On Tue, 08 May 2007 22:01:01 +0100, NoSpam
wrote:

Anybody got any pointers to designs for woodworking benches?

The Scott Landis workbench book from Taunton
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561582700/codesmiths
Don't even think about a bench until you've read this.

It's well worth buying all three (benches, toolboxes, workshops) and
they even do a cheaper box set
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561585696/codesmiths
Otherwise look on eBay (there's a scrum) or most local libraries should
be able to get hold of it..

Jim Tolpin has also done a workbench book that should be worth the look.

My own bench
http://codesmiths.com/shed/workshop/bench.htm
is the Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking design (stretched a bit) from his
3rd book, a Scandinavian pattern. Not as good a book as his first
volumes (another essential woodworking book) but it's a good bench
design and worth buying the book for that alone, if you use it. I'd
suggest trying to borrow and read it though.

If I made another bench though, it would probably be the Frank Klausz
mainland European design (described briefly in Landis). It's a lot like
Frid's, but the shoulder vice design is a bit more useful for timber
boards rather than half-constructed carcases.

Any other bench I made would have to have some sort of moving dogs in
the top surface (like Frid's tail vice). These are much more useful for
joinery than any iron vice I've ever had.

I'm sketching-out some ideas for a woodworking bench top to fit on an
existing sturdy metal frame.

No such animal, if by woodworking you mean handwork, planing and
chiselling. Steel is strong, but it doesn't have the inertia, damping
and stiffness of a good wooden frame. Under rhythmic loads it'll sway
back and forth beneath you. Even if you weld stiffeners all over it,
it's still an annoyance. As a minimum, I'd use a solid sheet back, then
weld angle sections across that to stiffen it.


The top's going to be 1500x660 (overhanging
slightly at each end),

a tool well at the back,

Big enough to catch things rolling, but no bigger.

a quick release vice set
on the front and a standard vice on the end.

I've no use for an iron tail vice whatsoever. Tail vices aren't there as
vices, they're either there as front-edge notch vices (useful) or as a
moving member to work moving dogs (incredibly useful). Wooden tail vices
aren't to be used as vices on the end of the bench (you'll strain them)
and the whole idea of a "tail-mounted vice" is a red herring that has
grown up around them.

Probably also a removable panel to drop-in a router.

Damned annoying to work around. Router tables are easy - make a simple
top and stick it on a cheapWorkmutt frame.
http://codesmiths.com/shed/workshop/techniques/router_table/

Buying/laminating loads of Beech strips seems like too much work and
expense

Bit soft too, IMHO. Use oak or maple, if you're going to that much
trouble. Mine's 12" wide cabinet-grade oak ripped down into 2" strips
and re-jointed, just because we had nowhere to store the stuff any
longer and it was time to use it for a benchtop or firewood! OTOH, you
only need one good face, so you can save money on skankier boards than
"best" and it shoudn't cost an impossible amount.

so I'm thinking of laminating 3 layers of 18mm ply (or maybe
MDF) and edging it with some 30mm wide Beech.

2 x 19mm baltic birch plies and a 4mm MDF top is traditional and works
well. Wax the MDF well, stick it down with DS tape and replace every
half-decade.



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