Canopy

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Can you give some details (maybe a picture) of the construction of your workbench.</font color=blue>

Bill, I made two 8' long workbenches, 3/4" particle board (more rigid), ripped so the top of the workbench is 27" wide and the lower shelf is 22" wide, 2 x 4 around the perimeter under the top and 2 x 4 lengthwise under the center of the lower shelf, "landscape timbers" for legs (cheaper than 4 x 4), and put it together with 3.5" countersunk screws. This is a picture of the corner where the two benches are butted up together to give me a 16' work area.

Bird

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>used the peg-board-and-hooks in the past but always had trouble keeping the hooks in</font color=blue>

Pegboard comes with holes of different sizes and therefore the hooks come in different sizes, also. If you get them matched, so the hooks fit tight, usually no problem, but if you use the smaller hooks in the bigger holes, then you need the little plastic clips that hold the hooks in. The hook in the center of the picture is using one of the clips and I hung a spare clip on the hook so you can see what it looks like.

Bird

 

[Bird]

redhawk, now you're trying to embarrass me by wanting to see the cheap old place I live in, compared to the pretty places so many of our members have shown off, especially this time of year, with dead grass, no leaves on the trees, etc. in flat farm country. In fact, this area is known as "Brushie Prairie". But what the heck; here's a picture from the road in front of the house.

Bird

 

[Bird]

And this is the view I get out the back window when I'm sitting at this computer. It sure does look better in the spring and summer when the pasture's green, the blackberries are producing, and that garden plot has something other than bare dirt.

Bird

 

[RobS]

Bird, glad to see I'm not the only one with flat land. Only two differences: We don't have a house on ours yet and we have about a foot of snow still covering it all. That's some garden! Combine that with your long season and you can probably feed the whole forum /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Keep the pictures coming, they're great!

Rob

 

[bpence]

Bird,
That's a fine looking little Texas ranch. You should be proud. And the view out the back window is just right.

I grew up on a dairy farm in Michigan where the "fields were flat and the ditches were deep". Spent many an hour looking across the open pastures, and still think I may want a place not unlike yours with that kind of view when I retire.

Bob Pence

 

[redhawk]

bird,
i would never try to embarrass you./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif i'd trade my house for yours anytime. of course the wife might object. i love the size of your workshop & garden. keep the pics coming.

redhawk

 

[markcg2000]

Bird,
What is that piping I see under the left bench? Looks like some sort of pneumatic distribution via plastic piping /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif. If so, I would have never guessed PVC would do the job. Have you got a pressure reducer in the line, or does it go "full bore"? Also, what's with the wire that seems to be attached to the connector?

<font color=green>mark</font color=green>

 

[WVBill]

Thanks for the info on the workbench and peg-board, Bird. Looks like a very sturdy set-up. I like the idea of using the landscape timbers instead of 4x4's - always good to control cost. Did you put a layer of masonite on top of the particle board - the picture looks like there might be a layer of something there (or is it just a shadow line?)

I see you are using PVC pipe for your shop air. I've been told not to do that because of the potential for shattering the PCV under air pressure. But since that's your line of work I think I'll follow your lead.

Your "homestead" sure looks nice and I love that "big sky" view!

Thanks again for the pictures.... gotta get me one of those cameras....

WVBill

 

[Bird]

Mark, if you're talking about the yellow coil attached to the air quick coupler, that's a 10' air hose. I generally work on air tools just to the left of that picture and I have a blow gun on one of those hoses, and use the other to plug in air tools. The white wire under the bench is the power cord for the round magnifying glass with the florescent tube around it on the end of those white arms you see above the bench.

And Mark & Bill (both), you guys have sharp eyes. Yes, I plumbed my air line with PVC. Now the experts say DO NOT do that, so I won't recommend that you do it. However, it says right on that schedule 40 PVC "W.P. 600 psi @73.4F". Now the temperature out there may vary from less than 20 degrees to as high as 110, and I don't know how that affects its strength, but I'm running 100-115 psi and it's been set up like that for over two years with no problems so far. I decided using galvanized pipe would be too much work./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

And Bill, no masonite; I've just got a layer of cardboard on the bench top, and then put newspaper on that where I'm working with air tools and a lot of grease and oil.

Bird<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Bird on 01/25/01 01:15 PM (server time).</FONT></P>