Demountable Work Bench

Post date: 13-Jun-2015 10:42:06

The Sydney tool collectors and users club, The Traditional Tool Group Inc (TTTG Inc), published the plans for a handy work bench in their magazine, News, edition 139. This bench can be dismantled into a flat pack for ease of transportation and storage and quickly reassembled when required. To enable it to fit easily into the back of my car I made it 1330mm long against the 1656mm in the original plan.

The frame consists of two ends and two side panels made of four layers of 12mm ply and the top is 30mm laminated pine though the plan calls for two layers of particle board. The top is edged with a Jarrah strip and the base of the legs have fabricated steel caps with glued on rubber pads.

Bench assembly takes about 13 minutes.

The facing surfaces of the ply panels are cut from the sheet in one piece and the two inner layers are made up of strips from the offcuts so not a lot of wastage occurs. 

I used Titebond Type II glue and cramped it up well as per the instructions. The bench is held together by galvanised M12 cup head bolts, nuts and washers. I mounted a Dawn No 9 vice which is held by M10 bolts, nuts and washers. The heads of the bolts holding the top and vice are recessed into brass cups mounted in the bench top.

In use the frame is assembled with bolts and nuts in place but not tightened, the top is placed upside down and the vice bolted in place. Having the vice unscrewed into two pieces makes life easier for this part of the exercise. Once the vice is bolted up nice and tight the top is flipped over and bolted to the frame. If you are where you are going to use it you can tighten all the bolts at this stage and you will find the bench stands perfectly steady. Reassemble the vice and you are ready for action.

Dissembled, the small box to the left holds the bolts, nuts, washers and two spanners. 

Final measurements are: Height 940mm, width 640mm, length 1330mm. Dissembled and dependant on how the leg panels are oriented it is either 1600 x 700 x 175 mm or 1330 x 900 x 175mm.

For more information see contact details above or contact The Traditional Tool Group Inc at: www.tttg.org.au

Geoff Emms.

Thanks to the TTTG  for  the use of their plans.