Timothy wilmont festool storage bench project

pillguy

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Oct 24, 2013
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I thought I would start a thread on the build on an adaptation of the Timothy Wilmont Benchworks Festool Storage Bench.
Currently my workshop is about 11'x16' basement workshop so it is very small. I have some extra area and have a 10x10 outside deck that I can cut things as well.
I have been wanting to build this for several years and bought plans, but never could open them for whatever issue.
Since I am not adept in sketch-up, I got out the graph paper and started drawing and made lots of mistakes. UGH...
1000025402.jpg
 
Just looking at the thumbnail, it shouldn't be too difficult to recreate something like this for your workshop. Depending on whether you are using the SYS-AZ drawers or the SYS RAIL, you'll want to space the widths of each Systainer stack at 427mm or 418mm, respectively. You can also use those widths (probably the 427mm) if you want to make and use your own drawer rails. And then the widths of the voids between the stacks can be whatever you want to fit whichever tool you want to put there. And it looks like he's inserted a T-Track along the front face of the bench and seems like there are dog holes in the top.

If want to follow the Festool MFT "standard" then you'll want to drill 20mm centered in a 96mm grid. Lots of people use the UJK Parf Guide but if that's more than your budget wants to accommodate, then ultimately, you can layout the grid Old School: pencil, square, ruler and plot it out (I did it that way). Would also be a good reason to get the MB-40 drill guide...

He also has dogholes running down the sides of the cabinets, so you'll want to plan accordingly. I'm guessing he's hollowed out the walls to accommodate this?

If this will be your only workbench, then I would suggest designing it with a front vise for work holding. I don't have one on my workbench but I'm coming to the point where I can no longer ignore not having a proper vise. I would mount it on the left side of the bench (I did notice in the corner of the thumb that he has a separate bench with vise).

Good Luck!
 
i also watched the poplar woodworking guy for ideas as well. I wrote down his measurements and tried to figure them out as well, but some of it did not make sense. Probably my lack of understanding. So I started designing on paper and had to design mine to fit both bosch and festool containers and the space I had to work with as I had to make mine more narrow. You can see what I am starting with.1000025403.jpg1000025404.jpg
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I kinda forgot to build in extra space for supporting work off the table. I may have to adapt as I made a mistake in my depth design. I am building two of them and each is 1900mm in length. I will have a main workbench in the middle of shop and something a bit better layout on the other side as well.
 
One of the things I am dealing with is a lack of a good festool layout table with holes, I build a temporary one using peter parfit layout kit and it is pretty accurate, but lacks a lot of things.
The other think I had to overcome was using a 1619 bosch router with the LR-32 system. I was successfully able to adapt with some minor mods on the router and the LR32 base plate. It actually worked very well. Now I am need to adapt it with an adapter to cut mortises. I will update my other thread as I have multiple pictures to show how it is done.
 
so here are more pitures

1000019966.jpgso here are more pictures of working with the LR-32 system. I ran into all kinds of trouble as I did not understand balanced panel length and had to punch holes with only a layout from the bottom and yes, I made several mistakes in layout.

1000019964.jpg
 

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Just a few random thoughts...consider focusing your design more on the Systainers as opposed to the L-Boxx. Who knows how long that L-Boxx design will be around while the Systainer footprint has remained basically the same over the last 32 years.

I inserted 8020 square rail on 3 sides of the workbench top to hold down long items on the bench top and shorter items vertically on the sides & front of the bench.

The "MFT" grid area can be just a small area on the top of the bench. I'm not a fan of a complete MFT top because lots of things drop through the dog holes.

Plan to install some type of vise from the get-go. I have a 50# machinists vise that can be quickly moved to either side of the bench. It's held in-place with 3 each 20mm dogs. I also mounted a Record woodworking vise to the front of the bench. I can also mount a small Versa Vise anywhere within the MFT field by using a special mount with a 20mm dog. The 8020 rails also allow me to mount the Versa Vise anywhere along the rails.
 
I have yet to adapt a true woodworking vice to my bench yet. So far, I have made do with a similar concept, but instead of dog holes, I have 10mm Domino slots. These work in conjunction with wooden supports, that can bridge the legs, and a Matchfit dovetail slot.
I have a metal-working vice, mounted to a piece of MDF, that can be attached to the table dog holes, via the Bow Products type dogs. I originally bought the "pack of dogs" to use with my Kreg K-5 pocket hole jig.

This is along the same lines as @jeffinsgf His bench incorporates many of these or similar ideas, maybe he will chime in with some pics?

My setup has gone through some compression/rearrangement, since moving to a much smaller space. It is very similar to the original description above, though slightly larger. I'm still adapting
 
Well, I was working on the next step of the project and looks like I cut my domino holes the wrong way. Both ends have a 5mm gap. Anyone else do this?1000025448.jpg
 
Well, I was working on the next step of the project and looks like I cut my domino holes the wrong way. Both ends have a 5mm gap. Anyone else do this?
I think pretty much everyone does at one time or another! ;-)
 
The System Three T88 has a nice long pot life. Doing batches of doors I've always done at least the first couple of clamps ups with T88. It's a bear to sand squeeze out, though.

Edit: Wrong thread! Not sure how that happened. :oops:
 
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Well, I was working on the next step of the project and looks like I cut my domino holes the wrong way. Both ends have a 5mm gap. Anyone else do this?View attachment 378330
I don't think the Domino holes are wrong, the end panels seem flush. I would bet that the center partitions are too long. This can happen whenever you have joints in the opposite direction. The material thickness comes into the calculation, and you shouldn't assume that nominal is correct.
 
I reviewed measurements and they are correct, just think I punched holes incorrectly. Well, I used big popsicle sticks, the are about 1.5mm thick and easy to fine plane. Used about 10 total to fix my errors. 20251009_074945.jpgThis is my next set.
 
Update, nice day to paint on the deck so that is what I did in my "outdoor" section of my shop. Ha ha. Turned out very nice. I bought oak for the top section so i hope to get it cut and laminated together. 1000025684.jpg
 
Got the Oak cut and glued together. Used my biscuit joiner for the alignment. The last picture is what I am trying to replicate based on the video. Having to guess at the exact measurements, and working with what is available at the lumber dealer. Plan to plane them with my old bosch planer I bought at a garage sale.
 

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