Timber

Is the panel not relatively inexpensive to replace?

Depends where you look, I suppose... These are a good bit cheaper than those.

http://www.abwood.ie/product-category/fence-panels

Hi All,

Can I ask whats the best place to get small quantities of Hardwood in Cork? A board or two at a time for small projects/learning.

magicbastarder wrote: »

i was thinking of trying to make the paul sellers workbench, but have noticed that a lot of the timber you'd get in builders merchants is very fast grown softwood that would not be suitable - where would be good to get suitable wood (i think he mentioned that spruce is his favoured material)? most of the stock he uses is 3x2.

another issue is that he uses up to 12 clamps at a time - which from what i can see would cost a minimum of about €25 each. i would need to figure out a way to get my hands on some for the duration of the project, possibly by borrowing them.

I made a version of it last year and used 6x2s PAO which I hand picked from the local builder providers. I used 7 long sash clamps I think. Have a look at a series of videos by a guy called Wrangler star on YouTube. Makes a Paul Sellers style bench too. I made mine 8ft 4 long and had no problem with the timber warping or cupping.

Larch ?
You could find a hardware shop that will allow you to select the individual pieces. For longer stuff, I like (Southern) Yellow Pine, though not all stores stock it.

magicbastarder wrote: »

i was thinking of trying to make the paul sellers workbench, but have noticed that a lot of the timber you'd get in builders merchants is very fast grown softwood that would not be suitable - where would be good to get suitable wood (i think he mentioned that spruce is his favoured material)? most of the stock he uses is 3x2.

another issue is that he uses up to 12 clamps at a time - which from what i can see would cost a minimum of about €25 each. i would need to figure out a way to get my hands on some for the duration of the project, possibly by borrowing them.

Did that build before (albeit with a tweak to make it fit) and wrote it up. Used 2x4s that came from Brooks (I ordered them off build4less though). It's grand. The quality of the timber is plenty good enough, especially once you give it a couple of coats of 50% BLO and 50% turps (mine must have a dozen coats or more, I'd just put on a coat when I got home from work and another before going to bed and I did that for a week or two). Gives a nice hardwearing but not hard finish which is a bit grabby rather than slick. Haven't broken any bits off it since, nothing's come loose, and it's fun to work at.



Haven't used the tail vice nearly as much as I thought I would though, and haven't used the face vice quite as much as I expected either, but the holdfasts are in almost constant use, they're the handiest things ever.

It's not how I'd build my next bench though. I'd go more the Maguire route than the Sellers route for the top (ie. planks, not laminated slabs) and I'd get some of the three-inch redwood boards from Quinns or whatever hardwood timber yard you go to; it'd be slightly more expensive than the laminate but much much faster. The only reason I'd go redwood over whitewood would be that I was looking at those boards with this in mind last time I was in the timber yard and they were significantly cleaner than the scabby whitewood I made my bench with which means easier cleaner joinery and easier flattening of the top.

And there would be small tweaks I'd make to the joinery, but mostly it'd be leaving stuff out that sounded grand originally but just didn't really do anything in the end. I wouldn't change the basic design at all -- a normal english pattern workbench with small tweaks to set the front apron flush with the front legs and to have one leg (the one by the face vice) made much more stoutly than the others. I might add a planing brace or splay the back legs a bit more if I had the room in the workshop though, if you're really hogging off material cross-grain with a scrub plane on my bench, it's a little tippy; but loading a hundred pounds of toolboxes and thinners and finishes and sharpening stuff into the under-bench shelf helps a lot there too

Ditto - in fact I've used those more since the bench was finished than I used the cast iron ones I bought to do the bench with. And they're easier to store in my cupboard of a shed.

