New Workbench, need a bench vise and other doodads!

DAVE_M

DAVE_M

Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Messages
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My Dad gave me a call and told me about some plans he found that we could use for the new workbench I am going to use for a dedicated knife/firearm work station. He drove on down to the house and showed me the plans. The key component was the steel braces, called "Simpson Ties." I had never heard of them until yesterday. These things are pretty beefy! Each corner brace used 22 screws for the 2x4's and 4x4 legs. The ties are a bit pricey at $6.40 a pop, but the bench is now built like a tank. :D Total cost was right under $150 including all hardware and materials. We used: (8) Simpson Ties, (6) 2x4's, (2) 4x4's, and nearly 230 screws :eek3:

We added more bracing in the middle, to fasten the plywood down. Now I need to get a bench vise and start building my kydex presses/molds. Any recommendations for a quality small/medium sized bench vise?

*I'm hoping I'm posting this in the right section*

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I'll be watching this attentively, I am thinking of replacing my vise, I'm eyeing the Palmgren 5" model, but I'm afraid that it's from China. Don't really know if that's a for sure no-no or not, but the vises I can confirm are US made are just retardedly overpriced. So my eyes are open as to specific recommends from other members on this.
 
DAVE_M said:
The key component was the steel braces, called "Simpson Ties." I had never heard of them until yesterday.
Click to expand...

Simpson is very innovative. They make a tremendous variety of steel connector products for construction of wood buildings. Some of their products are available in stores such as Home Depot. They are also producing various fasteners for connecting to concrete and masonry such as epoxy bolts, etc.

My wife went to LSU- she would quickly spot that purple chair!
 
bdmicarta said:
Simpson is very innovative. They make a tremendous variety of steel connector products for construction of wood buildings. Some of their products are available in stores such as Home Depot. They are also producing various fasteners for connecting to concrete and masonry such as epoxy bolts, etc.

My wife went to LSU- she would quickly spot that purple chair!
Click to expand...

We couldn't find these exact Simpson ties on Lowes' website, but there were a ton in the store. Having the plywood ripped in half at Lowes was the best decision we made all day.

And our garage is lacking in LSU stuff, inside the house is another story! lol
I'll be putting a WIN! bar in the mud room soon.
 
Something you might want to concider, screw a thin and chap layer of plywood on top of your workbench.
You can easely replace it after getting it dirty and damaged and keep you workbench "fresh"
 
That's a dang good idea about the extra layer of plywood on top! I'm totally going to go do that to mine.
 
Hardboard makes a nice bench top surface too, easy to clean because it's so smooth.

I would have put a layer of plywood on the bottom side of both shelves to make it a torsion box.
 
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