Work Bench

[dheaton]

I have a question for all of you. What kind of work bench are you using to work/build your planes? I need one that I can use in my home and not get my wife mad at me for the mess. Suggestions?

[CNY_Dave]

What kind of building?

Do you need a very flat surface?

A hollow-core door on 2 sawhorses is a good, portable, versitile choice.

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by dheaton

I have a question for all of you. What kind of work bench are you using to work/build your planes? I need one that I can use in my home and not get my wife mad at me for the mess. Suggestions?

My basement workshop has a work bench 16 feet wide. It was made with 2X4 framing with 2X4 cross members every few feet. Had to be strong to support my 400 pound Craftsman lathe and home made milling machine.

It's decked out with 3/4 inch plywood. For soldering and so on, I picked up some cheap (real cheap) pieces of ceramic floor tile one foot square. Nothing sticks to that stuff. If one breaks, I've got spares.

As for building ARF's, that goes on to one of those plastic fold up tables available from Home Depot and similar places.

Mess I've got to clean up my stuff when a dropped screwdriver never hits the top of the workbench!

[Beemerider]

I have a small (10X14) building in the back yard that is my shop. Insulated, heated and so on but I found a 10' kitchen counter top that someone had set out for local heavy trash pickup. It's sitting on small cabinets. I also have a 12X36" good quality (no knots) pine board for building small wings and such. I don't really care to fly big stuff so the small building board is enough. I may get a 48" board at some point. When cleaned off the counter top looks pretty nice. 'course it doesn't look nice very often.

[cyclops2]

Primary hobby is a Luan door on a used triple dresser.
2 other benches are also triple dressers...............Lots of handy storage that way for bulky tools.

[Whiskers]

One of two places for me. Either on the workbench me and my mom share in the house (she makes jewelry and such) or the work bench in the garage.

The one we share is this: http://www.harborfreight.com/60-inch...nch-93454.html

The other work bench is just a homemade bench made out of 2x4's and is older than I am. If I'm working on anything with small pieces I throw a tarp or paper towels over it to cover any cracks and such so nothing gets lost.

[road king 97]

Alot of different work benches here to choose from ,i have about 20ft of bench in my basement i built out of scrap micro lambs and plywood off of my job sites and i also have 3 heavy 8ft formica fold up tables in a extra room up stairs . The bigest thing about not making the wifey mad is to vacume up the mess and don't track it through the house . For this she bought a smaller hand held vacume but later i bought a cheap 20 buck vacume from home depo that uses a 5 gal painters bucket for the bottom. I also have a couple small garabge cans in both locations for scraps of foam or balsa cause i build planes with both. If you can keep HER house clean they wost time dont care what you do . BTW store your planes where she can't see them and not in her living room or kitchen.lmao If she finds out you have 4 or 5 planes she might say somthing about it ,if you tell her 40 or 50 like me just tell her they are like her shoe collection and move away fast. Most of this i have gone through for over 30 years of building planes ,and i have been lucky so far but from experiance you realy never know whats going to set them off . joe

[Whiskers]

Best advice yet! Hahaha

[CHELLIE]

Originally Posted by dheaton

I have a question for all of you. What kind of work bench are you using to work/build your planes? I need one that I can use in my home and not get my wife mad at me for the mess. Suggestions?

I turned my Den into a hobby Room I made a square frame of 2x4s and screw it into the wall at the corner, , then I made 1 leg and screwed that into the frame, and a big hollow door on top of the 2x4s, works great, and if you need to remove it, just unscrew 5 drywall screws from the frame thats attached to the wall make sure the frame screws go into the wall studs

CHELLIE
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Hi Renegades here is what I did today, I needed a work bench, Sooooooo I made one from a 80"X 36" door and 2x4s now i can finish up on some of my projects




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[dheaton]

I wasn't notified about any responses. Thanks for the replies. I do some stick building but have not done anything in quite a while. Just getting back into the hobby. I looks like a door would be a good option. It would be nice and flat and straight.

