Woodworking in limited spaces.

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samhay":3tprgq8h said:
It seems my message was missing a crucial 'not', but nevermind.
How much space do you have in your little room?

It's basically a small living room which is not used a great deal. I'd like to be able to set up easily then tidy up and put everything away without a trace.
 
I can only add a little bit here - I work almost entirely by hand, but in a large space with a heavy bench, it's filthy and I don't use the space efficiently. That said, if you need a relatively unstable work bench but want to use it for planing, you can put a lateral foot out of it far enough ahead of the bench that it will butt against the wall- at just below the height of the bench top. If your wall is questionable in strength, make the end of the foot relatively wide and wrap a towel around it or something.

that gives a light bench a physical stop. For quite some time, I worked with one of the budget benches that sjobergs sell. They are not that small if you get the larger ones, but they are definitely weak. I stock a rod out of the end of it if necessary and butted it up against a large machinists cabinet that someone left at my house when they moved out. It worked great.

(look away mike) the double iron is your friend here for planing things - if you learn to plane without having the wood tear, everything will be more controlled as you're dimensioning and you won't need to use many heavy planes. intermittent in and out of cuts with tearout will drive you bonkers with a light bench and maybe have you ramming through something. It's a bad way to work even with the heaviest of benches (you could beat up our surroundings, but with a heavier bench, your surroundings end up being up on you instead). controlled and in rhythm is what you want for all but ultimate hand work.
 
D_W":29wz7ler said:
....the double iron is your friend here for planing things - if you learn to plane without having the wood tear, everything will be more controlled as you're dimensioning and you won't need to use many heavy planes.
Just to digress a tad, I keep on seeing references to the double iron as a way of planing without the wood tearing. I seem to get reasonable results (or at least am happy with) with my suite of Veritas LA planes, where the smoother has a very tight mouth and an effective pitch on the cutter of around 55deg. What slight tear out is left is soon removed with a few swipes of a card scraper or a pass or two with a Veritas No.80. I've tried the 'double iron' approach with only very limited success but if you can convince me your method is a distinct and positive improvement, I may revert back to double iron planes....one of which is still my old 'go to' Norris A1 panel plane - Rob
 
The guy is a complete beginner "trying to get into woodwork". We don't even know if he owns a plane, nor if he can sharpen an iron. My biggest beef with this double iron thing is that it is constantly spoken about in threads where complete newcomers ask a beginner's question, and the esoteric nature of the conversation that emerges is the most likely thing I can think of to put a beginner off the entire hobby. Is that really what we want? Or couldn't we just accept that the double iron conversation is for a little later down someone's planing career.......you know, like after they've got a plane and have learnt a sharpening technique?
 
How about a functional piece of furniture for your room that has drawers/shelves for your tools. Something heavy duty like a sideboard that’s you could make a bench top that drops on the top and stored away when not in use?
 
>How about a functional piece of furniture for your room that has drawers/shelves for your tools.
For me, this would be a preferable option as a knockdown bench is likely to be a bit of a faff to set up and take down, and you will have to store it somewhere, which will take up a fair bit of space.

I you had a sturdy table in the room, you could add something like the 'milkman's bench to the top when you are working. It isn't going to be ideal for planing heavy stock, but will be adequate for making smaller stuff.
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/wood ... ch-in-use/
 

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