Penultimate workbench

[rafezetter]

Actually, the last bench I built didn't have a vice at all, but it was 2 feet deep, 24 feet long, dead flat and was used for building new wooden wing spars for the the DH-88 Comet that is pictured in my avatar!

wait what?

You have a fullsized working replica of of the racing plane?

Black red or green?

Can I haz pictures?

Please?

 

[colinc]

Actually, the last bench I built didn't have a vice at all, but it was 2 feet deep, 24 feet long, dead flat and was used for building new wooden wing spars for the the DH-88 Comet that is pictured in my avatar!

wait what?

You have a fullsized working replica of of the racing plane?

Black red or green?

Can I haz pictures?

Please?

The web site is: https://www.cometracer.co.uk/

However the Facebook group is more regularly updated - search for 'Comet Racer Project'

regards,

Colin

 

[LancsRick]

It may only be pine but that walnut endpiece really elevates the look of the bench.

 

[colinc]

It may only be pine but that walnut endpiece really elevates the look of the bench.

Am not sure it is Walnut, it is quite hard and oily. I suspect it may be Iroko.

I recycled it, it was originally the mantlepiece on a reconstructed stone fireplace that was in our bungalow when we moved in.

I agree it looks good though.

 

[custard]

I've been wrestling on whether to put a tail vice on my current new bench build - if the tail vice is used with a stop such that the majority of the board is supported - is that good enough to stop flex?

I've tried planing against a stop on it's own with nothing to hold it in place but it's troublesome.

I don't really plane very thin boards anyway tbh, but boxes and such are something I do plan to make which will be reasonably thin walled.

Supporting the majority of the board on the bench would at best only stop flex on the supported section, the unsupported section would still flex under planing pressure. And when I'm planing something like a drawer side I want it all flat, not just the majority of it!

To take your example, if you're box making you'll probably be planing boards that are in the range 8-12mm thick, for these boards even the compression force of a tail vice can cause the workpiece to slightly bow or buckle, not by much but enough that achieving accurate flatness may prove impossible.

I appreciate that planing against a stop can be a bit fiddly, but almost every cabinet maker I know planes against a stop when accuracy is important, and for anything thinner than about 25mm planing against a stop becomes a cast iron rule in most workshops.

 

[Farm Labourer]

Just found this thread after I built my "bench-for-life"!

Colin - are you Scots and have you worked on a wooden aeroplane at Seething airfield?