Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

This is a fast and dirty but very strong and rigid small bench. Really it's just a glorified horse. Ideal for a small space, easy to shift away from a wall to work from both sides.

The only joints are the angled shoulders at the leg tops (rights and lefts). This aids assembly and brings the leg face out closer to the apron face for more of a furniture look.

Everything is Maxbond, ( renovating and I had 3/4 tube left and knew it would go off before used again ) clamped, bored and batten screwed together. In 2005 I knocked this up in a morning. The only vises are a Zyliss, a homegrown swivel vise and holes for holddowns. A face vise could be fitted. I haven't because I have high and low Joiners benches with many vises.

The bench is 930mm high, this allows me to bend at the waist to work, I'm 5' 10". The shelf/shelf rails, mostly to brace the bench. This was to be a bench for my eubs only but is used for many other jobs.


height...................930mm
top.......................1350mm x 350mm x 40mm ( 400mm would be better, I used the timber I had without going to extra trouble. )
apron...................1350mm x 115 x 40mm
legs......................60mm x 40mm
base.....................550mm x 70mm x 70mm ( for max stability )

Very useful sized bench Bill, it will suit my limited man cave space.
do you use this bench for your planing area? reason being, I stand at 6 ft & 102 cm at the hip, one of my bench is also 930 high, but after a few hours working the back begins to cave in!! I'm thinking of increasing the bench height to 100cm to ease the problem, have you experimented with different working heights?? & if you know anyone selling a Zyliss I'm all ears.

Cheers,

Gaz

Nice little bench Bill.

I make my bench tops 820mm by around 1800mm, the reason I use this dimension is that when the bottom of a external solid core door rots and someone replaces their door all you have to do is whip 200mm or so off the bottom of the discarded door and there you have it, free bench top. Also I drive screws into, drill into and hammer on my bench tops so regard them as disposable and replace them for nicks.

Jim

Ha, I put this in the wrong thread, was still on the link and not the bench thread.

Jim

Jim,
I have an 1800mm x 600mm assembly/ polishing table that cops a hiding. I get melamine wrap sheets from the local cabbie
for tops. My timber tops are semi hallowed ground.

Gaz,
I am lucky enough to have 3 different height benches. My back is crook as well. When I can ,I only like to bend at the waist. I carve and setup high and plane low, to get my upper body over the work. If you can find a Zyliss at the fleas before a tool dealer, they are quite cheap.