THE BASIC CONVERTIBLE WORKBENCH
— For Junka-holics Like Me —
🐬 The Bench— They sell them at Sam’s and Amazon, they are metal… and I had one in the garage, used on the terrace for outdoor cooking, some polish and years of neglect washed right off, like new but no more cooking on the terrace. The Fire Department came, and now it is prohibited in Pinellas County. Even electrical is prohibited. It was reborn as my fishing lure and repair, rigging bench. Had to do something with it.
- Later on I inherited twenty perfect black boards ( Brand is Starboard a Tough Marine Poly) from an overrun on a job we were doing. I found another shelf grid shelf and added it to the existing one and then magnetic strips, drilled and screwed to ends for tools.
- Then from another job I inherited staircase plates in a v shape about six inches long, they became the bases for many of my 1/4 x 20 jigs and holders. So far I spent nothing, all parts were from other projects and in new condition and I had a ton of 1/4 by 20 nuts, bolts, washers and lock nuts. Stainless and alloy. Hey, man salvaged, paid for and it all works.
- But like all 8 x 10 foot spaces in your home, or my condo, you are limited in space layout. I need the bench to be flexible and adaptable to four disciplines.
- I build:
- Custom Battery packs,
- Soldering mini-computers,
- Working on Macs and PC’s,
- Macro photography,
- Photo Studio for Passports,
- ID’s and Fishing projects, namely making Flies, spinnerbaits, large and small, Sabiki, NED rigs, Tenkara flies, Drop Rigs and Snells.etc. —
- I wanted wheels not wood this is going in my carpeted spare room not the garage. And I run a carpet cleaner often as I work very neat. I have to or I become a hoarder.
- Everything in the room goes on magnetic boards regardless of the job, simply the boards with added steel sections in different layouts.
🐬 The Boards —
- The boards have advantages — I can change direction in seconds to another project or job and being magnetic, things stay in place. All tools and vises are bottomed with strong magnets
- The boards extend five inches over the edge which allows me more leg room — But I did lower the table thee inches, ten minutes with a simple hacksaw —
- The boards can work on both my extra desk and my workbench and I used common parts from Home Depot, those stair brackets are a super strong combination — Available at Home Depot.
- I had a box of then from a staircase job and I had two clamps I got at a junk pile and added my perfection bracket, same for melding two boards and created the duel clamp as shown below.
🐬 Rise Of The Boarders —
- Once again size matters and storage is important when thats all you have to work with and I made four of these extension boards to use on any of my desks or workbench. With the clamps they extend five inches over the knee side of the table. See the photo of the bottom to the right.
- 100% leftover parts and tools not being used, now invaluable as far as work are is concerned The bench provides perfect storage space for the boards.
- I live in Largo, Tampa Bay Florida and through friends and boat owners we can tangle with all sorts of creatures things in our lakes, bays, estuaries, intra-coastal or gulf waters.
And when we go into wading the bays, estuaries, inlets and in-shore on the Gulf side we go to 4 inch streamers. I made a dedicated streamer board. - With a sixteen pound magnet the vice is going nowhere but can be swiveled and tilted —
- Craft stores — Larger heavier threads, wools and chenilles and big needles that I use to make larger lures
and made large Tube Mandrels and Tubes — Mandrels for these large tube flies come from felting needles (36 Gauge) and the larger ones… - Larger tube mandrels are made from Bicycle spokes, ends are threaded and Stainless rods shaped.
🐬 “ The Garage ”
- All the vices I have and I use with the Little Persons or friends have a place called the garage, again magnetic, or steel plated and built from Black Starboard.
- These are teaching level vices for the kids. I took some very inexpensive vices I bought at a store going under on the web for ten dollars.
- I rebuilt them, basically taking over when the folks from INDIA, Pakistan and China left off and stopped finishing, crude and cheap.
- It included re-tapped clean bolt holes to US sizes, straightened edges with files, replaced nuts with locking nuts, the metal is soft, easy to remove, added accessories and retainers, repainted some areas with a plastic coating paint made by Krylon and sticks well to cheap iron and basically rebuilt them.
- My personal goodly vises (meaning expensive) are not shown mainly get used for delicate fly work,. These units are for streamer and some mass “ Big Bug” production and teaching kids. Also when I visit cousins out west I pack a cheapie with me and usually gift it to them but only after I upgrade them.
- I let the younger kids work with tube flies “ elimination of hook medical attention” and those inexpensive pin-vises save the day.
