Showing posts with label bench. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Building a Simple and Cheap Woodworking Bench

If you are looking for a woodworking bench, you can buy it or, you can make your own. If you are new to woodworking, then I highly recommend that you make your own bench so that you can practice. Here is how you build your simple and cheap woodworking bench.

1. Overall bench dimensions

The bench is 26’’ x 48” x 32” (deep x width x height)

2. Materials required for this project

a. OSB

b. 2”x4”

c. Deck Screws

3. The Pieces

a. For Side Rails, cut the 2”x4” to 45" long. Make 4 pieces

b. For Legs, cut the 2”x4” to 32" long. Make 4 pieces

c. For End Rails, cut the 2”x4” to 26" long. Make 4 pieces

d. Get 2 pieces of 26" x 48"OSB

4. How to assemble the side assembly

Place the lower rail 6” away from the bottom of the legs. You can use a 90 degree ruler to ensure the rail is 90 degree with the legs. Screw the joints together, with 4 screws each joint. In the process, the side frame will be "squared up".

5. How to assemble the frame assembly

Attached the end rails to the side frames. Then, turn over the two sides and ready for clamping and joining. The corners are joined using 3" deck screws.

Then attach the OSB (the shelve) with 1-5/8" deck screws.

6. How to install the lower shelf

Make rectangular notches, with the size of 3" x 5" at each corner of the OSB. This will allow the OSB to fit around the legs.

To get the OSB in place, you need to angle it and attach it with short deck screws.

That is all there is to make your own woodworking bench.

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Sunday, March 2, 2014

Quangsheng Vs Lie Nielsen Bench Planes

A while ago I mentioned I was thinking about purchasing a Lie Nielsen no#5 Jack plane and also wanted a no#7. However, four months later I am still using my exceptionally crappy modern Stanley no#4 smoother and no#6 as a jointer / fore plane. With that in mind I have come to the conclusion that the preferred planes in my tool set would be a no#3 for smoothing, no#5 jack plane which could double as a large smoother if required and finally a no#7 for jointing and final flattening of stock.

I would probably only keep my crappy Stanleys for rough DIY type work or green wood etc.

In the perfect world I would love for all three planes to be made by Lie Nielsen, but at the following Axminster UK prices: no#3 £282, no#5 £282 and no#7 £369 - I simply cannot justify spending £933 - especially as a beginner! Can I?...

Having done a lot more research on plane manufacturers, I have discovered a UK company called Workshop Heaven who are selling planes made by Quangsheng at a fraction of the price of the Lie Nielsen ones. These planes are basically Lie Nielsen clones, based on the Stanley Bedrock design, complete with thick blades and improved chip breakers a la Lie Nielsen. The only constructional differences appear to be:

The Quangsheng blades are T10 Carbon steel instead of A2 as used by Lie Nielsen. Some reviews have stated the Quangsheng blades are incredibly sharp and possibly sharper than A2 steel and hold a good edge.
The Lie Nielsen planes use bronze lever caps with the Quangsheng ones being brushed steel.
Lie Nielsen offer high angle frogs - whereas the only Quangsheng option would be putting a back bevel on the blade. I guess its possible that the Lie Nielsen frogs might fit the Quangsheng planes?

Spot the difference...

According to the reviews I have found on the Internet and online wood working forum discussions, the Quangsheng planes are very good (albeit made in China) both in terms of construction, finish and performance, with some people stating there is very little difference between their Quangsheng planes and their Lie Nielsen planes. The biggest difference as far as I can tell is slightly tighter machine tolerances on the Lie Nielsen planes, translating in to slightly finer blade control.

The three planes listed above from Quangsheng would only cost £389 total, no#3 £90, no#5 £110 and the no#7 £190 - Wow! That leaves a lot of change to buy some nice chisels....

I wrote to Workshop Heaven enquiring about the Quangsheng planes and they said:

Officially the soles of all sizes are flat to 3 thou, although in practice they are typically better than half that.

We offer a lifetime guarantee on all of the tools we sell (your life not the tools). Im interested in regular happy customers, not a 100% record of never losing money on a deal.

All in all they sound like a good buy...BUT ... would I regret buying them down the line?

So ... what to do?

Any readers own a Quangsheng plane or have any experience with them? Anyone know anything about them or can offer any advice - it would be greatly appreciated!

On a slightly different note - all progress on the Stools has been delayed due to me making the school boy error of running out of glue - doh! I did intend to order some more glue online, but thought I might include a plane order...

Looking forward to your thoughts on the above...

Friday, February 21, 2014

How To Build A Woodworking Bench Woodworking Plans

How To Build A Woodworking Bench

Woodworking Plans

Do-it-Yourself Patterns and Crafts, Woodworking kits, Furniture Plans Plus Much, Much More. Will Show You How to Make 16,000 Different Woodworking Plans. Use The Plans For Fun, Functionality or Profit!
How To Build A Woodworking Bench

How To Build A Woodworking Bench. Wood is a single of the most stunning, tough and versatile materials that you can work with while on a do it oneself project. The beauty of a cabinet door that is finished in wood cannot be matched by any other material regardless of whether natural or man made. As with any project, you would call for a detailed set of plans whilst you function with wood and wood primarily based components. This is why it is suggested that you use a detailed set of woodworking plans when you plan to extensively use wood based materials to comprehensive the project that you have embarked on.

