how 'bout them engraving benches?
- Thread starter KatherinePlumer
- Start date
Andrew Biggs
Moderator
Hi Katherine
I wouldn't get hung up on the keyhole thing. If you have it, or not, won't make any difference to your work.
The most important thing you need is a very solid and sturdy bench and your microscope locked down securley so there are no wobbles.............or as little as possible.
The next thing you need is a decent chair if you are going to sit while working. Don't skimp on this one.
The drill press stand is an excellent way to go and is very easy to do. The head just screws off as does the base. The middle section with the table etc is really what you are after. This allows you to adjust your work up or down and still retain your posture while looking through the microscope. You don't need lots of movement and you'll find that 4-6" is ample.
If you can't screw/bolt into the floor.............then the suggestion of laying down an extra heavy floor would work. It's very important that you eliminate as much vibration as humanly possible. Vibration through a scope will be like working in an earthquake...............and it makes the work harder.
Build your bench for the future........... not just what you are working on today...otherwise you'll be revisiting it sooner than you think.
I believe a singing Scotsman may be coming to your rescue next week
Cheers
Andrew
I wouldn't get hung up on the keyhole thing. If you have it, or not, won't make any difference to your work.
The most important thing you need is a very solid and sturdy bench and your microscope locked down securley so there are no wobbles.............or as little as possible.
The next thing you need is a decent chair if you are going to sit while working. Don't skimp on this one.
The drill press stand is an excellent way to go and is very easy to do. The head just screws off as does the base. The middle section with the table etc is really what you are after. This allows you to adjust your work up or down and still retain your posture while looking through the microscope. You don't need lots of movement and you'll find that 4-6" is ample.
If you can't screw/bolt into the floor.............then the suggestion of laying down an extra heavy floor would work. It's very important that you eliminate as much vibration as humanly possible. Vibration through a scope will be like working in an earthquake...............and it makes the work harder.
Build your bench for the future........... not just what you are working on today...otherwise you'll be revisiting it sooner than you think.
I believe a singing Scotsman may be coming to your rescue next week
Cheers
Andrew
J Saville
Elite Cafe Member
Katherine,
Here is another two cents worth. I purchased a hydraulic boat seat pedastal and mounted it to a 1/2 inch 12" X 12" piece of steel to give it some weight. It is adjustable for height and portable. I think the cost was under $100.00. I added a 12" wooden disk to set the vice on. I've attached a picture.
Here is another two cents worth. I purchased a hydraulic boat seat pedastal and mounted it to a 1/2 inch 12" X 12" piece of steel to give it some weight. It is adjustable for height and portable. I think the cost was under $100.00. I added a 12" wooden disk to set the vice on. I've attached a picture.
Attachments
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stand 1.jpg
JCB
Member
hydraulic boat seat pedestal
What is the model of that hydraulic boat seat pedestal. That looks like an excellent idea.
What is the model of that hydraulic boat seat pedestal. That looks like an excellent idea.
Karl Stubenvoll
Elite Cafe Member
I got a used hydraulic pedestal from a beauty shop/barber shop supply and am very happy with it. These units are designed to hold up well and are very sturdy.
KatherinePlumer
Elite Cafe Member
Hey, I just want to thank everyone for all the replies, this has been very helpful! I think it's going to be a work in progress for a little while but at least the ball (but thankfully not the ball vise!) is rolling. I've ordered a new table (err, bench, I must get used to calling them benches! ). I'll post a pic when I get everything done, but it'll be a while!
Thanks!
-Katherine
). I'll post a pic when I get everything done, but it'll be a while!Thanks!
-Katherine
jetta77
Elite Cafe Member
I have to disagree w Scott, it seems that gun engravers fail to see that most engravers are jewelry engravers. I have 3 jewelry benches at work and 2 at home, I have a scope mounted on one and have no problem w the bench moving around. Jewelry benches usually have a cutout that's perfect for a stand to hold the vise, if fact most homade benches I see copy this idea. They have plenty of drawers for tools, arm rests that slide out and catch trays that are also great for putting tools. These benches have been evolving for hundreds of years and are made for work. GRS uses jewelers benches and most engravers I've met use them as well.
