Just a quick thanks...

[JimB1]

I just wanted to shoot out a quick thanks to everyone here. The last few years I've been getting caught up in working on the house so much, I forgot how much fun it is to just make stuff for the heck of it. Every time I went into what passes for my shop, it was to get a tool to fix something or build something like a closet organizer or something else eminently useful but a chore all the same.

I've had a pretty inadequate bench for a few years now that my Father-in-law gave me when they got new workbenches where he works. It's decent but just a laminated beech top with steel legs. I've never been happy with it's stability or storage or my inability to put a nice vice on it. I just put a simple woodworkers vice on but the stability issue always comes up and the bench always ends up shaking too much to make the vice useful.

Looking around here and checking out pics of other folks benches got me thinking about it and I started working on a new bench base today. I am just using douglas fir 2x4s and 2x6s but have put together a plan by taking parts I liked from several benches. It'll probably take me a few weekends to finish but the hope is to have a nice stable bench when I'm done. Then I can start thinking about the top. Still reviewing the options for that. Maybe a leg vice and a shoulder vice but not sure just yet.

Last weekend I put up the first row of a french cleat storage system I've been thinking about for a while and made a chisel rack for it and put a cleat on my forstner bit box so I can keep them near my drill press. I still have to do a upper row of cleats and build some more storage but it's a start.

Maybe in a few months I'll be setup enough to actually build something

Anyway, thanks for giving me some motivation and making it fun again.

-Jim