Getting the best out of bench work

I love working at the bench. Having all my parts and tools at my fingertips along with a steaming cup of coffee is truly pleasurable.

One of my favorite jobs at the workbench is designing or building a tool or small machine on the fly. I use the welding table as my chalkboard to develop ideas. Hand fitting and assembling one of your own designs and seeing it come to life on the bench is extremely satisfying.

All images courtesy of T. Lipton

Use copper jaws as a heat sink when welding delicate parts.

Mount a vise so a long part clears the bench below the jaws.

A large portion of the work a machinist does centers around a workbench of some sort. There is always something to take apart, test fit or clamp down. It’s efficient to have a few tools at your fingertips when doing bench work.

Without a decent vise, a shop is not a shop. And if there’s any item that needs to be high quality, this is it.

I once built a feed auger for a briquette press. The shop had one of those inexpensive offshore vises I call “10 footers.” They look great from 10′ away, but when you get close you can see all the Bondo used to fill the casting irregularities. I was using this vise to squeeze the auger flighting down onto its center shaft to place some tack welds. The vise failed as I worked on this screw and made the job that much more difficult.