Now, if your only doing gun engraving something bigger and better will probably work better, but most engravers are engraving smaller objects not double barrel shotguns.
Also it's my opinion that it's the vise that wobbles under the scope, not the scope itself, if it is the scope your leaning into to hard.
Jeff
Now, if your only doing gun engraving something bigger and better will probably work better, but most engravers are engraving smaller objects not double barrel shotguns.
Also it's my opinion that it's the vise that wobbles under the scope, not the scope itself, if it is the scope your leaning into to hard.
Jeff
Here is my two cents for what it is worth. I have used both, jewelry benches and engraving benches. If you are going to specialize in one or the other thing, get the bench that applies to your purpose. A jewelry bench is not too good for engraving if you are an all around engraver doing a variety of things, holding a viarety of articles. A jewelry bench doesn't work too well in this situation. If you have one made, you could have both in one with a little inginuity; jewelry on one end, altered for that purpose. A desk top at the other end for engraving, scrimming, drawing, etc. Or if you have room a light table in another spot. They are handy if you draw on tracing paper.
A large heavy desk will suffice for engraving, and your vise height needs to be where any or all articles will have plenty of room to rotate. Some things on the desk can be done on a sand bag where you just slide the engraving block aside. And there are times you will have to have room for large bowls and platters. An rolling, adjustable chair is a good thing.
An all around engraving shop should have a desk. I found that the jeweler's bench was too cramped and close for doing everything and anything. Small articles okay, big articals, no room. You have to skoot away from it and have a stand you can move around to another location for all around engraving. It is a pain to have to move the vise from one location to another. Then no scope unless you can swing it over your engraving area.
The stand is a pretty good idea mounted solid next to your desk, with the desk along side. That would be about the best set up. I have a desk that turns the corner. Works pretty well.
I just did engraving on a regular very heavy desk. You can put bookskelves at one end, or tool chests or whatever, but you need space to clear lamp stands, scope mounts, or anything sticking up on a plane even with the top of your vise. You don't want things so close you retard the movement of the vise and anything in it.
The vise top should be above the surface of the bench for swing clearance on guns and knives if you are giong to do them now or some other day in the future. Some fixed blade knives are long enough to rake things off your bench if you have clutter around your bench and close to your block. That is, if you work on a tilt with optivisors rather than just a horizontal plane with with a scope. What about cane heads and the like? Flutes and horns, etc, big items. A working engraving cannot often turn things down and it has to be pretty effecient. All you have to sell is your time, unless you sell things to be engraved also.
It depends on what your intentions are, and if you want to expand into other things or just stay with specific things (might not stay busy enough if you want to make a living at it). That would be doubly important, particularly when you are starting out and trying to get work. You just about have to take any engraving you can get. If you specialize, you will starve in most cases, but that might depend on who you know and how much help you can get from a few clients. (lot of work or a little work). Don't put all your eggs in one basket if you get my drift. I don't think you can do everything and all things at one bench. If you don't intend to do jewelry work, I would reccomend just a desk. It will work with scrimshaw too. Arm rests are good if they can be removed, or adjusted.
Some conditions will just have to be worked out at the time for some specific job. Making jigs, etc., are one of the occupations of the engraver, doncha know.
Here is a working engravers resume'.
Engraver, tool maker, polisher/finisher, carpentry, photography, artist, book keeper, tax and regulations authority, law interpreter, Administrator, public relations manager, psycologist, medic, janitor, customer service, mailing agent, packaging, maintanance technician, inventor, metalurgy, and otherwise in spare time, general goof-off. Heehee
Ron S
A large heavy desk will suffice for engraving, and your vise height needs to be where any or all articles will have plenty of room to rotate. Some things on the desk can be done on a sand bag where you just slide the engraving block aside. And there are times you will have to have room for large bowls and platters. An rolling, adjustable chair is a good thing.
