Stow-away kitchen workbench?

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DigitalM

DigitalM

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Location
Gloucestershire, UK.
My workshop is a 10 to 15 minute drive away, and still in the process of being set up. Quite often, I just wish I could take stuff home and finish it up in the kitchen or utility room - I don't have a garage. I should add that long-suffering SWMBO is extremely supportive and doesn't mind getting stuck in on the projects herself.

Anyway, I've seen a bench type ideas that look like they may be able to be deployed and stowed without too much fuss, but would welcome others. I'm not mad about WorkMates, but if someone pointed out one that isn't your usual wobbly rubbish and Decker then that would be worth a look.

I'm only thinking of hand tools by the way.

Interesting finds so far:

Mini Wokbench that might clamp to my big wooden table:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIguWLiQHOs

Portable Workbench
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysy-8Dx ... e=youtu.be

Mini Workshop Bench
http://sbtdesign.co.uk/downloads/
 
Tasky":1s6qmenb said:
Regarding that Mini Workbench one - I saw this just the other day:
http://woodarchivist.com/2390-mini-workbench-plans/

They have plans for several other smaller benches, as well as the big ones, too!!

Bookmarked it, as I kinda fancy making one my own self, one day!!
Click to expand...

Awesome! I linked something very similar, if not identical. They're charging $18 or so at Fine Woodworking for the plans, but I could probably knock up my own just from the info and detail in the article you just posted.
 
The Mini-workbench looks great, I might make one too. It would be perfect on top of a solid bench, but in your kitchen it will depend entirely on the stability of your kitchen table.

If you make something like the last link, at normal bench height, it would be good to make it the same height as your kitchen surfaces, so that they can be used to support the ends of bigger workpieces. It would be a good base for a short Mini-workbench, too!

Black and Decker used to have a clamp-on unit somewhat similar to the Sjoberg. I thought it would be perfect in the pre-workshop days. But I found it of very little use, as my kitchen table was far too wobbly to support it properly. Kitchen units screwed to the wall might have worked though.
 
MusicMan":1t51h55i said:
The Mini-workbench looks great, I might make one too. It would be perfect on top of a solid bench, but in your kitchen it will depend entirely on the stability of your kitchen table.
Click to expand...

I've got this 4-inch thick, heavy, rustic mexican thing that takes a right battering and just looks better and better after each job. SWMBO was testing the chisels I bought S/H at an antique centre this morning on it!

Edit: That's a kitchen table BTW, I didn't specify.
 
Glad you like it! My memory could easily be wrong, but I think there was a little portable bench like that at a David Stanley auction once and it's possible that Andy Tools'n'tat bought it - is that right, Andy?
 
DigitalM":2qepcrs8 said:
AndyT":2qepcrs8 said:
I remember Chris Schwarz got interested in these a while ago - here it is:

https://www.popularwoodworking.com/work ... nch-in-use
Click to expand...

I wondered whether this post would see any action or produce anything interesting. This is bloody marvelous :)
Click to expand...

All the suggestions here are good, but for stow-away storage this one might be the one I end up building. I've just bought the back issue as a download and it uses 1 1/2" wood threads. I see axminster do a basic system for this at under £50, but there's also a beall system that uses a router for quite a bit more. Hmmm.
 
Tasky":10w60v5i said:
Regarding that Mini Workbench one - I saw this just the other day:
http://woodarchivist.com/2390-mini-workbench-plans/

They have plans for several other smaller benches, as well as the big ones, too!!

Bookmarked it, as I kinda fancy making one my own self, one day!!
Click to expand...
Not sure if it matters to you but I'd be reticent about linking to that site seeing as it sponges older content from magazines, strips out the branding as much as it can, and then has the cheek to slap its own copyright notice on it!
 
DigitalM, one of the solutions that gets linked to a lot when this subject comes up is the apartment workbench:

EACTeqq.jpg


Fully covered here.

If you wanted to delve into the subject more deeply searching for "apartment woodworking" or "apartment workbench" on Pinterest would pay off handsomely!
 
The workmate type of bench is quite sturdy if bolted to the floor. A piece of 50 x 25 across the two lower beams with a length of studding into a raw-bolt in the floor works well. Perhaps not in the kitchen though.
xy
 
MattRoberts":28c4epiq said:
I always thought this was quite a neat one :

https://youtu.be/zjqWvpdNbms
Click to expand...

I have to say that's awesome. Pretty heavy in maple with a vice though, but extremely usable I think with the bench dogs.

Anyway, thanks for this, well worth considering, and a really nice looking thing in itself, I probably wouldn't mind giving it some room under the stairs.
 
ED65":2rbyp2dr said:
Not sure if it matters to you but I'd be reticent about linking to that site seeing as it sponges older content from magazines, strips out the branding as much as it can, and then has the cheek to slap its own copyright notice on it!
Click to expand...
It matters to some extent. Not so much in this modern day of Google Images, where you can often glean all you need from picture searching and there's nothing stopping Google from indexing such content.

They do, at least, seem to leave the original authors credited, so I don't mind in that respect. Not sure regarding the magazine, especially how it stands if the publication no longer exists - On the one hand, it's passing out useful information. On the other, I'm sure someone could charge for that information and we'd be robbing them of their livelihood... I dunno. Probably a long conversation that goes way off topic.
 
Graham Orm":1owyx0fx said:
This is superb and can be used on top of a piece of furniture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFAxqs_-JCY
Click to expand...

Hi Graham, that does look awesome, although I think it leans more towards power tools? I see he has plane stops and all manner of clamps though. I saw this earlier in my own research looking for table top workbenches but maybe I dismissed this out of hand too quickly. Thanks.
 

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