Talk about workbenches
After my time in the shop last Sunday I’ve been thinking about the work benches I want to build.
I’ll start off by making a shallow platform for the table saw to set on. It seems to be one of the things I move around more, mainly due to the length of the wood I need to process. Once I have that, it’s my reference height for the remainder of the workbenches.
The plan is that the benches will all be the same height so I can use them for infeed or outfeed tables, etc. After doing what I needed to, I came to a conclusion: the workbench for the drum sander is going to be dedicated for just that purpose. It’s a heavy and unwieldy piece of equipment. The planer might be a little heavier but it has a handle.
I was thinking that I should build the top of the sander workbench thicker than the others. The top would be at the same height, but I’d build in a center well that the sander would fit in. This would leave the rest of the surface at the same level as the sander belt, meaning that the other benches and table saw could be used as infeed/outfeed tables.
Does this make sense?
In addition, I plan on drilling holes for bench dogs/hold downs and some of the smaller tools will be mounted on a platform that will fit into those holes so they don’t slide around while in use.
Any thoughts from the more experienced will be greatly appreciated.
2 comments
This sounds like a great plan.
I would imagine the building a table for the sander would be difficult, mostly trying to get the infeed/outfeed level with the table. Maybe having some kind of adjustment capability in those benches would help with that issue.
The article that talks about the work benches has a good idea. Make the top like a butcher block, cutting the pieces from wider 2x stock. Joint the sides, glue up enough “strips” that will fit on the jointer using a flat surface and clamps. Now joint the glued up strips and run them over the jointer and then plane to thickness. Now glue up the pieces into a bench top.
For the sander I’d be able to glue up the center well at one height and then tune the end pieces to match the top of the sander table – so it shouldn’t be as difficult as it might seem at first.
Doesn’t mean it will be easy for me, but it might not be as big a deal as it initially seems.
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