I would love to hear and see what you all have done for storing your planes. I need to build some kind of rack or something. Love to see some ideas.

[road king 97]

I buy these to put on top of my tables ,they lay flat and i use two end to end with thin tape under the middles to hold them together . When you stick pins in them they hold well and pull out easy ,so they are just right for me. I build alot so they only last me a year but for most builders it should last a long time .Once one side it tore up i just flip them over for another year. http://www.menards.com/main/home-dec...612-c-7158.htm

[stuart]

that stuff from menards sure looks a lot like what i have on my table. it's a self sealing cork substance that can withstand razors,pins and remove spilled glue with a spackel knife. it's called forbo board and i got it off walls in the city when i was a carpenter. forbo is the manufactures name.

use a folding table with hollow core door and the forbo board is masonite with the corking material adheared to it.

cover the plans with craft plastic wrap gotten in craft stores or package wrapping .it's used on gift baskets and comes in 30"w x several yards long. when done building ,you could flatten it all down and lean it against a wall.

most important is your suface is flat. wings don't like curved tables...trust me ,i know.........

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by stuart

that stuff from menards sure looks a lot like what i have on my table. it's a self sealing cork substance that can withstand razors,pins and remove spilled glue with a spackel knife. it's called forbo board and i got it off walls in the city when i was a carpenter. forbo is the manufactures name.

use a folding table with hollow core door and the forbo board is masonite with the corking material adheared to it.

cover the plans with craft plastic wrap gotten in craft stores or package wrapping .it's used on gift baskets and comes in 30"w x several yards long. when done building ,you could flatten it all down and lean it against a wall.

most important is your suface is flat. wings don't like curved tables...trust me ,i know.........

Its more like fine chip board in the middle but it stays pretty flat . I could not see at your table mine looks like a airplane comming in with landing lights on. I cant see very well and have 4 of those lights you have plus the room lights .just so i can figure out all the lines while scratch building. If my eyes get any worce my planes wont last long. lol joe

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by road king 97

Its more like fine chip board in the middle but it stays pretty flat . I could not see at your table mine looks like a airplane comming in with landing lights on. I cant see very well and have 4 of those lights you have plus the room lights .just so i can figure out all the lines while scratch building. If my eyes get any worce my planes wont last long. lol joe

If you've got serious vision problems, check this definition out on vision MD's. IMHO, good vision care requires good doctors, with an MD. (Been there, done that.)

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/ma...ticlekey=22559

[solentlife]

Originally Posted by dheaton

I have a question for all of you. What kind of work bench are you using to work/build your planes? I need one that I can use in my home and not get my wife mad at me for the mess. Suggestions?

I have square edge kitchen worktop fitted to my model den.

Nigel

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by kyleservicetech

If you've got serious vision problems, check this definition out on vision MD's. IMHO, good vision care requires good doctors, with an MD. (Been there, done that.)

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/ma...ticlekey=22559

Yea I have had MS for over 20 years ,but iam still walking and doing well so if my eyes go a little bad iam still way ahead of the game.
joe

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by stuart

that stuff from menards sure looks a lot like what i have on my table. it's a self sealing cork substance that can withstand razors,pins and remove spilled glue with a spackel knife. it's called forbo board and i got it off walls in the city when i was a carpenter. forbo is the manufactures name.

use a folding table with hollow core door and the forbo board is masonite with the corking material adheared to it.

cover the plans with craft plastic wrap gotten in craft stores or package wrapping .it's used on gift baskets and comes in 30"w x several yards long. when done building ,you could flatten it all down and lean it against a wall.

most important is your suface is flat. wings don't like curved tables...trust me ,i know.........

