High Horses And "Ironing Boards" For Detail Work

basswood

The table on my band saw is about 44" above the floor. It is a good height for lots of work, but most work benches and saw horses are 36" or shorter.

I made two work tables that are really oversized saw horses with small "ironing board" tops on them. The ironing board shape lets me use them as infeed and outfeed table for the band saw for cutting concave or convex curves. They can also be used for straight work too. For pergola rafter tail scroll work, I use a single ironing board placed to balance the rafter so it is easy to move and with the table sideways for a wide range of motion for scroll work.

The 44" work height is also ideal for jigsaw work and router work for the same reason that the bandsaw table is at that height... easy to see and no bending over.

Attached Thumbnails

     

nEighter

cool idea! I bet your back is thanking you erry day you use em!

Leo G

Most of my machine table tops are at around 35 1/4" (I think) I have made a bunch of rolling carts that are just below that height. Enough to put a 1/4" pc of ply to make it even. The are mostly parts carts, I made them slightly shorter so I can slide parts off the tablesaw onto the cart very easily. I use it to cut the angles on long crown as an infeed table, but I put it behind me.

Gotta have the right benches to make your work easy. Good idea Bass.

__________________
Sawdust Follows Me Everywhere

http://lrgwood.com
Custom Cabinets in Hartford County Connecticut

ChrWright

Didn't your dad every teach you not to cut toward your hands?

__________________

Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
www.WrightWorks.net - Facebook - Twitter - Carmel Remodeling
Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

basswood

Thanks, it is great to be able to work comfortably.

Leo, good point about making the tops a skosh shorter than the machine they are used with. My ironing board tops are MDF and with a large overhang, the edges have sagged slightly. This has turned out to be a nice feature, though accidental... for smooth outfeed work.

I don't always set the best example.

ChrWright

That makes two of us.

__________________

Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
www.WrightWorks.net - Facebook - Twitter - Carmel Remodeling
Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

neolitic

I just enjoy seeing a shop
with normal storage habits.

__________________
Put your location in your profile!
(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

Leo G

Then you'd love my shop..

__________________
Sawdust Follows Me Everywhere

http://lrgwood.com
Custom Cabinets in Hartford County Connecticut

neolitic

Coke cans don't count!

__________________
Put your location in your profile!
(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

Leo G

Just cleaned them up this morning. The shop is not a disaster area. Just messy. Lots of shavings on the floor from the routering of the edge profile on this door order. I gotta get me another shaper (#4) to do this edge profiling stuff. But, I gotta admit. I got the router bit sharpened just before the job and it is cutting like a hot knife through butter. I didn't even sand the profile and it is coming out spectacular. Just sanding the finish coat to 500 grit, nice and smooth.

__________________
Sawdust Follows Me Everywhere

http://lrgwood.com
Custom Cabinets in Hartford County Connecticut

basswood

Well, Neo and Leo... My shop is usually tolerably disheveled.

If I get crazy busy, the shop gets aggravatingly disorganized. I once lost an upright piano in the shop. Serious entropy happens a couple of times a year, followed by a major clean up resulting in a nice and tidy work space... but that never lasts more than a few weeks. The place usually has a "worked in" look.

Here is an "Extreme Entropy" pic:

Attached Thumbnails

 

Leo G

Ahhhh...I see you have horizontal disease.


Any horizontal surface is covered with something that needs to be moved.

__________________
Sawdust Follows Me Everywhere

http://lrgwood.com
Custom Cabinets in Hartford County Connecticut

basswood

Yep.

That pic was taken last week. I had just dumped the entire contents of my work tailer and work van into the shop... trashed the shop, but my tailer and van are clean.

Trouble is I planned to build shelves for the trailer, but now the shop is too trashed to build the trailer shelves. I now invoke the tag line of Gus.

J F

I'll bet Hoffa is in there somewhere

Splinter

At the moment, my shop is only slightly cleaner than bass'....

I use a 2x4 Presto scissor lift with a half-assed 3x7 torsion box on top as my work table. Got the lift for $50 at a garage sale... It's nice being able to lift and lower workpieces to the perfect height for the task at hand.

Attached Images

 

__________________
- Alex

Long Island Remodeling Contractor

Leo G

Here is a rendering of the carts I have/made. I can get two of these carts out of a 4x8 sheet of plywood, well, almost.

__________________
Sawdust Follows Me Everywhere

http://lrgwood.com
Custom Cabinets in Hartford County Connecticut

Dustyrose

WOW!!! And my old man thinks I'm a slob. That pic makes me feel so much better about myself. You cleaned out your truck. Um hmm.

__________________
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. Paul Valery

basswood

Dusty, Here is the contents of my van and trailer, set up on a job. Dump all that portable shop gear into an already cluttered shop and... well you get the picture:

Attached Thumbnails

 

ibarnes

My dad just taught me to "Do as I say, not as I do."

basswood

Well, I put a few things away today.

Attached Thumbnails