I recently found out that the husband of a woman in our church runs a timber export business. I inquired about possibly getting my workbench lumber from him and she told me to fax her the specs of what I want (she does admin or accounting or something).
So tomorrow morning I’m going out with her to the lumberyard to check out the wood and to get an estimate. Could it be that I’ll walk out of there with a few hundred pounds of tropical hardwood? Or maybe I’ll put it in the back of a truck and drive it out. Easier on the back.
I was hoping to tinker with Chris Schwarz’s Roubo on Sketchup tonight to see if there’s anything I’m not thinking of, but my Sketchup skills stink! I would probably do better “building” a bench from scratch on there. In the meantime, I’ll work with pencil and paper. I have made a few modifications even since last week’s post, likely influenced by my “discovery” of Gary Roberts, Stephen Shepherd, Peter Follansbee and Jennie Alexander. It’s a slippery slope down into the 17th century.
Hope to have good news – and pics – soon.
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May 20, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Gye Greene
Hey — good luck!
I’m leaning towards older work-holding solutions, as well. As I don’t have a proper bench, I’m just using clamps to hold pieces vertically to the leg of my saw horse: seems to work. When I do build a bench, I may hold off on putting on a vice — just to see.
–GG
May 21, 2010 at 12:46 pm
John
How big of a truck? I would have to leave the ol’ credit card at home visiting that place. I wish I could find a place like that around here. Time to Google search.
I feel for you on the sketch-up business. I can sketch out plans with paper and pen so much faster. Recently I whipped out some tea boxes for Mother’s Day without any plans. That’s how my Dad used to do it, except he could do it with even bigger projects. Sketches are nice to have for review later on though.