An all around engraving shop should have a desk. I found that the jeweler's bench was too cramped and close for doing everything and anything. Small articles okay, big articals, no room. You have to skoot away from it and have a stand you can move around to another location for all around engraving. It is a pain to have to move the vise from one location to another. Then no scope unless you can swing it over your engraving area.
The stand is a pretty good idea mounted solid next to your desk, with the desk along side. That would be about the best set up. I have a desk that turns the corner. Works pretty well.
I just did engraving on a regular very heavy desk. You can put bookskelves at one end, or tool chests or whatever, but you need space to clear lamp stands, scope mounts, or anything sticking up on a plane even with the top of your vise. You don't want things so close you retard the movement of the vise and anything in it.
The vise top should be above the surface of the bench for swing clearance on guns and knives if you are giong to do them now or some other day in the future. Some fixed blade knives are long enough to rake things off your bench if you have clutter around your bench and close to your block. That is, if you work on a tilt with optivisors rather than just a horizontal plane with with a scope. What about cane heads and the like? Flutes and horns, etc, big items. A working engraving cannot often turn things down and it has to be pretty effecient. All you have to sell is your time, unless you sell things to be engraved also.
It depends on what your intentions are, and if you want to expand into other things or just stay with specific things (might not stay busy enough if you want to make a living at it). That would be doubly important, particularly when you are starting out and trying to get work. You just about have to take any engraving you can get. If you specialize, you will starve in most cases, but that might depend on who you know and how much help you can get from a few clients. (lot of work or a little work). Don't put all your eggs in one basket if you get my drift. I don't think you can do everything and all things at one bench. If you don't intend to do jewelry work, I would reccomend just a desk. It will work with scrimshaw too. Arm rests are good if they can be removed, or adjusted.
Some conditions will just have to be worked out at the time for some specific job. Making jigs, etc., are one of the occupations of the engraver, doncha know.
Here is a working engravers resume'.
Engraver, tool maker, polisher/finisher, carpentry, photography, artist, book keeper, tax and regulations authority, law interpreter, Administrator, public relations manager, psycologist, medic, janitor, customer service, mailing agent, packaging, maintanance technician, inventor, metalurgy, and otherwise in spare time, general goof-off. Heehee
Ron S
Barry Lee Hands
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
A lot of good info and tactics here.
In my shop, I have benches, but no "Engraving bench".
I have not had one in ten years or so.
This is my setup:
In my shop, I have benches, but no "Engraving bench".
I have not had one in ten years or so.
This is my setup:
Last edited:
KatherinePlumer
Elite Cafe Member
Hi everyone! Okay, I'd said I'd post some pics when things were up and running, so here I go!
I spent a weekend taking apart and putting back together the space in which I work, and I owe a huge thank you to Rod Cameron for all his help while here on his way back up to Mendocino!
I don't have a basement (or a bunker :big grin. My work space is in the house, in the front room, so it has to be at least somewhat aesthetically pleasing, and that definitely played some role in the various items that I chose to work with. If you're morbidly curious, you can see the entire studio process here: http://blog.katherineplumer.com/2009/10/studio-40-evolution-lots-of-pics.html
The vise shelf I had planned on using didn't feel right for my needs. It was a bit too small for my turntable. I opted to get a drill press stand instead, and as luck would have it one of my good friends offered to split the cost of one with me, and take the motor/head and remainder of the upright pipe off my hands and make a radial drill press out of it. Oh thank goodness for mechanically inclined friends! :thumbs up: So THAT worked out really well.
