Surprisingly satisfying sound to it, that word… Bench.
Feeling a bit off the tracks, internally, in one way or another and so I’ve decided to opt out of Thanksgiving this year and spend some time hiding out on my own. Consequently, there’ll be no cooking post, I’m afraid. I’ll have to refer you to last year’s. However, there are other arenas of derring-do besides the kitchen. Today, Asymptotia goes down to the workshop…
I’ll probably be drummed out of the Theorists’ Guild for admitting this, but I can’t go for long without making or doing something constructive with my own hands. The mood to make something hit me hard the other day. Not long ago I began to eye various aspects of my office (at home) and try to understand why I only use it to pick up printouts, find a book on a shelf, and add to the giant piles of paper on every surface. I never sit in it and use it, and I did not know why, annoyingly enough. Well, I think I figured it out, and after making a series of investigations, and a series of detailed measurements, the solution is on order. I will report later. The solution (and some other projects I have in mind) will require some careful woodwork, and I’ve not really got a good working space for that, having mostly done all my woodworking on the ground, patio, steps, and other improvised places.
So today’s project was to fix this. The plan began with a spontaneous purchase (for me that means I saw it in the store, went home and Googled about it for a while, stopped by two other stores, and then returned to buy it) of a heavily discounted package of goods. It was a box containing a drill, a sander, a jig saw and a workbench. At $60, I figured it was dubious, but worth taking the chance. (I don’t think it is worth buying cheap tools, as a rule – they are usually poorly made). Be assured that this was not my solution for the workspace – read on. The point was that I wanted a sander for another job (more on that later) anyway, and the small portable workbench would be useful for small jobs around the house. I already have a drill, and it could not hurt to have a jig saw (unfortunate choice of words). Thing is, at that price and from a manufacturer I’d not heard of, I was pretty sure they’d be medium quality at best, but it was a means to an end. So phase one this morning was to unpack and assemble the workbench.
(Click thumbnails for larger view.)
Well, it was a bit flimsy, but not as bad as I might have thought. Took all of about 20 minutes to put it together, and it would be a useful thing to have. Anyway, there it is, all done – Ta-daa!
Surely that’s not it? Right. I’d assembled this workbench for what purpose? Why, to make a workbench, of course! My real project (and the reason I was in the hardware store in the first place) was to make a proper workbench, to equip the workshop part of the basement lair for future projects. For this, I had five eight foot long pine two by fours, for a start. I wanted to cut this all up and prepare it properly, and I thought the little workbench would be useful for that. So this is what I set out to do next.
(Click thumbnails for larger view.)
Actually, to my pleasant surprise, the sander came in handy since the lumber was very rough from the store, with stamps from the supplier all over them. It was therefore a bonus to be able to have a sander (rather good too) come in handy so soon, and I spent an awful lot of time happily sanding away to make three piles of beautifully prepared cut lengths.
Next, feeling rather smug that the $60 purchase worked out so well, I moved on to assembly. This is where the next step of careful work came in. I wanted this thing strong and squared up properly, so the joinery needed attention. Happily, I’ve got some clamps from a previous job waiting in the wings and so there was no slippage while I measured and drilled. Next bit of good news. The drill that came was a good supplement to my drill, and so I could quickly drill and drive screws using them in tandem. Again, it was surprisingly good. That could actually be one of the best $60 I’ve spent in a while, and I had not even touched the jig saw!
(Click thumbnails for larger view.)
Several cups of tea (and a lunch break) later, I was almost done. All that was needed was the work surface. This meant checking the final measurement on the finished frame and then nipping down to the hardware store for two pieces of OSB, cut to the measure. (OSB? Oriented Strand Board. Often mistaken for plywood. It is not quite the same.) On with the top layer, squaring up and clamping to be screwed in with slightly shorter deck screws than I used for the 2 x 4 members, and it is more or less done. But I’m not done yet, since it is time to employ the workbench in its first task: measuring out the second OSB piece and cutting parts out of it so that it can fit on the bottom part of the bench.
(Click thumbnails for larger view.)
And guess what? I tested out the jig saw in doing this, and it’s not bad (although I did go back to my good old fashioned hand saw, which I love using). So that’s another bonus out of that $60.
Finally, it is done! And here it is, complete with a cup of tea.
Now I’ve got a proper workbench, for future projects*. Quite a sense of achievement, I have to say. I’ve made a huge leap forward in my life goals right there.
