Workbench on the cheap?

[justsomedude]

Someday I will build a shave horse.......

I have been clamping my work to deck railing which is better than nothing for sure. I try to do the messiest work outdoors. Sawhorses don't stay still very well (ok for rasp work but not draw knife). Any good tips? I have blocked in sawhorses with cinder blocks which works ok.

I haven't gotten a proper vise yet. Planning to try a cheap carpenter's vise.

Any tips?
Thanks!

[Selfbowman]

A six in. bench vice mounted on a piece of 3-4 " square tubing concreted in the ground at bench ht. works real good. Arvin

[DC]

I would say try to arrange it so you have access to both sides of the stave.

[Eric Krewson]

I have a heavy duty one you can have, I made about 50 bows on it. Ugly, not the best carpentry job but it works.

When I build my new shop I consigned  my old work bench to the basement as a catch all for a variety of stuff.



I made a much nicer workbench for my new shop.

[ksnow]

Here is a very simple to build and inexpensive shave horse.  A couple 2x6's and a few 2x10 cutoffs.

[stuckinthemud]

Mine is an old pine-plank out-house door, I made a sub-frame and legs from some scrap timber and screwed it to the wall by its own hinges at a height that fits me nicely - best thing about building your own is you don't have to put up with something the wrong height.  My best modification was bolting a chest-high 4x4 pillar to one of the legs. I finished it off with a couple of shelves, big mistake - their full of clutter, chips and saw-dust..... Lots of cleats and shop-made face plates took the place of vices and hold-downs until I inherited a couple - total cost was zero - been using it for 15 years.  For a while I wish I'd stripped the paint off it as the paint rubbed off on stuff for the first few jobs but its all good now. Keep meaning to take it apart and do it again properly, was only meant to be a temporary lash-up 

[DC]

How do you keep stuff from falling though the crescent

[Clay B]

I got a really good bench from Costco. It was pretty inexpensive, and it's really well built. The vice I have is my grandpas old vice, so I can't give too much in the way of suggestions there. I guess I would say that you might want to look at thrift stores and garage sales. It's not too hard to tell if a vice is decent or not. Hope this helps and good luck!

[mikekeswick]

You want an engineers vice with 4 inch jaws and as mentioned earlier a piece of steel box section concreted into the ground.

[loon]

I just bolted some cheap 4" vise to a particle board desk. Not very good, moves around quite a bit, but still much better than nothing..
wonder if I could bolt some steel to the floor of the garage somehow

[stuckinthemud]

How do you keep stuff from falling though the crescent

Makes a great hole for a hold-fast and I stick the bin under it so's I don't have to sweep the bench down

[stuckinthemud]

I just bolted some cheap 4" vise to a particle board desk. Not very good, moves around quite a bit, but still much better than nothing..
wonder if I could bolt some steel to the floor of the garage somehow

Put a bag of sand on a cross-piece between the legs - this works for those fold-able work-benches as well

[justsomedude]

I need to be able to do my dirty work outside as much as possible. Clamping a carpenters vise to railings or to a supported sawhorse gets my by.

I have what would be a great workspace with a bench but it is full of STORAGE.
I see a bonfire in my future......

[osage outlaw]

My workbench started out as 2x6 hand rails.  Then it spent a brief amount of time as a trebuchet.  Finally I turned it into a rolling workbench roughly 2' x 3'.  I have a decent sized vise on one corner and a MissleMaster bow press on the other corner.  I move that workbench all around my shop and garage depending on the weather. 

[Springbuck]

 I raided a construction site dumpster for my first shaving horse. But, even having one, I use my bench and vise a lot.  2x4's and screws will get you a long way, if you can find something solid to anchor it to like a wall.