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Monday, April 25, 2016

Production Updates For New Stuff


It's been a very busy 2016 so far here at Benchcrafted. We're up to our ears in new products that we want to offer this year. So here's an update on where things stand.

Classic Workbench Plans

We're hard at work drafting the plans for the bench. The goal is to have everything ready by the end of summer/early fall. We're trying to make these a little unique, perhaps print them on special paper, or make them look like old blueprints. We're not sure how that will play out, but we're trying hard to figure it out while keeping the price reasonable.

Planing Stop

We've been jumping over a few hurdles on this one. This is basically a really thick, but short saw. Getting nice sharp teeth in thick steel takes some doing, while keeping the price reasonable. We've got a few tricks up our sleeve though. We're looking at about 2-3 months availability on these at the earliest.

Etau/Hi Vise

Production on the vise is underway and we'll have the first components finished in the next couple weeks. We will be offering this vise in two setups.

     The base model will mount to your bench depending on how you build the vise. And we'll have plans showing various ways of doing this. For example, the rear leg of the vise can be built with wings that allow you to clamp the vise to a benchtop with typical clamps or two holdfasts. Another way will be to build the vise with an arm that extends back and down off the rear leg, to allow the arm to slip between the jaws of our Tail Vise and be held firmly in position. Quick and extremely solid. Or you can simply build the vise with a plain rear leg for holding in a traditional, open-front tail vise. This will allow the vise to be pivoted fore and aft in the jaws of your tail vise. We'll cover all this in great detail.

     The deluxe model will include hardware to allow the vise to be quickly clamped to any surface via a mounting screw built in to the rear leg. The mounting screw will be sized to accommodate a broad range of thicknesses, from a 4" workbench, to a 3/4" particle board banquet table (hey, you never know.) You can also build the vise to clamp to a range of thicknesses of your own choosing in case you've got a really thick bench.

Bench Seat / Swing Seat

We're still in the design phase on this one, but moving right along. It will go to the head of the line once we get further along on the Etau. We're particularly excited about this one. We've been using the heck out of our prototype, and so far everyone is saying "how did I work without this?"


7 comments:

  1. What about the machined moxons?

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  2. Sorry. Were just finishing them up. 1-2 weeks.

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    1. That's great news, I'm really looking forward to purchasing them! I couldn't find too many examples on the internet of an etau in use. But, from the pictures you showed in the previous post, I was thinking two etaus could be used to act like a variable width moxon vise. Or is that less desirable than an actual moxon vise?

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    2. Most of the old Etaux you'll see are from the 1st half of the 20th c. Do a search on our blog for "etaux" or "etau" and you'll see a bunch of pics. Also the French Schools post. If you wanted to buy two etaux instead of a Moxon, we wouldn't complain. But a Moxon is far superior for working the ends of wide boards. Two etaux would not support the middle of the workpiece.

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    3. Thanks Jameel, that's exactly the info I was looking for! In all honesty, I'll probably own both the moxons and the etau(s) at some point, but this helps me prioritize the purchases.

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  3. I can't find any place to communicate with you.
    Was wondering if you are interested in pictures of a Benchcrafted vice on a New Delhi workbench!?

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