Quote:
Originally Posted by charles Tauber
Test your current bench by pushing on the edge of the bench top. If it deforms significantly, you'll be fighting your bench while you are trying to plane. Your work, fastened to the bench, gets pushed away from the plane while you are trying to plane it. The plane blade won't actually engage the work until the bench deforms as far as it is going to - or breaks: the work runs away from you as you try to plane it. After each stroke, the bench returns to its starting position to be pushed away on the next stroke. If the amount of movement of the bench is sufficient, it can make accurate planing very difficult as you chase the work around with your plane (or chisel).
Not all benches need to be that rigid. It depends on for what you are going to use the bench.
|
I went and tested it a little while ago. There's a little bit of racking. But they're not too bad. All of the horizontal surfaces on all of those benches are framed out ~16" on center, and are pretty stiff, which helps.
But I will add some cross members and do some facing to stiffen them up, and figure out some anchoring.