A Duffers Guide to supporting work
Whilst working on another Duffer piece, I started to consider the obscene collection of tools and other stuff I have accumulated over the last 40 years. Here I am explaining my collection of benches and associated work holding devices.over my period of working wood and other materials, I have built or acquired in excess of 30 benches. Currently, I have in excess of eight being used in two domestic workshops.
My back up workshop that, sadly, is little used at the moment is equipped with 5 benches each for particular functions. My only mounted vice resides on a micro Roubo. Not an oxymoron just built to fit.
In the Sussex workshop I regularly use 6 benches . Two cheap fake workmates support my large assembly bench ever since I cannibalised the pair of saw horses that previously supported it after I sacrificed the steel supports it came with and transmogrified them into a forced air burner for my forge. The only other bought bench, a real Workmate. All these commercial benches require about 100Kg of sandbags to achieve the solidity required to be useful.
The workhorses for general and heavy work are a very heavy Roubesqe bench of normal hight and a matching Low Bench both loosely based on suggestions of Chris Schwartz . The low bench is supplemented by an outrider horse to support long material. And both make use a cutting bench for sheet material ripping..
I fitted an end vice to the big bench for a while and have the parts to fit a leg vice, but I have moved away from these additions. My benches are all works in progress, test beds that can be dented and reworked. Most of my projects are completed using found material, skips and pallets are my main source. Hence all replaceable, with the remnants supplying a neighbour's wood burning stove. What I have found is that if my benches are more or less parallel vertically and horizontally it is fine to use less industrial methods of work-holding, this appeals on a spiritual as well as practical level.
On the big one I have drilled a regular set of 19mm dog holes, The dog holes take dogs, stops and clamps as well as my holdfasts. Long stuff for edge planing sit on a board clamped to the side or just clamped.
I have considered adding some holes to the legs, but so far no need, due to a standard Duffer error I widened the bench. This created a slot on one side because I didn’t have enough wood to fill. Thus we now have a really useful and easy to use clamping space both holding work or tools on the top or on the side without the need to dismantle and refit clamps from underneath the bench.
One of my metalwork vices is mounted on a solid stand of laminated 4x2s , clamping easily to the bench for a good battering, If Im being lazy the vice will mate to the workmate. The other vices are mounted to enable use on any of the benches, held in place by the lovely cheap clamps or bolts threaded through the dog holes( a bit of a pain so only used the for securing machines. Simples.
I have recently noticed a problem with my cheap clamps. They have started to fail in the clamping department. The problem is that they work very like a hold fast and over time the inexpensive cat body gets rounded. This can be simply resolved with a file or even sandpaper on a small block of scrap wood. A sharp bottom edge will once more restore the grip to its clamp leg
Moving on, my low bench is fitted with a trench and a square hole only. I considered a crochet but as earlier mentioned, I dislike sticky out bits. The trench and hole enable a wide variety of jigs to be used from a cyborg version of Mike Abbotts lumber horse for green wood, protective surfaces for axing or chopping mortices, not to mention planing stops of various heights and widths. Also these fitments and accessories are compatible with the Workmate for light to medium work or where a bit of extra hight is back friendly. I am however considering adding a notch to hold work sideways but this offers little advantage over my system of clamps. What cannot be accommodated on the top surface, long cheap clams will hold material firmly to the side. Best of all you can sit down to work and drink tea.
