First workbench, for an ML7 lathe

Although perhaps not intuitively obvious ... firmly fixed skins work surprising well

... they act as an infinite number of tensioned elements

... and you end up with a convenient cabinet

MichaelG.

Hi, Very similar to mine,you won’t have any problems with twisting as it is. I can’t fault any aspect of that bench. Money well spent.

Maurice

Edited By Maurice Taylor on 08/11/2020 10:27:06

Glad to hear no major issues. With regard to skins/panels, do they need to be steel and welded, or can they be wooden and/or bolted? I would have thought there's much more rigidity in welded box sectioin than a 1/2" sheet of plywood but stranger things have happened.

.

The important thing with skins/panels is that, to be structurally useful, they must be firmly secured and acting in tension.

... have a look at ‘self assembly’ bookcases and kitchen units, and see how effective the flimsy back-panel is in stiffening the structure ... often held by a multitude of panel pins.

MichaelG.

.

P.S. ... Your bench looks very adequate as it is

I would go with wood of adequate thickness to be sound deadening. The frame being welded is going to be fairly stiff so now what you want is vibration damping through mass and or absorbant material. With wood compression works too and more easily than tension.

Hi, I used coated 1.6mm steel for mine because I’d been given it .Otherwise I would have used 12mm plywood ,bolted on with 6mm set screws or coach bolts.Its easier to add shelves etc when using wood.I also made a pair of raising blocks from offcuts of the square tube . Hope this helps

Maurice

.

I don’t disagree, Bazyle, but [for the avoidance of doubt] my earlier observation had more to do with shape than material ... i was specifically referring to thin skins.

MichaelG.

Good morning gents, I thought I'd post a small update to this - the bench has been hammerited and the lathe placed ontop - the M8 studding is still on order, but overall I'm very happy. The height is good and there's no hunching. I think I need to make a little shelf on the front though, because I always find myself putting my tools in the swarf tray!

https://i.imgur.com/1G5lIMS.png

Hi William, when I built my workbench, I decided to make sure it had plenty of storage for keeping things organised, so I built a steel frame with 3 Halfords Industrial tool cabinets inside, and put a 2" thick pse board worktop on it, it's pretty solid, you could park a car on it.

To add some security, I've started adding the ability to padlock a steel tube in front of the drawers.