So after a weekend of schlepping and drilling and bolting and re-arranging, the engraving table and drill press stand looked like this:
But I found it a little hard to work with. For one thing my existing chair (which I love for drawing!) just isn't right for this sort of setup, I had to kinda perch on the edge of it to get close enough to the vise. Also, the table/platform on the drill press itself was too big. It was nearly 12 inches, but my blue turntable (that's a Shimpo banding wheel if anyone's interested, you can get them at ceramic supply stores, and that thing is SMOOTH turning) only has about an 8 inch base on it. It wasn't comfortable trying to sit with my knees around a 12 inch table:
Again, thank goodness for brilliant engineers with workshops full of fabulous metalworking tools, because my neighbor took the turntable and drill press table home with him and cut the excess drill press table off and mounted the turntable to the drill press table itself. Awesome! Now I can sit like a normal person and so far it all seems to be pretty comfortable and working very smoothly.
Here's how it looks today (set up for scrim right now, hence the funny little platform on top of the vise):
The drill press stand with newly reduced table/platform:
Turntable attached to the drill press table:
Here are two views of the entire studio:
This area is smaller than it probably looks. At it's widest and longest, it's 10x13 feet, but that includes the space that extends out into the bay window. I don't have all the nifty tools and equipment that a lot of you have, but the power tools that do live here are out in the barn, not in the house! Since drawing is still a large part of what I do, plus it's good to have a place to sketch out all the ideas for scrim/engraving, the drawing table and equipment still takes up a large part of the area:
And look, here I am working on some scrimshaw!
Oh, by the way, I bought a new chair just for use with the engraving bench, and I am convinced this is the perfect engraving chair. Very shallow seat, so I can still sit normally and be able to get close enough to the vise, and the arm rests are in the right place for me to actually use them! If you're in search of a chair and you live near a Staples, go try out the "Casdin Luxura" chair. I'm smitten.
Anyway, that's my story! I'm sure I will be making changes as I go and as I get used to the new work space. I know I'll be adding another set of drawers to the left of the engraving bench (in front of the air compressor) but that can wait a while. For now though, this seems to be a good setup. Yay! :banana:
-Katherine
I spent a weekend taking apart and putting back together the space in which I work, and I owe a huge thank you to Rod Cameron for all his help while here on his way back up to Mendocino!
I don't have a basement (or a bunker :big grin
. My work space is in the house, in the front room, so it has to be at least somewhat aesthetically pleasing, and that definitely played some role in the various items that I chose to work with. If you're morbidly curious, you can see the entire studio process here: http://blog.katherineplumer.com/2009/10/studio-40-evolution-lots-of-pics.htmlThe vise shelf I had planned on using didn't feel right for my needs. It was a bit too small for my turntable. I opted to get a drill press stand instead, and as luck would have it one of my good friends offered to split the cost of one with me, and take the motor/head and remainder of the upright pipe off my hands and make a radial drill press out of it. Oh thank goodness for mechanically inclined friends! :thumbs up: So THAT worked out really well.
So after a weekend of schlepping and drilling and bolting and re-arranging, the engraving table and drill press stand looked like this:
But I found it a little hard to work with. For one thing my existing chair (which I love for drawing!) just isn't right for this sort of setup, I had to kinda perch on the edge of it to get close enough to the vise. Also, the table/platform on the drill press itself was too big. It was nearly 12 inches, but my blue turntable (that's a Shimpo banding wheel if anyone's interested, you can get them at ceramic supply stores, and that thing is SMOOTH turning) only has about an 8 inch base on it. It wasn't comfortable trying to sit with my knees around a 12 inch table:
Again, thank goodness for brilliant engineers with workshops full of fabulous metalworking tools, because my neighbor took the turntable and drill press table home with him and cut the excess drill press table off and mounted the turntable to the drill press table itself. Awesome! Now I can sit like a normal person and so far it all seems to be pretty comfortable and working very smoothly.
Here's how it looks today (set up for scrim right now, hence the funny little platform on top of the vise):
The drill press stand with newly reduced table/platform:
Turntable attached to the drill press table:
Here are two views of the entire studio:
This area is smaller than it probably looks. At it's widest and longest, it's 10x13 feet, but that includes the space that extends out into the bay window. I don't have all the nifty tools and equipment that a lot of you have, but the power tools that do live here are out in the barn, not in the house!
