Subject: work benches to buy

From: Drew Diaz <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 16:46:54 -0500

Hoping I'm doing this correctly, am a neophyte to this medium.

basically, I'll never have the time to build the workbench I want & am 
in the market for a ready made unit.

Any suggestions???

drew diaz

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From: [email-masked] (test)
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 97 17:53:26 GMT

I just recently bought a bench from Woodworkers Warehouse.  I love it.  It 
cost 339 on sale.  I think it is normally 389.  I don't have the model number 
in front of me but I believe it is the Sjorgbergs (sp?) su68.  I read a review 
of it in wood magazine from a year or so ago and they said it would last a 
lifetime.  They said that it did not have the weight of one of the Ulmina's.  
But when you are spending 6 times or more on a bench I would hope that it is 
heavier.

So I, like you did not have time to build my own bench, nor did I want to and 
I couldn't be happier with the bench that I bought.

Chris
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Steve Rehrauer)
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 22:18:16 GMT

>in the market for a ready made unit.

Drew, I wouldn't completely discard the idea of making your own.

I've built a couple of relatively cheap ones.  The last one had a
base and frame built from scrap 4x4s and 2x4s, and a top built from
a sheet of 1/2" plywood ripped in half, halves doubled up, screwed
to the base, and then masonite contact-cemented to the plywood.  I
lag-bolted the base to a garage wall.  It was cheap, pretty stable,
but it wasn't pretty, and it didn't teach me any new skills.  It was
just fine for what I used it for, though, which was mostly small home
repair jobs & rough carpentry.

Now I'm trying to learn enough to do things like build nice furniture
>from  hardwoods.  I figured if I can't build a decent workbench, then I'd
better abandon hopes of making that nice chest of drawers in cherry...

Perhaps you should take a hard look at what you want to do.  If you're
where I was (repair & rough carpentry, and not planning or knowing how
to do more), then those fancy Euro-benches are way, way overkill
unless you have a lot of money to burn.

If you're where I am now (have ambition, need skills), then you
perhaps should take the time to do it yourself.  I looked at the
benches I could afford ($500 and under -- the Sjoberg products are
about $400, for example), and decided (exactly as Scott Landis says
in his book) that I could build more for that amount, and learn a
lot to boot.

I hear the siren-song of "buy it, save time", but if you're really
a neophyte, don't underestimate the value of what your spent time
would gain you...

(And if you're way ahead of me in the skills department, then it
really shouldn't take you that long to build a good bench anyways. :-)
-- 
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All software is bug-free, assuming          | Steve [email-masked]
 sufficiently clever definitions of         | Massachusetts Language Lab
 "feature" and "expected behaviour".        | USDA Zone 5, more or less

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From: Roydan Tomlinson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 10:13:15 -0700

Steve Rehrauer wrote:
> eve Rehrauer wrote:
> In article <[email-masked]> Drew Diaz <[email-masked]> writes:tt.net> Drew 
> >Hoping I'm doing this correctly, am a neophyte  to this medium.oing this correctly, am a neophyte  
> >this medium.oing this correctly, am a neophyte  
> >basically, I'll never have the time to build e  the workbench I want & amhave the time to build e  
> >in the market for a ready made unit.to build e  
> >in the market for a ready made unit.to build e  
> >Any suggestions???a ready made unit.to build e  
> >Any suggestions???a ready made unit.to build e  Well I decided that being taller than the average  
woodworker that I bought the top and then built e  
the base to match the benchtop height that was  e  
right for me.                                   e  

The angled dogs were what put me off doing my own  
bench because I would have to build a jig for that 
and I prefer to work on my projects and not on hat 
shop tools/jigs.                               hat

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From: Roydan Tomlinson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 10:14:32 -0700

Roydan Tomlinson wrote:
> ydan Tomlinson wrote:sorry my reply software is screwed up.

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From: Don Young <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 10:36:07 -0500

Steve Rehrauer wrote:
< Stuff cut out >
> in his book) that I could build more for that amount, and learn a

I'm currently doing exactly what Steve is suggesting. To develop
reasonable woodworking skills so that I can build nice furniture in the
future, I'm in the middle of building my own workbench. Over Christmas I
picked up a book put out by Better Homes and Garden's Wood Magazine
containing plans for some of the more popular projects they have
published in their magazine. They had plans for a workbench that could
be built over a weekend. Well I've been working on mine for over a month
now. I'm making modifications to their design so that I can learn about
doing cabinet work. I'm adding drawers and a cabinet underneath the
bench. I'm doing the cabinet face frame in black walnut. The basic bench
is made out of 2x4 planed (or cut) down to 2x3. The top is two pieces of
3/4 inch birch ply with a 1/4" replacable hardboard top. A tool tray is
along the back of the bench. The side vice is made from laminated pine
and a #50 pipe clamp. They have additional plans to make a smaller front
vice using laminated maple and end capped with dovetailed black walnut.
It uses a #52 pipe clamp. So far I have about $150 in materials in the
bench, I've learned a lot including how to fix mistakes. My wife has
commented that my workbench will look nicer than any piece of furniture
in the house.

Now that I've been overcome by the joys of woodworking, I'm
contemplating a trip to central Penn. where I can pickup rough cut black
walnut that has been air drying in a barn for 3 years at $1.08 bd ft (I
paid $6.30 bd. ft. for the cut and planed black walnut I purchased for
my bench project). The ad said there is over 8000 bd. ft. of this stuff
for sale.

Don Young
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Kevin W. Tucker)
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 97 16:56:11 GMT

>> in his book) that I could build more for that amount, and learn a

BTW - The smaller Sjoberg (sic?) benches with two vises and the drawer were 
carried by our local Lowe's for a while.  They discontinued stocking them a 
little while back, but I found one in the box on a shelf - $99 for a $400 
bench is not too bad.  

Kevin W. Tucker
[email-masked]

(remove the "*" from my address to reply)