According to those who've studied them though (like Maguire and Schwarz and so on), the best European workbenches are made from beech and the best American ones from Maple for the same reason that the majority of European workbenches were made from beech and the majority of American ones were made of Maple - it was one of the most plentiful and therefore cheapest kinds of workable timber available in those locations. These days, those woods aren't quite so cheap and plentiful (that'll happen if you cut down all the trees ). But whitewood and redwood are everywhere and cheap (at least until brexit screws up the import routes), and they're plenty good enough to make a bench with.

And there's a really good argument for softwood benches apart from the "it's cheap" one - if you drop a workpiece on your bench, do you want the bench to dent or the workpiece?

Hi Poloman, there is a very good sawmill near Clogheen in Co Tipperary. They have sawn hardwoods stacked airdrying for years and it is the sort of place you can poke around and see what they have got. Pat Sheehan is the owner 0876599711.
I have to agree with Sparks about benches made from cheap softwood. I have often seen woodworkers who put a lot of money and a huge amount of effort into making a magnificent bench and are then paralysed by the fear of damaging it.
My benches over the years have always been built of softwoods, often salvage. My first priority is rigidity, strong glued joints with bracing so that there is no movement when planing large planks. Very thick heavy bench tops make the bench unstable, I use a maximum of 2" thick tops and arrange a low shelf which I fill with concrete blocks to ad mass and lower the centre of gravity.
My next priority is versatility, I have 22mm holes bored all over the top and sides of my benches so that i can knock in holdfasts and clamp anything anywhere in a couple of seconds.
If Im make a number of similar items I will often screw an improvised jig onto to my bench top, I dont worry about chisel and hammer marks, paint and varnish spills In fact I get more attached to a bench once its "broken in".

There's a short video by Richard Maguire on stippling the shaft of the holdfast to improve grip, but I haven't done that yet and mine hold like a badger. I just dropped them in and give them a whack. Then I hung up the metal hammer, checked to be sure my ears weren't actually bleeding, bought a rubber mallet and put that sound studio pointy foam stuff all over the roof of my shed. But if your workshop is larger than your shoebox, you should be okay with skipping that step.



Really can't stress them enough as a useful tool, they're probably used twice as often as my face vice (and that face vice is a quick-release monster that is getting moved to any bench I build in the future).

Hi Sparks, I dont refinish my holdfasts after forging so they grip very easily. the holdfast in the video look like those made by Gramercy which are a good holdfast but are smooth and polished to look good in shop dispays I suppose. His method of stippling with a punch would certainly work but would wear the top and bottom of the hole too quickly. A light rub over with a file would be sufficient.

Right I am starting to get tired of browsing the web for a long long time looking for wood I need.

Can anyone please direct me to a wood provider around limerick or even Clare that I can buy saw planks of smoothed walnut, cherry, maple etc etc? I can't seem to find any. Not even smooth as I am buying a thickness planer so I can do that myself if needs be.

Cheers

EDIT:7

7imakebiodiesel... just saw (pardon the pun) your reply above not sure how I missed it earlier!! I will deffo check him out as Galway is the other nearest sawmill thank you so much!

Genius idea about the shelf with concrete blocks. I also read on here someone uses a piece of carpet for fine working or sanding bits of wood as well that will be handy too. This is all new to me. I don't have the tools yet. I will be in a position to buy tools from next week but I will wait until I move house as I need to paint the garage floor first with epoxy paint. Any suggestions on colours lads?

The Samurai workbench I want to make will just sit there as a display piece I think you are right about the fear of damaging it! I will leave it to my son in my will or something :-)

This video here shows just how efficient and versatile a basic bench can be .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvhn-PAfEW4
His use of holdfasts is brilliant but if he added a simple vice to this bench it would make it even better. His bench has one fault, it is too small and therefore too light. Occasionally when he planes really hard the bench moves. This could be fixed by installing a shelf low down in the frame and filling it with concrete blocks. I estimate that you could build the bench featured in the video for less than €100 from stuff you could buy in any builders merchants .

What part of the country are you in?

99nsr125 wrote: »

Midlands

Mullingar is my closest civilisation, well maybe not civilisation but regional town

How big is it?