

When the last of my children moved out, I got to move my shop

out of its small 8x8 room to a larger 14x13 room across the hall.

The main thing this has allowed me to do is build a real bench

and eventually to move my lathe into the house. A 6x13 adjacent

storage room, houses the dust collector, a selection of wood and

someday a small compressor.

BENCH

New Bench With the increased space I had the room to make a real bench. After reading everything I could get my hands on, I designed a bench to fit the limited space. The design focused heavily on it being a versatile clamp. I found a glued up solid plank 4” of maple and walnut at Blackforest and I had 2 4”x4”x5’ maple posts which I cut in half to give me 4 2’ legs. The results in a bench 28” high which is a bit short but it seems to work for me. The stringer is 1”x6” with a 1x4 glued to the back. It is bolted to the legs with 3/8” bolt, so it does not move! The front vice is a 3’ double screw from Lee Valley The outer jaw face is covered with belly cow hide. The slider has dog holes in its face so long boards can be clamped by the vice and supported by the slider. The end vice is a wagon vice lined up with a row of 3/4” dog holes. I made the dogs fron some purple heart. A cabinet latch serves to keep them tight in the hole. There is a self along the bottom that I though to use to store planes and other tools often used at the bench. I soon found br=ending up and down to get and return them was not happening. There was no room for a tool tray so I built a shelf to hold them on the wall above the bench. This works very well. Click thumbnail to enlarge

Lids
Drawers
Other
Marquetry
Intarsia
Carving
Turning
Msc