On Workbenches Part I The Lesson of the Schwarz

As woodworkers we all have benches. Some are just a sheet of 3/4" plywood on saw horses and others are full blown hand made Roubo shrines. Until we come up with at least the most basic bench (just a horizontal work surface) were really of very little use as a woodworker.

Thats my current bench, under all those routers.

My current bench is a factory made Whiteside that I picked up on Craigslist for $150.00 a few years ago. It is a basic Nordic style bench, about 24” wide by 60” long and has two (2) mediocre vises. Mediocre is in fact the best choice to describe the whole bench.While it is what I have and it usually gets the job done, it is certainly not what I want. What I want is a mutant with the ancestry of Roubo, the bones of modern materials and an eye towards the 21st century.

But before I go too far into describing my own bench design philosophy I would be remiss if I failed to first bring up Christopher Schwarz, for he is certainly the current authority on workbench design & construction on the interwebs & the greater woodworking community as a whole.As many of us have, Ive been influenced by Chris rabid consumption and propagation of all things workbench. While he has so far failed to convert me to total Roubo adoration, I think there is more actionable workbench advise being put out by Chris than any other source we have access to today.Beyond a general workbench philosophy, Ive taken from Chris two (2) main points. The second is a direct result of the first.Point #1: The workbench is a 3 dimensional clamping surface. Its job is to hold a work piece still so that any number of woodworking tasks can be accomplished without the piece moving.

An out of proportion hand drawn cross section
of the bench design Im working on.

Point #2: The legs must be flush with edge of the top. Without this feature youre left with a 2 dimensional clamping surface, or put another choice, you have 2/3 of a workbench.

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That Giant Sucking Crushing Sound Part II

Once my metal chip bin met with crushing failure, I immediately scrapped it and set about re-building the dust collection bin. I first looked into buying a metal 55 gallon drum, but found them to be prohibitively expensive. I then found a plastic 55 gallon drum that had seen better days and was suffering from a cracked edge. As the bin was plastic I was able to simply cut off the cracked top section with my jig saw. After the cut I was left with a workable +/- 48 gallon drum with a gaping hole at its top.

rough fitting the mounted top section.

In order to mount the Dust Deputy to the plastic drum I initially thought of making a round lid out of MDF that would rest on the top of the drum and be sealed with weather stripping. In order to do this, I began flattening the cut edge of the drum. I then flattened it some more, and some more after that. Then I ran out of patience. It dawned on me that if I made a new top for the drum out of sheet goods, I could permanently mount and seal that to the drum and then cut a removable top sized to perfectly fit the mounted one. In order to make the mounted and removable tops exactly the same size I screwed them together and then cut them to size on the table saw as a single piece. Being lazy, I made the top square, rather then cut of the corners to make it a space savings octagon. I attached a lip of 3/4" baltic birch plywood scraps around the edge of the removable top to better gasket them and chamfered the inside edge of the lip to make tops easier to set on one another.

I rubbed in and let the glue on the cleats on the mounted base dry before
flipping the unit over and screwing into them. 

In order to mount the mounted top I glued and screwed cleats to the top. I used a jig saw to cut the middle of the mounted to out and then screwed the plastic drum to the cleats. I sealed the screws and the drum to the mounted top with M-1, a fantastic sealant we use at work.

The mounted top, sealed to the plastic drum.

I was at this stage in the construction when I heard that MDF was porous and might not provide an air tight top. To combat this, I sealed the top surface of the mounted top and the bottom surface of the removable top with shellac. If this doesnt prove to be enough Ill glue an EPDM gasket to the mounted top.

The completed Dust Deputy setup.

With the top mounted and air sealed (hopefully) it was quick work to install the Dust Deputy and previously built elbow assembly. I connected the CT22 and turned the knob all the choice to the rabbit. It sucked and sucked and didnt crush.

The wheels make it so much easier to move.

As a final convenience I mounted castors to the bottom and handles on the side of the plastic drum. This lets me easily move it around the shop and will hopefully let me easily empty it (though I fear its emptying frequency will be based more on weight than on capacity).
Now my shop sucks with the best of them. How does your shop suck?
That Giant Sucking (& Crushing) Sound - Part I

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The WoodExpo 2012 That Was

This past weekend I was lucky enough to make my choice up to Boston and enjoy Wood Expo 2012. Wood Expo is an event held within the New England Home Show. It aims to connect custom furniture makers with buyers. It also aims to help furniture makers with design critiques, networking and panel discussions.

The Seaport World Trade Center, Home of WoodExpo.

Im no furniture maker myself (at least not a selling furniture maker), but the custom furniture makers who did attend and display made this a great event for anyone passionate about woodworking. The hall was lined with people as rabid for woodworking as I am.

The makers who displayed or demonstrated in one choice or another included (thanks to Nick Roulleau & Steve Branam for their fantastic posts from which I pulled much of this list together):

Rob Bois

Michael Scott Morton

Rusty Burwell

Steve Branam

Chuck Bender (on right with Mike McCoy & Jim Ashley)

Michael McCoy

Kevin Mack

Megan Caine

Tom McLaughlin

Glen Guarino (w/ Tom McLoughlin)

Terry Moore

Unfortunately, I didnt get photos of these other wonderful woodworkers who were in attendance at WoodExpo:

Quentin Kelley

WoodExpo 2012

Steve Skillins

Ryan Messier

Freddy Roman

Allan Breed

Ed McCormack

Eli Cleveland

Niels Cosman