3/4" vs 20mm

Jim, have you seen the Ron Paulk workbench video?

-- Handcrafted by Mike Henderson - Channelview, Texas

MT-That was what got me thinking about putting a grid on it. I’m just not sure weather to go 20mm or 3/4”. I don’t know if it will even make a difference.

-- Jim, Nebraska

You going to use wood dowels as pegs or aluminum ( the correct way) ?
I’d use a 13/16 spade bit( take a belt sander to a 7/8 bit if you want it tighter) and buy 20 MM aluminum rounds.
Here. I’ll save you some time ;-)~
http://www.orangealuminum.com/round-rods.html

-- What day is it ? No matter. Ummmm What month is it ? No moron. I paid for a 2 x 6. That means Two inches by six inches. I want the rest of my wood.

@Jim – How thick will your table be?

My table is 2 inches thick and has some 3/4 inch holes drilled in it. The Festool style clamps will not fit through the holes because of the thickness.

The work area of my miter saw station has 3/4 inch holes drilled in it. The clamps work just fine. The clamps I am using are the ones that are part of the track saw package from Grizzly so they are doing double duty for me. :-)

-- Handcrafted by Mike Henderson - Channelview, Texas

I built a fixture table for bending. I used 7/8” holes on 4”
centers. 1/2” pipe will fit in 7/8” holes. I welded washer
flanges onto short lengths of pipe. A 1/2” bolt can be put
though to clamp the pipe down if needed.

Good ideas…
I ‘m thinking of laminating a piece of 3/4” mdf and 1/2 mdf for the cabinet top with about a 4” area underneath that I can use as a downdraft table also.
I’ve been looking at some of the products from qwas corp to use with my table…

-- Jim, Nebraska

“I ‘m thinking of laminating a piece of 3/4” mdf and 1/2 mdf for the cabinet top with about a 4” area underneath that I can use as a downdraft table also.”

Jim, i am not sure if the Festool style clamps will work on a table thicker than 3/4 inch.

-- Handcrafted by Mike Henderson - Channelview, Texas

Why don,t you do both. To me it likes possible.

-- https://dutchypatterns.com/

Thanks Mike, I didn’t know that. Gives me something to consider.

-- Jim, Nebraska

Dutchy, my Dutch is non-existant. I do know a smattering of German though.

I hadn’t thought of doing both, nice idea. I’ll look into how that might work.
Thanks

-- Jim, Nebraska

I’m kind of in the same boat as you. Looking at building a table that’s compatible with the 20mm MFT dogs that I’ve got, but I don’t really want to go all 20mm since it’s harder to find stateside and can be quite expensive compared to the 3/4” stuff.

The idea that I’m leaning towards right now is alternating rows of 3/4” and 20mm holes. The grid will be based on imperial units rather than metric though. I figure it would be really wonky to have rows where the centerline doesn’t quite line up.

I would like to see pics of what y’all come up with. Since my table is almost 2 inches thick, I drilled out the useless 3/4” holes with a 7/8 inch bit. I haven’t had the need to use them yet but could change shortly. I have some 1/2 inch Bessey pipe clamps. The 1/2 inch pipe will fit through the hole. Also, I have several of th drill press vie grip type clamps. Ace hardware had some 12mm threaded rod so I bought a couple couplers and the rod. Now I can set the clamps up in any of the holes for assembly jobs.

Another option is to cut the knob off the end of f style bar clamps and insert part of it up through the table from the bottom and mount the clamp handle on it.

My miter saw station has the 3/4 inch holes and the clamps really work well. Need to use the pocket hole jig. No problem, just clamp it in place and git after it!

-- Handcrafted by Mike Henderson - Channelview, Texas

Gutentag Jim,

I don,t know if you are still thinking, but maybe you are happy with this drawing:

Please let me know If you like a auto CAD drawing.

Succes

-- https://dutchypatterns.com/

Dutchy,
I like that thanks!

-- Jim, Nebraska