-cvj
(*Some of which may involve building an even bigger workbench, and so on and so forth.)
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Haha Clifford, I’m actually talking about the advanced ones in the shelving as I sold the 100-level books long ago. I mean, you don’t need all those books all the time! Plus if you do need one it’s easy to lift the wood and remove it for the few minutes it’s needed- not very permanent I suppose, but at my stage in life it’s best if things are as easy as possible to take apart. 🙂
Yvette – Spare physics text books as furniture!!? If you mean those dreadful glossy first year 100-level books that the big publishers use to ripoff undergraduates, then I suppose it is a fitting end for them. But save your proper, more advanced books for when you need them (and as fond memories of when you tackled each topic for the first time).
Cheers,
-cvj
Hmm…. funny that you mentioned shelves… they are also on the agenda – now that I have a workbench on which to construct them.
Cheers..
-cvj
Look solid. I recently read a post on an organization blog about making it easier to get things filed by having filing setups where you’re comfortable filing. I used that concept at work, where I have four separate desks (it’s a one-human library), to set up four filing systems. At home, it finally occurred to me where my files should be. To put the files there, I had to move the bookcase my brother built 30 years ago or so. I can now tell that he built that bookcase for the wall I moved it to–which is strange, because he never used it there. But it fits perfectly, lifts my spirits, and is built as solidly as your bench appears to be. Theoretically, when I move every item in my house into the best possible location, the house will never be messy again.
Looks good! Certainly a lot better than my plant-shelves by the window- they’re made of bits of wood commandeered from the physics shop, and the legs are spare physics textbooks of semesters past. (Thus proving they have use beyond just being a paperweight, of course.)
Well most of “us” separate out the “F” clamps by calling them “Bar” clamps, and differentiate even those from frame and furniture ones (as well as the G/C clamps). Be that as it may, a clamp (of whatever type/style) is not as stable as a fixed vice, either for wood or metal (plumbing issues). I don’t get to work much with tools, except in the summer, when i spend time with one of my production business partners, but when i do, i end up spending a lot of time with clamps and vices (not to mention adhesives and caulking).
In the off-season (winter into early spring) he is a highly respected master finish carpenter who is known by a motto given to him by one of the NorCal, high-end, construction contractors: “He is very expensive, he works slow, and you want no one else doing the job!” I don’t know about the slow part; i helped him build, and finish, a small 350 sqft house this past summer (an office and massage studio for his significant other) while we were mostly on an extensive rock-n-roll tour (a hexagon with spired roof, completed with covered decking and toilet/shower facilities, all out of wood {that part bugs me}) . The key was that he had four complete carpentry workshops set up on his property, so that various aspects of the project could be happening simultaneously. I always learn so much that i rarely ever get to use, but it is fun and rewarding. The access to the very best tools, that cover the spectrum of all the construction details, makes the experience something i look forward to each year.
Well, I’ve no idea who calls what in which part of which world, but I was thinking the same thing as you. THe G-clamps I referred to in the above comment were indeed the things you linked to. I actually forgot (for the moment that I was writing the comment) that I also had the other sort…. and I guess they are F’s aren’t they!!? I’d never named them before… just thought of them as some woodworking clamps I got a couple of years aback when I needed to glue a large piece of furniture back together.
Thanks!
-cvj
Hmm, where I come from, we call those clamps in the pics F-clamps and reserve the G-clamp name for these. Is it different in your part of the world?
Spyder: – Will install it later. No need for casters on a bench this small. Yes…. you jumped ahead 🙂 Vice is to come, although one can do a lot with g-clamps of various sizes.
Greg: – Happy to provide non-Turkey blogging.
Mary: – Yes… Brahms does help sometimes, although right now Bud Powell is doing a rather good job.
Matt B:- Yes… It’s benches all the way down…
-cvj
I don’t notice the casters with locking toggles??? Nor do i see a side-positioned bench vice?? Oh wait, you only had $60 and old tools. Sorry, i jumped ahead there.
I love this kind of variety on Asymptotia, especially when one of my own hobbies gets an airing. And this whole thing of building things to help building other things is something I love to do. I’m only too happy to hear about a bench in place of the millions of turkey stories.
Brahms. (Good antidote to ‘feeling off track internally’).
There’s noting so satisfying as building your own tools. Therefore, inspired by your post, I propose that you build an infinite set of workbenches, each increasingly larger, and each using an even cheaper set of tools!