Lots of new stuff

Here's my latest shop addition:

This is a bench which is based on John White's Newfangled bench design originally published in Fine Woodworking.

another pretty important albeit simple project was to finally free up some badly needed floor space. I hung the drywall from the rafters:

there was some concern about weight issues, but that's about all I'm going to put up there, and I hope to be using some of the drywall in the house soon, replacing the kitchen walls, which will eat up a LOT of that stash in a hurry. At which point that rack will turn into sheetgoods storage.

More to come 'soon' now that the warm weather is here, I'm trying to spend more time out in the shop.

bench reassembly

I decided that my workbench, which is in two halves needed to be just a bit lower. I originally built them to just below elbow height, which for me is 42" high. That makes it convenient for not having to bend over and such, but it is a bit too high for good hand tool usage; planing and so forth.

Here you can see the torsion box and legs before the top stretchers get put on. The torsion box is 1/2" plywood with SYP for the 'meat' in the sandwich. Very sturdy, and makes for a nice solid workbench. The legs are hemlock glued and screwed into the classic 'L' style leg.

I made the lower bench just 35 3/4" tall which lets it serve in a pinch as outfeed support for my tablesaw.










Here's a view showing the stretchers in place. that 6" difference in height makes a big difference. I think the taller bench is going to get a similar reduction in height. once I have a lot more of the moving done.