New House Blog: Episode XCIIII - A Tale Of Two Workbenches

This is a tale of two workbenches.  One is old, and one is new.  There's a third one in the story somewheres, but it is only a background character of little consequence to our tale.

Act I - The Old Vise

Our story begins with a vise - an old bench vise.  This particular bench vise was originally in my grandpa's house (my mom's dad), and when he passed away the vise was moved to our house and installed on the house's workbench.  We were renting the house, and the workbench was there when we moved in.  It plays no part in our tale, except as perch for the old vise.

This is a photo of the old vise.  I have memories of using old vise a lot in that house.  I used it to hold stuff, to bend metal, to pound out metal, to squish stuff flat, and to do other things I don't quite recall. Everyone should have a vise to play with.

When we were preparing to move out of that house, and into the house that is known in this blog as the Parent's House, my dad and I decided that the old vise would come with us, and we would build a new workbench for it.

Here's another view of the old vise, and the workbench that me and my dad built for it.  That was a long time ago, and how much either of us contributed to the building of this workbench depends on whom you asked.  I recall that I did the majority of the work to build it, but my dad recalled differently.  He passed on recently, and it doesn't really matter now.   The important thing is that it's something we built together.

Here is the workbench without the clutter on top.  We built it to fit inside a shed, so it's not real big; but we built it sturdily, and we got a lot of use from it. Several years ago, long after I had moved out of the house, some termites got into the workbench and my dad had to do some repairs, so it's not quite 100% as originally built, but it's pretty close.  The old vise is still in great condition, and its patina has only gotten more beautiful as the years have progressed.

After my dad's passing I was going to retrieve the workbench and put it in our garage at our Solar House (still working on a new moniker for the house), but when I actually went to retrieve it I changed my mind and decided it should stay at the Parent's House, at least for the time being.

Intermission I - Tree Tragedy

Poor nectarine tree.  You didn't ask to be so productive that your branches would be weighted down with delicious nectarines and bend and break.

But you did bend and break, and we are the poorer for your sad plight.  If only we had known how heavy are your delicious fruits we would have taken steps to alleviate your stress and help you bear your delicious burden.  Alas, it is too late for the sections that snapped without warning, but there are still a lot of delicious nectarines on the tree (and now on the ground) for us to look forward to harvesting.









Act II - The Background Player

Here is the background player.

I had always known (at least since we bought our Sunny House in May, 2012) that our Sturdy House would need a workbench.  So I built one from materials at-hand. This temporary workbench originally appeared in this Episode, and it was never meant to be more that a temporary solution until I could build something sturdier and larger.  This workbench served me well these past few years, but now it has been surpassed by something newer, larger, stronger, sturdier, and which has a vise.

Intermission II - Fruitful Fortune

Ah, nectarine tree - your tragedy has turned into a bountiful harvest for us.

Behold the harvest!  We could not abide the thought of all of those delicious nectarines remaining on the ground for the various varmints to consume, so we took a closer look at the the doomed fruits on your snapped-off branches, and we found a bounty of beauties that we have washed and started consuming.  And we will be monitoring more closely the fruits still clinging tenaciously to your branches.

Act III - The New Workbench

It started with an idea, and a drawing.

I can't show you a photo of the idea, but here is the drawing.  It is crude, and not entirely to scale, but it was a written plan that I could use for reference. The first workbench, built by me and my dad, also started as and idea and a drawing. That old drawing was also crude and not entirely to scale, but it guided us to produce the workbench you saw at the beginning of this Episode.

The drawing first led to this basic shape, which was first leaked in this Episode.  I think of this assembly as the foundation, because everything else kind of builds off of this structure.

The first piece to be attached to the foundation was the main deck of the new workbench.

The new workbench sprouted legs, attached to the foundation.  The red lines on top of the deck mark the outline of the foundation.  I used my snapline, and having that outline was better than simply guessing where to screw in the screws.

The lower bracing and shelf were the next pieces to be attached.

As the old workbench does, so to does this workbench have a vise.  In looking for a good vise I discovered that there are a lot of inexpensive cast iron vises available, but they don't get great reviews on Amazon - there are a lot of reviews that talk about cast iron vises simply breaking during normal use.  I paid a little more and got a Capri forged steel bench vise.

Finally the new workbench was ready to move to its new location, and the temporary workbench was disassembled into its component parts, mostly.  The deck of the temporary workbench was attached to the wall and became a holder for various tools, some of which were inherited from my dad.

My dad's circular saw and c-clamps were of great use in the making of this workbench.

The End
    bIsh