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What's On Your Workbench?

#2,881
Picked up a crappy little Craftsman 10" direct-drive band saw yesterday.....for $20! :cool: It's dirty and needs a good cleaning and tune-up I'm sure. Oddly enough, I stuck a square up to the blade from both directions and the table is square! I'll be ordering a new blade from the Amazonians soon, but the band saw addition prompted yet another re-organization of my "space". So now it looks something like this -
20210125_110946.jpg

So this is my 2-car garage, packed full of my "some day" car (off screen to the extreme left), 3 motorcycles (hiding under those moving blankets so the wife doesn't kill me) and all the other "junk" we store in there. I've basically converted this portion of "one bay" into my small "maker space" (dare I use those words).

So, the "workbench" off to the one side -
20210125_110955.jpg

I've decided this is NOT the best workbench. It's the Harbor Freight workbench, which sells for like $150. I picked this one up last year for like $60 and for that price I'm happy with it, but man is it wobbly!

The "work counter" along the wall -
20210125_111007_HDR.jpg

So this counter runs the full length of the wall, turns in an "L shape" and runs the back wall of the garage too. I'm only using a portion of it for this area, and most of this stuff is more for woodturning and less for guitar building, but some of it doubles. I did recently hang up the strip of pegboard and start trying to put some things on there that I am constantly reaching for. The band saw will really only get used for woodturning blanks, I have no delusions of using it for guitar building. For that work I'll just head to the boss's shop and use the real tools.

And then the lathe space -
20210125_111014_HDR.jpg

The savvy among you will notice the metal pole standing behind the lathe (along with the "some day" car). That was once used for stomping sand down for building sandcastles (and it still works for that), but has now become a GoPro pole. I started making videos of my woodturning, for those interested, check that out here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7GG_aSEX_Xw3bnv_wApGYg

So yeah, it's not a horrible little space, aside from the part where the wife constantly complains about dust on everything in the garage now. :roflmao:
As soon as all my electronics for Lucifer arrive I have the bench all ready to go and the lathe stuff isn't taking over any more. :cool:
 
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#2,883
TerribleTim68 said:
Picked up a crappy little Craftsman 10" direct-drive band saw yesterday.....for $20! :cool: It's dirty and needs a good cleaning and tune-up I'm sure. Oddly enough, I stuck a square up to the blade from both directions and the table is square! I'll be ordering a new blade from the Amazonians soon, The band saw will really only get used for woodturning blanks, I have no delusions of using it for guitar building. For that work I'll just head to the boss's shop and use the real tools.
Click to expand...
You'd be surprised what you can do on one of those. I cut most of this bass out on a very similar plastic Craftsman band saw back in 1985. A good blade and take your time and it can be done.
DSCF2499.JPG
 
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#2,884
TerribleTim68 said:
but man is it wobbly
Click to expand...
...You can fix that. Provide X bracing, or sheet bracing (aka, screw a hunk of plywood to it, which you can think of as "the integral of a whole lot of X braces", if you took calculus...) and it will stiffen right up. There's gonna be Horrible Fright quality in its DNA, but you can improve the structure quite a bit. As a "metal guy" you might enjoy the threaded rod or cable and turnbuckle approach to X-bracing.
 
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#2,885
dwizum said:
Next I think we need to see those bikes! :D
Click to expand...
So, there's the Harley: 1993 FXSTC (Softail Custom) chopper, built by Lucky's Choppers, Seattle Washington. I bought it like this for the most part, I've only changed the bars (because ape hangers looked stupid on it) and things like grips and pegs -
BearToothPass.jpg

Also, that was me back in 2007 on our way home from Sturgis, 14 years younger and some 60 pounds lighter.

Then there's the hotrod: 2003 Buell XB9r. Basically a Harley Sportster drivetrain stuffed in a 250 Superbike footprint -
Buell.jpg

I put the full body kit on it myself, thus the lack of paint on that. It's probably the most nimble little monster you'll ever flick through a corner. The fuel is in the frame-rail and the oil is in the swingarm, so everything is crazy compact, the center of gravity is extremely compact, and just mad stupid amounts of torque from that 984cc Harley V-Twin.