Now let us examine why woodworking plans are important in any wood primarily based do it oneself project. To start with, these plans assistance you do achoice with waste. If you begin a woodworking project with out a firm plan, the chances are that you would finish up employing extra wood that you initially intended to. Most of the wood primarily based projects would require substantial assemblies and sub assemblies.

When you begin your project, you would be ideally functioning with person members of wood and finishing them individually just before assembling them. If you do not have the suitable woodwork plans, you could finish up with mismatching wood members at the time of assembly. This could result in highly-priced price and time overruns in the project. All these difficulties can be avoided by utilizing a properly laid out set of wood plans.

The other advantage that you could have if you use woodworking plans are that you would be prepared with all the tools and implements that you would call for for completing the wood primarily based project. Typically we uncover that we do not have access to a specific tool in the middle of a woodworking project. This situation could lead to a loss of time and at times you may even have to abandon the project in case a particular tool is not readily available. All these problems can be avoided if you have a detailed program at the onset. How To Build A Woodworking Bench

How To Build A Woodworking Bench Data

Constant Advertising - The romance of woodworking will want to be balanced with the constant advertising and marketing vital to retain the operate coming in. In time, phrase of mouth brings in a lot of operate if you create a good reputation. Until finally then, you will want to get the phrase out routinely. Right after the perform arrives in you have to have fantastic manufacturing systems so you can complete the tasks promptly and continue to preserve the cash flowing. If jobs think about also pretty long and the dollars movement stops, it can turn into tricky to shell out the costs. Talking of money flow, you should really construct and adhere to common assortment methods. This is 1 area where by quite a few woodworkers fail. The payment for the carry out will need to be as significant as the carry out by itself. If you are lax in accumulating, you will run into prospects who fall quick to shell out you and this will lead to really really serious revenue movement troubles.

The Compact business enterprise - Even having said that you like woodworking, you will require to do the property business enterprise if you are to make a dwelling at it. Great results normally needs an in-depth info of both woodworking and enterprise management. If you under no circumstances have every single, I suggest you hesitate to leap in till you have honed your enterprise capabilities.

Seeking back once more I recognize that my lack of information in the course of my startup really a couple of decades back could have been offset with some typical information and a further particular person to advise me.Sadly I had to understand most elements by trial and error.

Just about every and each and every and each week, I take the time to go by means of the comments that my viewers make about my woodworking internet site. 1st of all I want to them for taking the time to comment, I certainly value all of the comments and tips. This previous week there was a comment from a gentleman, who expressed a need to get into woodworking. As a man who is passionate about woodworking, I want to welcome him to the fold. And I want to supply you him all of the recommendations and encouragement probable in his endeavors.How To Build A Woodworking Bench

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Monday, February 10, 2014

A Dedicated Sharpening Bench part 1

An Introduction...

"The best hand tools in the world are worthless in the hands of the woodworker who cannot sharpen them."

After reading and experimenting with, practicing and then studying the different techniques of sharpening Ive come to settle on a system that is working for me in my current shop space and thats good! A freshly sharpened hand tool can turn the most challenging joinery tasks into wonderful and relaxed procedures. Your work will be cleaner with tighter fitting joinery and your tools will perform as they were intended to the day they were made. The joys of working wood will be that much the greater.
In my own basement work space here in Toronto, Ive followed the line and Im happy with my results; but something Im not happy with and have been promising myself for months to address is my sharpening location and current set-up.
One day last year, I noticed a neighbour throwing out a small wooden table. I snatched it up, rescuing it from the eternal wasteland of the land fill site and have been using it as my sharpening table ever since. Prior to the table I was using a sharpening hook system I designed awhile ago. It was basically an over-sized bench hook with some cleats to hold water stones and a side area for stone storage. The sharpening hook worked when my bench top wasnt cluttered, (which if you know me you know that it hasnt happened much this past year!) so the routine of moving my work project or tools to make room for the sharpening hook soon became tiresome. The small throw away tables footprint has also become reminiscent of a drunken sailor on shore leave so Ive finally decided, with a little help from Fine Woodworking.com, to build a new bench dedicated to sharpening.
A small scale workbench with large scale workbench strength. The frame has mortise and tenon joinery with a solid 1" thick work surface that has bread board ends fitted into a heavy, through dovetailed apron.
It has a tool tray featuring a unique and convenient way of actually holding tools ! (not just for the hamsters anymore) and Ive added some off the shelf items that will also add to the -dare I say- pleasure of sharpening?

Do you currently have a dedicated sharpening area? Is it a re-used piece of furniture or maybe a purpose made table or bench? Id love to hear about it- be part of the discussion and share some thoughts.

In the next post Ill assemble my cut list and get right into the project with some stock preparation and Ill glue-up the top panels...stay tuned.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Entryway bench and shelf

A little of everything happened today! I spent most of the day planing down more white oak for the other side of the arched door. This process takes time because white oak is so dense, and it does not just zip through the planer!

At the end of the day, Ive applied a coat of poly to the new cabinet doors, and also to the shelf and bench, which are now black. This particular peice is distressed, as you can see. When I painted it, I backed out the screws, and reset them when the paint was dry. This leaves the screw head exposed, giving it more decoration.

Ive also shortened up the spray booth so it fits on the work table. It was too unmanagable the way it was, and it is still effective being smaller.