Since drawing is still a large part of what I do, plus it's good to have a place to sketch out all the ideas for scrim/engraving, the drawing table and equipment still takes up a large part of the area:
And look, here I am working on some scrimshaw!
Oh, by the way, I bought a new chair just for use with the engraving bench, and I am convinced this is the perfect engraving chair. Very shallow seat, so I can still sit normally and be able to get close enough to the vise, and the arm rests are in the right place for me to actually use them! If you're in search of a chair and you live near a Staples, go try out the "Casdin Luxura" chair. I'm smitten.
Anyway, that's my story! I'm sure I will be making changes as I go and as I get used to the new work space. I know I'll be adding another set of drawers to the left of the engraving bench (in front of the air compressor) but that can wait a while. For now though, this seems to be a good setup. Yay! :banana:
-Katherine
Steve223
Elite Cafe Member
Very Nice setup Katherine.... Im jelouse
Steve
Steve
fegarex
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Katherine,
Looks like a really nice set up! WAY too clean however...
I will mention this to you (while maybe too late) and also to others, the idea of a 12" turntable while sometimes a bit large is REALLY handy when working on large items like firearms. If you intend on working on smaller items, it isn't needed but when working on a large lever action rifle the 12'' isn't even enough. I've learned to "straddle" the turntable quickly but it was a bit rough on the bottom. I polished it well so it wouldn't tear up my pants.
Looks like a really nice set up! WAY too clean however...
I will mention this to you (while maybe too late) and also to others, the idea of a 12" turntable while sometimes a bit large is REALLY handy when working on large items like firearms. If you intend on working on smaller items, it isn't needed but when working on a large lever action rifle the 12'' isn't even enough. I've learned to "straddle" the turntable quickly but it was a bit rough on the bottom. I polished it well so it wouldn't tear up my pants.
Congratulations on your neat setup, Katherine.
Hope it serves you well for years to come.
Best regards.
Hope it serves you well for years to come.
Best regards.
KatherinePlumer
Elite Cafe Member
Ha ha Rex, give me about five minutes and it'll look like a tornado blew through here. Tidiness is not the normal state of things.
For me, I think the work space is fine and will fit the size of what I plan to work on.
-K
For me, I think the work space is fine and will fit the size of what I plan to work on.
-K
fegarex
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Yes, I took a picture of my work bench right after I set it up too. I do try to clean it up after each job however. The longer the job, the worse the bench gets!!
I would think you set up will be super for working on jewelry which I assume you will be doing. Looks really nice!
I would think you set up will be super for working on jewelry which I assume you will be doing. Looks really nice!
Andrew Biggs
Moderator
Looking good Katherine............and you even have a flower for the final touch!!
A Scotsman is a very handy beastie to have around
Cheers
Andrew
A Scotsman is a very handy beastie to have around
Cheers
Andrew
Tim Wells
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
What a woman; and such good upright posture!
That's a nicely lit and organized work space you have there; makes mine look like a one hole privy.
That's a nicely lit and organized work space you have there; makes mine look like a one hole privy.
Tira
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Cool set up, but I agree with Rex - waaaayyy to clean!
fegarex
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Katherine,
Just another tip.. I see you have a flower in the top of the drill press post?
Just make sure you keep it covered! Murphy's law says that stuff will fall into the post when you least expect it!
Just another tip.. I see you have a flower in the top of the drill press post?
Just make sure you keep it covered! Murphy's law says that stuff will fall into the post when you least expect it!
rod
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Katherine,
How nice to see the finished result! I think you and I and your mum worked well as a team, hacking up steel columns in the barn, while chickens, horses, dog, and cat looked on bemused. you made a great job of the flooring, and your neighbor is a handy guy to have nearby.
Well done!
Rod
How nice to see the finished result! I think you and I and your mum worked well as a team, hacking up steel columns in the barn, while chickens, horses, dog, and cat looked on bemused. you made a great job of the flooring, and your neighbor is a handy guy to have nearby.
Well done!
Rod
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