The Wired Workbench (a la FWW)


wouldwurker

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Don't buy in yet, the jury is still out on that clamping system until it comes together.

As for the vacuum /cyclone set up, I am impressed. It seems like a bit of overkill with the drawers and doors when a 5 gallon bucket would do fine.

But having tried it, that dust bin empties out toot sweet, and the cyclone never moves. No fuss, no muss, and right into the compost bin outside.

The Ivac switch is pretty awesome. Especially the vac delay on start and stop.

The clamping system is the same one used in FWW's 'Newfangled Workbench'. Curious if anyone has built it.

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I have a "shop" in 1/3 of a 3 car garage so space and mobility are pretty important to me, something like this would work nicely for me, I find myself sanding on my table saw extension table, which presents some clamping challenges (thank goodness for bench cookies!).  I guess my limited space and the fact this is on wheels and all one self-contained unit is what makes this so attractive to me.

 

one other thing I'm dealing with is the lack of a vice. I have a makeshift bench but use handscrews and clamps to hold workpieces.  I just can't afford a decent vice at this moment so the idea of integrating pipe clamps into a work surface is extremely attractive to me, even if the application is fairly limited... and especially when you build in the vacuum system.  idk maybe it's just me but this seems pretty ideal.  don't worry about premature buying in on my part though, I wouldn't be able to even contemplate building this for a few months at least.  like I said, I am following this with great interest and am impressed with your work here.

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Thanks for the compliment.

 

When this whole thing is done, I'll film a short vid and put it on my youtube channel.  https://www.youtube.com/user/VinnyjojoFish/videos   showing exactly how everything works, my opinion, and likely a few choice words about the $13 Taunton plans. 

 

I haven't done any woodworking vids yet, and all my subscribers are either signed up for the music, fishing, guns, boxing, or hydroponic tutorials.  I alienate a whole group of subscribers every few years when I pick up a new raving, drooling, enthusiasm for a new hobby. ;)

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Am I the only one who didn't know that pipe clamps were BYOP. 'Buy your own pipes'. ??? b0f6804607b9fe3313d706a1e2ddd5f8.jpg

Nice thing is you can use pipe couplings to make one set of clamps work at many different lengths without having to keep really long pipes hanging around all the time. I once helped assemble a cutting table in a clothing factory, using pipe clamps that were more than 100' long.

That's right, 100 FEET.

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Am I the only one that has 50 shop vac couplers, reducers, and enlargers, and none of them ever seem to fit anything?

I finally used a 90 degree PVC elbow....the 5th version of which finally fit, and wasn't too tall for the limited space.

Had to use a bit of electrical tape to make the shop vac hose fit

Snug as a bug.

Oneida makes a 90 degree elbow, but for whatever reason their checkout system won't work for me. e3428568102efc017a0a6f690977e73c.jpg

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100 foot table at a clothing factory? That's like 250 workers...or 1000 sweatshop children.

Nope, that's 2 guys using the cloth-cutting equivalent of a 1/2 hp jigsaw...

Eric, those tables had 3/4" t & g mdf sectioned tops that had to be pulled together with the clamps. Made a continuous smooth surface for rolling bolts of cloth out in stacks about 4" deep for mass pattern cutting. That was for the 'hand made' clothing line. We also had a CNC cutting machine that could cut through 1" of vacuum compressed muslin or similar fabric. That's about 6" of uncompressed cloth.

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This is in TN? Didn't think there was much textile industry left these days. My great grandfather was a 'union enforcer' (leg breaker) ' in the garment industry in Philly, and my grandfather worked in textile as well ...I remember him showing me big reems of fabric coming off those huge rolls. All those factories are broken windowed and abandoned now.

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No, that was in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, over in NC. Nothing but textiles and furniture factories in that area. Moved back to TN after starving for five years. There's a lot of folks in those mountains that STILL don't have electricity or running water.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, by the way....

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Calling it a night. Top layers and frame affixed to the top 'bottom'. Entire top piece affixed to the mobile base. 10,000 drywall screws.

By the way, I literally had to crawl inside of the vac cabinet to drill and screw the holes.

2nd bench dog complete

Pipe holes drilled.

All vac hoses rigged up.

(By the way, My hose is making a high pitched terrible howling noise...like microphone feedback'...any idea why? )

-Howie Hughes. 265c3aa0e50332feae8f28b6dd4bd832.jpg

With spacer blocks

f3e72c07e0b614d4e9cfd5e5e12a228b.jpg

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After literally trying every fitting in my shop over the 2.5 rockler hose, the high pitched whistle continued. Worst noise over.

Worse than a Yoko Ono concert ( ok, maybe a close second)

At last, the only thing that disrupted the whistle was attaching a bit of 2 1/4 shop vac hose to the end. Problem solved. 23145fa7e781426b79a99de0ab0b0da9.jpg

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Hitting the hay. Tired and annoyed. Spent too much time troubleshooting the whistling hose.

Tried to install the pipe clamps and got stuck on the 'pre-drilled holes in the clamps' part of the plans. I bought the model number clamp suggested...no pre drilled holes here.

It can't possibly be suggesting that I'm supposed to drill through the cast iron clamp??

My clamps

df9fdd860a35d56ba21dd5ea9195c833.jpg

And the one in the article:

163c93dda1f49411609586c2bcf30cfc.jpg

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