Shopsmith Forums

edflorence wrote:RPD...really like that English style bench...would enjoy hearing your comments on how it works for you. Always thought I would like to have one...Until that day, here is what has worked for me for a long time.

The bench works well for me, very solid. If I need to clamp work to the top I use short (24") bar clamps, I also have a couple of hold downs, just need to drill a dog hole or two to try them out.

The spring loaded planing stop was a disappointment, Perhaps my planing technique was faulty, but the end of the work piece would "walk" up and then slide over the stop, and eventually it broke.

Here are a couple of pictures of my small fold-down workbench.

Used a bowling alley section. Also used a smaller piece unde the wall cabinet.

Now making a Jack Bench base for the top.
.

rpd wrote:

edflorence wrote:RPD...really like that English style bench...would enjoy hearing your comments on how it works for you. Always thought I would like to have one...Until that day, here is what has worked for me for a long time.

The bench works well for me, very solid. If I need to clamp work to the top I use short (24") bar clamps, I also have a couple of hold downs, just need to drill a dog hole or two to try them out.

The spring loaded planing stop was a disappointment, Perhaps my planing technique was faulty, but the end of the work piece would "walk" up and then slide over the stop, and eventually it broke.

Hi Ron;

Thanks for the follow up.

How to hold down work while planing has been a challenge for me as well. I drilled a couple of rows of dog holes in my bench top and have a variety of devices that fit them. Sometimes I will pinch a board between the dog on the face vice and a dog on the bench top, but that will usually also require that the work also be clamped at the front edge of the bench to keep it from lifting. One of the rows of dog holes lines up with a dog in the end vice and is used for longer work. I use the Veritas planing stops and the Veritas Wonder Dogs and also a simple bent metal hold down. All of them require dog holes in the bench top, but usually some combination will work. The simple old fashioned bent metal hold down really is effective...always surprising how much clamping power it has. I have seen a lot of different designs for bench dogs but have found that the plastic dogs that come with the Workmate folding bench work really well. I also have some simple wooden pegs with wide tops that I use. The plastic and wood dogs are nice because you don't have to worry if the plane runs into them.

I also have a row of dog holes drilled into the face of the front edge of the bench to support short lengths of 3/4 inch dowels that serve as board jacks for narrow work.

I am in the process of getting the materials to make this bench.

https://www.canadianwoodworking.com/pla ... -workbench


I may not have time to allocate to it until this summer, but wanted to share.

delong94 wrote:I am in the process of getting the materials to make this bench.

https://www.canadianwoodworking.com/pla ... -workbench


I may not have time to allocate to it until this summer, but wanted to share.

I think the now non published Shop Notes had a similar design many years ago.

My work bench is a...
Mess. It always seems to be the place where everything lands. My bride always seems to place everything on it. Magazines, borrowed tools, especially those which were hung up, plus various other hardware has turned my bench into a catchall. And, to be fair, I'm guilty of the same thing. I am always spending time to pick up and put away before anything else can be worked on. Try as I might, I feel it is a losing battle.
BPR

ryanbp01 wrote:My work bench is a...
Mess. It always seems to be the place where everything lands. My bride always seems to place everything on it. Magazines, borrowed tools, especially those which were hung up, plus various other hardware has turned my bench into a catchall. And, to be fair, I'm guilty of the same thing. I am always spending time to pick up and put away before anything else can be worked on. Try as I might, I feel it is a losing battle.
BPR

Discipline is the answer. I don't know how you get it unless you are taught to put things back where they came from. My parents were pretty disciplined but my real Discipline came from the Air Force. I was an aircraft munitions technician. I loaded bombs on aircraft including nuclear munitions on B-52 aircraft on hard alert back when we had that.

When you worked on the flight line, regardless of your maintenance specialty, everything was inventoried before it was taken out to the flight line and it was inventoried when it was brought back in. You didn't want to loose something out there and cause an aircraft malfunction or worse a crash. That included things like wiping rags. They put 6 rags in a zip lock bag and you had to bring back 6 rags in the bag. You also had to inventory your tools and equipment if you left working on an aircraft and moved to another aircraft.

If something was not there a formal "Lost Tool" report was generated and a search on the flight line was conducted until the item was found.

After 24 years of that you kind of learn to put things away.

I finished my bench addition today. It’s something I have been meaning to get done for some time. It’s a combination of a dust collection boom and a lazy Susan for the tools. So far so good. All seems to be working well. It will be nice to have the tools closer and eliminate the walking over to the wall to get everything. The dust collection boom also has allowed me space to put the pneumatics and stereo etc. The lazy Susan swings out of the way to allow for full use of the bench.
Paul

moggymatt wrote:It's still below freezing in my neck of the woods

Anybody here want to share a picture of their bench and what they like and don't like about yours?

I found an old Shopsmith Bench at a Thrift store in Tucson for a $100 no way one could be built for that. I was surprised one of the Arizona boys didn't snap it up.
What I like most is the tail vice it works well an is surprisingly universal. What I don't like about it is the tool tray. I have wasted more epithets on that &%$@###! tool tray than I can count.


By the way it cooled down a little hear it was only 70.5 deg.