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The Day Ahead
Aug. 12th, 2017 10:03 am Having spent the day yesterday sorting through mail and paying bills, and looking ahead to tomorrow when I have my "financial meeting" with my daughter, I think I'm going to spend today on plans for add-ons to the new work benches that the grandson and I have recently completed.
One of the changes we made to the already robust design, which originated with experimental aircraft builders Bob Waldmiller and Norm Howell back in the early '90s--thanks fellas, was to replace the back 2x4 frame rail of the table top with a 2x8. The 3/4" plywood table top is then moved 1-1/2" towards the front because the 2x8 sticks up above the flat plane on which the top rested when the frame was all 2x4s.
If that sounds like a bad thing, it's not because the remaining 2x4s look like a ladder which supports the top at 5 points along the back edge and the 2x8 sticking up provides a curbing which prevents tools and small parts from being pushed off the back of the table and onto the floor. And that was the original intent of using the 2x8 piece, just simply to provide that curbing.
Well, you know that saying, "I'd rather be lucky than smart?' In my case it's, "I'm lucky to be lucky 'cause I'm sure as hell not smart," lol. As I was pondering the next step in our build-a-workshop project, my first thought was to hang a shelf unit for small parts above what has become our assembly table.
Then, as we were completing the second table and it became apparent that it would become our layout table, with its own area and function in the shop, I decided that we should build an attached pegboard for it because it should also provide an accessible place for specialized tools, levels, rulers, adjustable squares, etc.
Because it was backed up against the stair carriage to the upstairs, with no wall space behind it, the pegboard would have to be attached to the bench itself. It was then that the light went on--"Hallelujah Chorus" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir fades in and then out on the sound track--as it occured to me what a sturdy and accessible means of attachment--for a variety of possible add-ons--our 2x8 curbing could actually be.
As of today, I actually have the design of the pegboard unit done. I just need to do the cutting bills and drilling diagrams for the grandson to use as he measures and marks the individual pieces on his new layout table. And there's not really much to that. He's gotten used to my generic, unscaled drawings which are differentiated by their labels and the dimensions shown.
After that, I'll tackle the shelf unit which I'm now considering attaching to the assembly table. I'll be designing it around the plastic parts trays that I just brought here from the house in the city. The only problem is that I don't want it overhanging the work suface of the table and so it'll mostly be hanging off the back of the table, an inherently unstable design even though the piece where it attaches is very sturdy.
I'm thinking that what I'll probably do use use only the shorter bins which are probably 6" long. If I compromise and let them overhang the table by 1-1/2," another 1-1/2" is accounted for by the top edge of the 2x8 curbing that the unit will rest on, and only 3" will hang off the back. Additionally, the top of the curbing is 3-1/4" above the table surface, so I've not totally lost the area below the unit's front overhang.
So, having bored even myself with my own slow-as-snail-sh!t thought process, it's time to sit down at the drawing table and get something on paper that will hopefully be standing up in 3-D and living color by the end of next week...
LPK
@Dreamwidth
8.12.2017
One of the changes we made to the already robust design, which originated with experimental aircraft builders Bob Waldmiller and Norm Howell back in the early '90s--thanks fellas, was to replace the back 2x4 frame rail of the table top with a 2x8. The 3/4" plywood table top is then moved 1-1/2" towards the front because the 2x8 sticks up above the flat plane on which the top rested when the frame was all 2x4s.
If that sounds like a bad thing, it's not because the remaining 2x4s look like a ladder which supports the top at 5 points along the back edge and the 2x8 sticking up provides a curbing which prevents tools and small parts from being pushed off the back of the table and onto the floor. And that was the original intent of using the 2x8 piece, just simply to provide that curbing.
Well, you know that saying, "I'd rather be lucky than smart?' In my case it's, "I'm lucky to be lucky 'cause I'm sure as hell not smart," lol. As I was pondering the next step in our build-a-workshop project, my first thought was to hang a shelf unit for small parts above what has become our assembly table.
Then, as we were completing the second table and it became apparent that it would become our layout table, with its own area and function in the shop, I decided that we should build an attached pegboard for it because it should also provide an accessible place for specialized tools, levels, rulers, adjustable squares, etc.
Because it was backed up against the stair carriage to the upstairs, with no wall space behind it, the pegboard would have to be attached to the bench itself. It was then that the light went on--"Hallelujah Chorus" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir fades in and then out on the sound track--as it occured to me what a sturdy and accessible means of attachment--for a variety of possible add-ons--our 2x8 curbing could actually be.
As of today, I actually have the design of the pegboard unit done. I just need to do the cutting bills and drilling diagrams for the grandson to use as he measures and marks the individual pieces on his new layout table. And there's not really much to that. He's gotten used to my generic, unscaled drawings which are differentiated by their labels and the dimensions shown.
After that, I'll tackle the shelf unit which I'm now considering attaching to the assembly table. I'll be designing it around the plastic parts trays that I just brought here from the house in the city. The only problem is that I don't want it overhanging the work suface of the table and so it'll mostly be hanging off the back of the table, an inherently unstable design even though the piece where it attaches is very sturdy.
I'm thinking that what I'll probably do use use only the shorter bins which are probably 6" long. If I compromise and let them overhang the table by 1-1/2," another 1-1/2" is accounted for by the top edge of the 2x8 curbing that the unit will rest on, and only 3" will hang off the back. Additionally, the top of the curbing is 3-1/4" above the table surface, so I've not totally lost the area below the unit's front overhang.
So, having bored even myself with my own slow-as-snail-sh!t thought process, it's time to sit down at the drawing table and get something on paper that will hopefully be standing up in 3-D and living color by the end of next week...
LPK
@Dreamwidth
8.12.2017
