Looking for Shops Ideas

[Ed in Tampa]

I looking for thoughts, suggestions, ideas.

Right now I have a wood bench that is rock steady and serves me well, but it has a major flaw it is against a wall. That means anything put on it that is wider than the bench itself hangs off the edge. Also I have to move the project around to work on the side that is facing the wall.

I have a work table that sits in the middle of my floor but with it and the bench it seems I'm taking up room that would be better served if I had a bench that could be moved to the middle of the area.

However a movable workbench seems to contradicts the first law of workbenches that I have been taught. That being a work bench must be dead steady.

My present bench is 6 feet long 30 inches wide with the top made of a bowling alley. I had it setting on legs but they were replaced when I came across a metal work cabinet with four drawers and storage cabinet at Sears for a ridiculously cheap price. I removed the particle board top off the Sears bench and mounted my bowling alley top. The result a dead steady, very heavy, can't move it if you tried work bench on which I can plane, hammer or otherwise make wood submit.

MY first thought is to mount wheels to the cabinet thus allowing me to roll it out from the wall but then I wonder about the stability and how steady the bench would be. I have also thought of building a new base to replace the metal cabinet that would sit flat on the floor but could be raised onto castors and moved.

I can't expect to raise of lower my existing bench because once the cabinet is full of tools it is simply too heavy to lift. I can either make is rollable by mounting wheels or eliminate the tools storage so it is light enough to lift and lower from wheels.

That is my problem. As I think through designs I was wondering if anyone had an ideas of how to make a wheeled object stable or steady without raising and lowering it on wheels.

My other thought is it time to dump the whole work bench idea, build a narrow table in it's place to provide room to set things and just use the setup workbench (3/4 ply on two saw horses) that I commonly set out. I might have to reengineer that to make it a little more stable to allow for things like hand planing and such.

Again my workshop is my two car garage in which I do park both my cars. I don't want anything that would prevent me using the garage for cars.

One other thing where my work bench is presently located (on the side wall of the garage) it makes opening the car door a problem. I open it and squeeze through. If I moved/eliminated the bench I would have a lot more room.

Ideas, thoughts, suggestions??
Ed

[paulmcohen]

I have seen several designs where the legs raise and lower but in you case you need leverage. You might look at fixed wheels on the back just off the ground and on the front use something similar to a pallet dolly. Two wheels a frame to hold them and a long stick. The frame engages in front of the wheels into the bottom of the front of the bench and raises it just enough for the rear wheels to touch the floor.

I think Norm showed this design once from a commercial movie studio.

Imaging the device pictured below but with an Axle and two wheels.
http://www.truetex.com/mattock.htm

[Ed in Tampa]

I thought perhaps some pictures may help. They aren't the best but I just happened to have them handy.
This first picture is the right edge of my bench on the north wall. My Shopsmith is setting where I park my truck
852

This second picture is the left end of my bench. You see a thinner bench that runs from it to the garage door.
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Above the bench is the window and my tool ledge.

Like I said this is the north wall or side wall of my garage the east wall is the house wall and is where I store my Shopsmith, my radial arm and my lawn tactor.
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East wall Picture
I have thought of dumping the bench and move the Shopsmith under the window. I have even thought of moving the bench to sit where the Shopsmith stores. However I presently use the space behind my Shopsmith to store sheet goods

[curiousgeorge]

Ed, I have been wrestling with the very same problem. I am planning on building a bench using the steel shipping detail below but it needs to be movable as my work space is the same as yours. I have been toying with the idea of angle iron with a nut welded on and a threaded rod with the wheels attached at on one end. Then the rod threads through the nut and is double nutted so you can use a ratchet to raise or lower the wheels. It's all still in the concept stage so I will be interested to see if any one else has any ideas on this.

[8iowa]

Ed: Click on to http://www.plansnow.com/workbenchplans.html . there may be some good ideas there.

[ldh]

Ed,
Here are a couple of pics of the bench I built a few years ago for my shop up in the woods. It is not very tidy, but it never is. It moves fairly easy and is stable when the wheel is dropped. I have never used a real woodworkers bench as I am not a real woodworker just one that enjoys building things with my Shopsmith. I use several Zyliss vises attached to the table when working with small case work.
ldh

[charlese]

I looking for thoughts, suggestions, ideas.

Right now I have a wood bench that is rock steady and serves me well, but it has a major flaw it is against a wall. That means anything put on it that is wider than the bench itself hangs off the edge. Also I have to move the project around to work on the side that is facing the wall.
Ideas, thoughts, suggestions??
Ed

Hi Ed! Yeah here's a couple of ideas that might work for you. The first one would allow you to stay next to the wall.
1) Here's my workbench. It is 25 inches wide, but expands to about 40+". In the magazine article that inspired this - the guy used kitchen wall cabinets for the base. His bench is 18" wide and expands to about 36". He was in a garage and wanted to save space. He says it will support a full sheet of plywood.

My base is three kitchen base cabinets. Gave me a little more storage and a little wider bench. I love mine! have expanded it (it just slides) to hold big pieces of a project while finishing or working on the other parts of the assembly. It will support a lot of weight! At least as much as I can lift! Projects such as; corner cabinet, shutter jig, entertainment unit, etc. It will also support a full sheet of plywood for ripping with a 'skill saw'. The bench top is made from three sheets of MDF. Spaces were left in the center piece to accommodate the slides, which are 3/4" boards 3" wide. The edge of the bench top is made from 3 ea. 3/4"x3/4" boards with spaces for the slides. The outside movable face is also made from 3 ea. 3/4" boards. These boards capture the sliding stringers. The sliding stringers have a groove in the bottom and a wooden plug in the bench bottom to make a stop, so the slide cannot be pulled out and fall. The 'T' tracks are sometimes very useful with clamps (from Rockler) to hold down objects.

862

I have found the MDF a better surface to work on than I had imagined. I put four coats of Varathane on it prior to use. If you don't care for working on MDF, you can make the table edge and the sliding edge 1/4" taller and screw on a replaceable hardboard surface like the one on my folding router table.

863

2) If I can be so bold - I'd recommend losing the solid wood doors on your cabinets and replace them with a heavy duty frame containing 1/4" peg board. This will give you storage both in and outside the cabinets.

P.S. I cut 2" off the bottom of my base cabinets so the bench top wouldn't be too high for me. You could add a couple inches if desired!

[paulmcohen]

This New Yankee show has several tips on making retractable wheels for heavy benches. I have exactly the same Craftsman bench but I rarely move it. It does have two holes on the bottom of each leg for lockable casters but I don't know if just locking them would give you enough support.


http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?0207