Portable Workbench Build Process

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I spent a bit more time sorting out the steel parts in an attempt to make them resilient to rust today. I experimented with a few different bluing methods, including heat & various types of oil, but I concluded that I preferred the look of the cold blued parts, so I decided to do that to the rest of the steel bits (apart from the tubes for the vice rails as they're too big to do easily so I think I'll just rely on Metalguard or grease or oil or something like that for them).

Here are all the remaining parts (apart from the vice bodies, which I cleaned up with a non-woven wheel on the angle grinder and then forgot to take a photo):

The bodies were a bit of a pain to blue: the instructions on the bottle suggest they should be submerged, but that would requite a LOT of cold blue! I just kept turning them and brushing the solution onto the bodies.

Here are all the parts having been blued, rinsed, oiled, left for an hour and then wiped:

The finish on the bits that were fully submerged came out quite well:

With that done, I figured it was time to start making stuff permanent (scary moment)! I started by gluing the magnets into the half-tubes. As it's always a good idea to make a major change at the point of gluing and without testing, I decided to glue two magnets into each tube instead of just one. Hopefully that will increase the strength (not that it needs it really). I started by cleaning the bore carefully and then putting some Araldite around the rim:

I then pushed the pair of magnets into place and daubed over the inside and outside of the magnet. An offcut of threaded rod was used to wipe the excess from the inside and I carefully scraped most of the excess of the outside with a plastic spatula thing.

With that done, I thought I'd carry on with the gluing and fix some of the other bits together. Here are the bits that I glued in today. I've still got the hinge bars to glue in, but I'll do that tomorrow once the Araldite has set.

First I glued the bushes that run in the slots in the dual-screw vice into their new washers:

Then I glued all six jam bars into the bodies. That's all the gluing done for the day.

While I was waiting for the cold blue to do its magic, I also marked up the bench top for the dog holes. I'll drill them in the next day or two probably.

I've got next week booked off work, so it feels like I'm on the home straight now.

I am a hobbyist metalworker and woodworker. I work as an electronic design engineer and spend most of my working days in front of a computer so I enjoy having the opportunity to use my hands and make things in my spare time. I particularly enjoy making tools as I can then use them on other projects. This website showcases some of the things I've made.

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