work bench plans

[babywoodpecker]

hi,
does anyone have any work bench plans they can email me, i have autocad, solid works and sketch up, so any file format will be ok.
i am about to make 3 benches and insead of drawing them up i thought i would see you guys first.

thanks

 

[NickTaylor]

I am interested that you use autocad, solidworks and sketchup. Do you use them for furniture design and which do you find the best...?

I have sketchup and some 3D rendering software called FORM-Z. I find SU is great for general design, and FORM-Z is much more sophisticated ( and complex ) but can produce photo-realistic renderings.

I am also interested in plotting designs at full scale to assist in the build process.

On the subject of the work-bench, I made one some years ago, and I thoroughly recommend David Charlesworth's removable tool wells. I find they are really useful in every day use.

 

[DaveL]

Hi Nick,

Welcome to the forum.

I have built a bench based on David Charlesworth's design, very useful having the sliding tool well bottoms. I followed his recommendation on the height of the bench, much higher and better than my old bought one.

 

[babywoodpecker]

nick,
i use mainly autocad (as its most versatile to use) to produce working drawings for the joinery industry.

i also use solidworks for the same basis and much prefer using solidworks as it is a lot more enjoyable to use, the only downside with solidworks is that when a drawing is sent of to an architect and they decide to change certain aspects of the drawing it is real hard to update the solidworks drawings as all parts are drawn in relation to one another.

and with sketch up i have just played around with it and not produced any working drawings from it as yet, but know the basics.

thanks for the David charlesworth's ideas

 

[Frank Drew]

Fine WoodWorking published plans for a European style bench by Tage Frid, on of their longtime contributors. These were the plans I used, with some modifications such as eliminating the tool trough.

I'm afraid I no longer have my hard copy but the plans shouldn't be hard to find if you have access to FWW.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

FWIW, Robert W Lang did a new take on a workbench that looks interesting. There's a SketchUp model of the bench, too. Be forewarned that the SketchUp model is obscenely huge due to poor file management and some of the elements aren't aligned with each other very well.

Last week I cleaned up the model considerably for my own use. It's on my machine at work. If anyone wants the cleaned up version, I'll send it after I get back in to work. PM me with your e-mail address.