You see how neat and clean Stuart keeps his work bench ,here is one of mine when iam building.I have tried to keep a neat work bench but it always ends up like this so i gave up. I clean it when i realy cant stand it anymore or the first time i put a dent in the plane iam building with somthing laying on my bench. I most times just say its the maids day off. lol joe

[Mojo]

I took an old 3' x 5' table that I wasn't using and covered it with some thick ~3/4" OSB ply. I then purchased a sheet of 3'x4' 1/8" plate steel. That covers most of the table and the 1' that is uncovered is where I put my tools. This makes for a great magnetic building board.

If you go the magnetic route, be prepared for the price of the steel. I think I paid around $70 for that sheet of steel.

[bluzjamer]

I have to second the Harbor Freight bench. Wait till it goes on sale or use one of their 20% coupons. I bought 3 of them. One for garage and 2 for hobby room. Biggest trouble is mine are worse than Stuarts table, I can never see the tops. Use a dropped ceiling tile for sticking pins in 2x4 only a couple of bux. Really need to spend about 3-4 days in the basement straightening up. Lucky to have an understanding wife of 30 years, but I guess that is why it made 30 years. First one only lasted 10.

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by bluzjamer

I have to second the Harbor Freight bench. Wait till it goes on sale or use one of their 20% coupons. I bought 3 of them. One for garage and 2 for hobby room. Biggest trouble is mine are worse than Stuarts table, I can never see the tops. Use a dropped ceiling tile for sticking pins in 2x4 only a couple of bux. Really need to spend about 3-4 days in the basement straightening up. Lucky to have an understanding wife of 30 years, but I guess that is why it made 30 years. First one only lasted 10.

I have heard other guys who had good luck with one of those benches and they dont cost much. I wish they had the magnet system a long time ago because i would have bought one ,and i could get metal cheap from my steel suplyer now (free) but iam a old school pins and weights builder after 30 years and to stubbern to change .I remove the menards pushpin board when iam building with foam and put it back with balsa .I just started to learn about building with foam a year ago and thats about all the change us old coots can handle. joe

[stuart]

oh man,you guys have me figured as some kind of neat freak..,so here a typical table in the shop while projects are under way. the only time my tables are that clean is when i start a build. everything clean,labeled,layed out....then the fun begins!

heres the tables during the hob bonanza v tail. built with lights and retracts.

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by stuart

oh man,you guys have me figured as some kind of neat freak..,so here a typical table in the shop while projects are under way. the only time my tables are that clean is when i start a build. everything clean,labeled,layed out....then the fun begins!

heres the tables during the hob bonanza v tail. built with lights and retracts.

I dont know about the rest of you but i feel a little less guilty now. joe

[CHELLIE]

Originally Posted by stuart

oh man,you guys have me figured as some kind of neat freak..,so here a typical table in the shop while projects are under way. the only time my tables are that clean is when i start a build. everything clean,labeled,layed out....then the fun begins!

heres the tables during the hob bonanza v tail. built with lights and retracts.

Ok Stu, Buy a Good Bottle of Wine, open it, pour yourself a large Glass of wine, Drink it, and Clean up Your MESS LOL

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by stuart

oh man,you guys have me figured as some kind of neat freak..,so here a typical table in the shop while projects are under way. the only time my tables are that clean is when i start a build. everything clean,labeled,layed out....then the fun begins!

heres the tables during the hob bonanza v tail. built with lights and retracts.

LOL
That's the way a work table is supposed to look!!

(Some years ago our agent and I traveled to a customer in N. Dakota. The Dep't manager's desk had one sheet of paper, and one pencil on it. That was it. His desk was absolutely clean.

Agent whispered to me, "we're in for a rough time". He was right.)

Attached is part of my workbench. Out of sight on the left side is a 12 inch Craftsman metal lathe, milling machine, bandsaw, and storage shelves. The cabinets over the workbench came from our old kitchen. The kitchen cabinet doors and frame were removed as a piece part. Then one by twelve lumber stock was purchased, and the cabinet frames were nailed to the lumber stock. Works very well, and didn't cost to much.

[stuart]

my shops so dirty,this is my basement pet helper...he still freaks my wife out when she sees it...lol[jk]