I had an idea today about a shop modification that I think would be highly useful. I wanted people’s feedback, but couldn’t explain the idea in 140 characters, so I’m writing this post.
While I don’t have the room for it in my shop, I’m a big fan of Marc Spagnolo’s assembly table. Once (not if) I get room for a bigger shop, I plan to build one. At various steps during the building Briana’s crib, I’ve needed not just a flat surface on which to lay pieces, but also a flat surface orthogonal to the table to line up several pieces. This afternoon, while thinking about what to do next in the garage, I made the connection between an assembly table and a planing stop – similar to the stop on Kari’s bench.
So here is my question to the huddled masses – would you find it useful to have a planing-stop-like attachment to one (or adjacent) side(s) of an assembly table, to use for aligning the ends of several pieces during glue up or layout? Or am I overthinking too much?
Steve,
I think that two stops/fences square to each other would be especially useful for gluing up frames and such. Personally, I don’t see much use in a single stop. Most of my table top glue-ups (lots of edge-to edge joints) are left long and trimmed square after, so the stop wouldn’t help me. For frames, boxes, and other square assemblies, I think the pair of 90 degee fences would be really handy. Kreg makes one here Kreg Table
Sorry – my above link doesn’t work. Let’s try again: Klamp Table
That’s definitely the idea in my head. Good to hear that I’m not the only one who would think that useful.
I also recently had a thought to somehow combine the assembly table with a downdraft sanding table. Am I redesigning the MFT??
Here’s a great use for such an assembly table:
http://cid-2b3cecce825f255a.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Brad%20Point%20Bits/IMG^_1796r.jpg
I recently glued up a table top consisting of about 65 pieces. Not as slick, but I clamped a straight piece of stock at the end and used a heavy steel straight edge along the edge.
My link appears to have been too long and got broken. Let’s try again!
http://tinyurl.com/ybo9k8c
You would not be the first woodworker to make something already in production. Just have a look at Shopnotes magazine. Rockler has an interesting new product designed to make a quick downdraft table… http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=21488&filter=downdraft