Then there's Mrs. Terrible's bike: 2004 Harley FXDL (Dyna Lowrider, because she's all of 5'-4" or whatever) -
67631963_10211268727432554_1793553689697320960_n.jpg

It's about as bone stock as bone stock can be. We bought it brand new and she loves it, has no desire to do much to it because it works for her just like it is. She does have a detachable sissy bar and bag that goes on it for longer trips.
 
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#2,887
Slidlow said:
You'd be surprised what you can do on one of those. I cut most of this bass out on a very similar plastic Craftsman band saw back in 1985. A good blade and take your time and it can be done.View attachment 4142546
Click to expand...
I'd be curious to know what blade you're running on yours. I found a 1/4" 6tpi blade on the Amazonians but couldn't seem to find anything closer to a 1/2" or less than 6tpi. It's an odd length too.
 
#2,889
I'd be totally happy with a 6 tpi 1/4" on something like that. If you get the tension right and a good setup it'll cut straight lines fine, no need for a wider blade. And the narrow 1/4" width will be much better on curves. I use a 6 tpi 1/4" blade on my big saw for everything except thick resawing. But there are a lot of places out there that will make a blade to whatever length you want from whatever stock you want if you want something specific. I've bought a bunch of blades from Spectrum Supply: Spectrum Supply - probably more expensive than a cheap amazon blade though!
 
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#2,890
dwizum said:
I'd be totally happy with a 6 tpi 1/4" on something like that. If you get the tension right and a good setup it'll cut straight lines fine, no need for a wider blade. And the narrow 1/4" width will be much better on curves. I use a 6 tpi 1/4" blade on my big saw for everything except thick resawing. But there are a lot of places out there that will make a blade to whatever length you want from whatever stock you want if you want something specific. I've bought a bunch of blades from Spectrum Supply: Spectrum Supply - probably more expensive than a cheap amazon blade though!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I mean, mostly that saw will just cut turning blanks for segmented turnings. But I may put it to use on the odd job. It just doesn't have a big enough throat to resaw tops, for that I'll head out to the boss's big shop. I've got a 1/2" 3tpi blade and new tires for his saw just waiting. :cool:
 
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#2,892
I'm currently happy that I've got a small band saw, the little table saw hiding under the counter needs a new thermal reset switch (I think, $8 from Amazon) so hopefully I'll have that back up and running soon (a decent sized chunk of really hard walnut appeared to be more than it could handle). I'm currently keeping an eye out for a countertop style drill press (pillar drill as you folk across the pond say) and then I'll be really happy with my setup. I'm kind of eyeing the Harbor Freight Wen unit at $70 brand new, but if I spy something used I may pounce. We'll see.
 
#2,893
TerribleTim68 said:
View attachment 4142422
I've decided this is NOT the best workbench. It's the Harbor Freight workbench, which sells for like $150. I picked this one up last year for like $60 and for that price I'm happy with it, but man is it wobbly!
Click to expand...
I have that same HF workbench in my garage, but it's against the back wall, which helps. But yeah, it is very wobbly! :eek:
 
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#2,894
So after building a kit earlier this year, I am thinking about trying to build my own.

The project I'm hoping to build is basically a Lakland 55-02 with a rickenbacker body, but with a p pick up instead of the single coil at the neck. So I blended the Lakland and the Ric... And it looks like it made a La Fay! Haha
I will probably change up the headstock design a bit to make it my own. I a currently designing this in 3d.

If you guys don't mind throwing me some critiques, and help me avoid some project ending pit falls. I would greatly appreciate it. I'm still working up the courage to take it on. Haha

20210126_124723.jpg
 
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#2,896
Wes275 said:
So after building a kit earlier this year, I am thinking about trying to build my own.

The project I'm hoping to build is basically a Lakland 55-02 with a rickenbacker body, but with a p pick up instead of the single coil at the neck. So I blended the Lakland and the Ric... And it looks like it made a La Fay! Haha
I will probably change up the headstock design a bit to make it my own. I a currently designing this in 3d.

If you guys don't mind throwing me some critiques, and help me avoid some project ending pit falls. I would greatly appreciate it. I'm still working up the courage to take it on. Haha

View attachment 4144069
Click to expand...

Wow, I LOVE that body shape!
 

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