Friday, April 27, 2018

More Of The 10lbs In A 5lb Space

I rearranged the deck chairs this afternoon in hopes of finding room to work in the shop. The old assembly/joiner bench moved to the East wall of the shop, under the wood stack. The new bench moved to where the old assembly/joiner bench called home and the main bench stayed in place.

Because the Moravian bench is smaller it gives the feeling of more space in the shop. We will see how it works out but whatever, I want the chance to work on the travel bench before the Fall PNW trip.

From behind the main bench with travel bench and old assembly bench to the left:


Looking West to East:


Another West to East:


One of the things I've learned after building so many benches and then working on 'em is that most of the folks writing about workbenches are mostly talking out of their ass. I'm not sure I could do a better job or would want to but first time bench builders are not well served.

I'll go back to my mantra: Build it cheap, simple, strong, and quickly then go to work on it making furniture. After working on it for awhile build another correcting all the things that drive you barking at the moon mad about the first build. After three or four builds then if you wish spend a few bucks on nice wood.

Of course....YMMV.

ken

BTW, that's Sam the Wonder Dog photobombing the second photo. I'm sure he was looking for a rawhide bone.


4 comments:

  1. Sam is either looking for a treat, or like Rudy would be thinking: Hummm, new
    Stretcher I haven't chew on yet :-)

    Bob, and Rudy who still like to chew our dining table and chairs

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While Labs are notorious for eating all the furniture when young our two have never chewed anything but treats and toys. That's a good thing as big as they are :-).

      ken

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  2. Ken do you find having the tool slot in the bench a hindrance? It would seem to me that I would bend or break a tool in that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ralph,

      Short answer...No.

      I've had either a slot or split fill with a slot on all my latest benches except for the first travel bench. I wouldn't want a bench without one. It beats a tool tray, protects the edges of your tools, and is very handy to hold your most used or in use tools. It also makes the build so much easier it is worth it for that reason alone. About the only downside is if the whole bench top is needed for some reason you have to clean it out but that seldom happens.

      ken

      Delete