Wood Working By Design | Festools | Festool ETS EC 125/3 Sander

Introduction

February 2019

I do not know how many times I have sworn that I would never ever purchase another power tool because I had every power tool that I needed. When I thought that I meant it. I can just see my better-half saying, "Sure you did, dear. Sure you did."

When I decided to purchase this sander I was in the middle of a major veneer project. After some research, I decided that this sander would be a huge help for the simple reason that my old Bosch RO sander was leaving shellac residue in all of the veneer pores and fissures. I always use compressed air to blow off any sanded surface, but this time the shellac residue would not budge. The Bosch was connected to my Festool vac, but that made no difference. After the Festool sander arrived I - held my breath - and put it to the test. I discovered that absolutely no shellac residue remained embedded in the veneer surface. I was stunned, but that's a fact.

This sander is amazing.

Over the years, I purchased and read several good books on workbench design and construction, both historic and modern versions. I also came across the very nice Benchcrafted workbench. This workbench design became the foundation for my workbench design. It was stout, simplistic and gave me a benchmark design from which to design my own workbench.

Final requirements for my workbench were:

28" Width x 87" Length x 35" Height
4" Thick Bench Top
4" x 6" Legs
Veritas Twin-Screw Tail Vise
Veritas Quick-Release Front Vise
Bench Had To Be Mobile
Rock Solid

For years I felt that I did not want any "protrusions" on the "working" side of my workbench. I wanted it flat and clear and felt the twin-screw rear vise was all that I would need. However, I soon realized that if I were working on something that required clamping in the vise my useable workspace would really be limited if I were using the tail vise. I would have no useable workspace to either side of the vise for tools. All of my useable workspace would be in front of the vise. On the other hand, using the front vise for the same task (if possible), I would have useable workspace both in front of and to the right of the vise, in this case. This is why I chose to install the Veritas front vise.

At one time I really liked the leg vise, but over time, I realized that a leg vise would not be that useful to me. I felt that the front and twin-screw rear vises would better serve my woodworking needs.

However, all of these design gymnastics will come to a screeching halt once I begin to actually use my new workbench. In no time I will learn that, designwise, I've either been way off the mark or right on it or probably, somewhere in between. If I find that the front vise is not as useful as I thought it would be I'll remove it and learn from the experience. No problem.

I'm old and wise enough to know that in the real world "perfect" does not exist. Everything is a compromise and probably more often than not, the compromise turns out to be a much better solution than the original design.

Workbench Frame
I liked the BenchCraft basic design layout, but modified it to meet my own preferences. Because I added the Veritas vises the bench legs were moved closer together. The Veritas front vise required 19-inches of bench width due to jaw width, so that was the benchtop overhang I designed for.

Straying off topic for a moment: This 19-inch overhand width caused a huge issue for me because it almost made the mobile feature impossible. Because of this I had to add the "bumper" in front of the lower rail as seen in Image 2 below. I'll cover this in more detail later.

Workbench Top
I really wanted a one piece bench top, but the harsh reality was this: I prefer working alone and my math revealed that this top would weight over two-hundred pounds. Time for a prudent Plan B. The split top was the solution. I took the liberty of weighing one of the top halves - 93 lbs! I can comfortably handle that without any problem, but twice that weight would be problematic.

The other "unknown" during all of this was flattening each bench top halt. As it turned out, the width I chose for my bench was 28-inches. You have no idea what it took to settle on that width. However, as luck would have it each half ended up being 13-1/4 inches in width. I just happen to own a

Workbench Construction

chisels — **IMAGE 2**
Workbench progress as of 12 OCT 2018.

As of the above date, this has been quite a journey.

It was my intention to document this project on a near daily basis. That never happended and I'm not happy about that because it would have been interesting reading. Or so I think anyway. I cannot do anything about that now, so I'll do my best to bring the project up to date.

27 OCTOBER 2018
As of today the workbench in about 99% complete.

The Veritas front and rear twin-screw vises are both installed and operational. I plan to make separate project webpages out of both of these workbench vises. This information could help others anticipating these vise installs on their workbenches.

This entire project has been surreal to me. Today I looked at my workbench and could not believe me eyes. There stood the workbench I have dreamed of building for nearly twenty (20) years or so. This is mind boggling to me. It is difficult to believe that I finally have a real workbench.

It's too nice to use. I'll get over that feeling soon. I hope.

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END!!!