Hey Silvan,
Thanks for the compliments.
"Silvan" wrote in message
...
I think you must be an aspiring Ted Turner or something. Looks for all
the
world like you ripped off some photos from Sam's book and colorized
them. 
Looks a lot better than my Frankenstein monster, but I'll bet it cost me
less to get the functionality I wanted out of my grossly unsuitable bench.
($0.)
Yes, you're right there. I figure I've got close to $500 in this bench.
This is mainly hardware. The Veritas twin-screw vise was $160, the Record
vise was $85 (got it on clearance), the bench dogs were $8/pair, the wonder
dogs were $23?/each, and the hold-down was $52. So, that's about $350. The
actual materials (MDF, masonite, lumber, truss rods, etc.) for the bench
weren't too bad. The contact cement was probably $25 on it's own. I guess
it's more like $425-450. Still, that's a lot less than many mail-order
benches. And I can reuse the vises whenever I upgrade to a solid 8/4 hard
maple bench. (probably not for 10 years hehe)
How does that whole truss rod setup work in the field? I'm thinking about
retrofitting my bench with some judiciously-placed rods to try to improve
its ability to resist wracking.
So far so good - haven't really had a chance to put it through it's paces
yet. Will be starting a lingerie dresser project very soon, so I'll get to
really get the bench on the road, so to speak. The truss rods definitely
made the base extremely solid. There are dowel pins at each joint, also,
which is really where the anti-wracking comes from. I have no reason to
believe it won't maintain it's stability indefinitely.
How about weight? Is it pretty solid, or does it want to scoot around on
you?
This is a good question. I had tried to practice edge jointing a board that
was held in the front vise, and was about the same length of the bench. It
was actually the hard maple that became the vise jaws. The piece was
3"x8"x5', so it was pretty heavy. I did find that the bench wanted to walk
a bit with this when I got catches during planing. I posted a question
about this a little ways back and I think that if I improve the tuning of my
planes, and install some sort of anti-skid material to the bench feet, that
will help immensely. I'm not really sure of the overall weight of the
bench, but I estimated it at about 250 pounds, fully outfitted. I'm already
thinking of building a storage cabinet out of 3/4" MDF that will fill up all
the space under the bench. A bank of drawers on one side and a cabinet with
shelves on the other. I think Sam Allen's book has some details about this,
but I know I've seen it somewhere and it is common on a lot of the
commercial benches. If I do that and fill it up with tools, I can't imagine
the bench will walk at that point.
Anyway, you executed that beautifully!
Thanks again.
Mike
--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/