Radiator Bench

I finished off a bench over a radiator today.

 made out of sapele with storage underneath, it finishes off the porch nicely. It's going to have a dark stain applied to it and a brass socket where I've left the plastic back box.

The end section slides up to allow access to the soil pipe behind and the wire to the socket

Storage at one end, ideal for shoes etc. The other side lifts up to allow access to the radiator

Testing it out. Complete with Cheesy grin!

Quite pleased with this little project. It goes well with the feel of the room (the expensive tiles on the floor and the limestone window sills) and it's one of the first things people will see when they walk into this grand house.

More Work Benches

I've had a nice couple of days making some work benches this week (amount other things). A bit bigger than the ones I built before, this time they're 5.3m long one way and 4.3m long the other.

[The corner where the benches are to be placed and my mitre saw set up and waiting]

[The frame in construction]

I was told that it has to be strong as heavy generators and engines would be taken apart on them. I settled on making it out of 4x4 legs with and 8x2 top rail, the rest of the frame being made out of 4x2 (all halving jointed together) with 4 lengths of 8x2 as a thick top.

[The finished bench - not a great picture but it was getting dark]

This is a seriously solid bench (It is also bolted to the wall) and the guy I'm working for came over and slapped his hands on the top of the bench and said "Thats it - Now your sucking on the right teat!" (a bit vulgar but it made me laugh).

Down time

Well the work I had booked in for this week was all outside, so that means no work this week and no money. The joys of being self employed.

[Workshop in the snow]

If I can get to the timber yard tomorrow then I have a paying job I can do (a sapele gate) but other than that I'm trapped at home.

So time to make the most of my situation I managed to get to the builders merchants today and buy lots of 3x2 and 4x2 to try and organise my workshop a little more. The plan is to build a small bench for the bench mounted sander I've just brought, and a larger one to site my mitre saw wit a place to roll my planner out of the way.

I've made the first bench today sand turned an area like this:

Into this:

My work benches are all made fairly easily using halving joints glued and screwed together, they should last a few years and if we ever get a bigger place I can take them with me.

Potting Bench

A quick flap of a magazine under my nose and the customer says "I want it like this". A couple of hours later the 12ft long potting bench is complete.

The top is just 2x1 roofing batten (I was working to a budget) which I routed to take the corners off and then sanded all over with a nice coarse 80 grit sand paper. The back of the bench is also notched to go round a brick pillar in the greenhouse. In the end it had a nice smoothed over feel to it, with no sharp edges.
The customer was very pleased (she just needs the greenhouse to go up now!), makes my potting bench feel quite inferior though!

Work Benches

I've been working for a builder over the last few weeks who has pretty much left me to the disposal of lovely couple who want certain things making and finishing off. Some of these jobs have been awful tto do - like the two automatic garage doors I've just fitted - and some have been great, like these work benches I made.

My brief was simple; they were to be a metre high, roughly so long (makes gesture with hands) and to make them strong. With 6x2 rails notched into 4x4 legs and 1inch marine ply on top they were really pleased, no chance of these falling down anytime soon.