I have e-mailed the guy asking if I could have plans to make models from them.

No reply as yet.

@unknownuser said:

"makes it a bit hard to swing the end like that"
No need to get "funny"

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend, I knew you were trying to help.

@unknownuser said:

.....would possibly require at least one leg/support of the workbench to swing away......maybe not?

The end sections are attached / bolted right up against and into the wall..... makes it a bit hard to swing the end like that, even if it swings inward it would only provide and extra 2 inches of room, not worth the extra engineering.

A work mate of mine asked me if I could design a fold up work bench for his single car garage. The design brief was that he wanted a bench at the end of his garage he could fold up and place his motorbike in the space. This is what I came up with:

1. The 2 end sections are designed to be bolted to the wall, that's why there is no cross bracing between them.
2. The length of the bench is nominal and will be adjusted to suit the width of his garage.
3. The back section will be pegboard where he will hang his tools.
4. It has a cross piece that fits into a recess at the front that can be moved to the back when the top is folded up.
5. The size of the timber is also nominal, he will probably use 4x2.
6. To lock it down and lock it up it will have those .... ahhhhh..... bolt thingys with a spring... had brain fart.... can't think of it's proper name right now.

He thinks it is great but I would like to hear from you guys, does anyone have any suggestions on improvement?

Ha, I worked it out, I have SU7 on my laptop in my room but I am not allowed to connect it to the work network. I just saved the model as a SU6 file and then ran SU6 from my external HDD and uploaded it here:

That is a SU7 file, I only have SU6 so I can't comment. If you want a wider audience then upload it to the 3DWH, they will create the SU6 (and SU5) automagically. The just post the link to the 3DWH page, people will download the version they have.

I just received an e-mail that says:

@unknownuser said:

hey i'm in the tenth grade and for a project in carpentry i'm making another picnic table I've already made one with a friend but it was an eight foot table. now i was wonting to make one and looked on the internet and found you. and it seemed like you could help i looked and looked but could not find a picnic table big enough. i was thinking about 10 to 12 ft long and 3 1/2 feet wide do you think you can help me with some plans??

I did help them out. Since it was soooo dam long I added a support structure in the middle. Here is the 12 foot long version of the table:

So in the absence of being able to find good woodworking plans on the net I have borrowed a few woodworking books from the local library. One of them is "Build your own contemporary furniture" (ISBN number 1-55870-610-0) from plans published in the Popular Woodworking magazine.

I have made one model from the plans already:

The next plan I did was the Modern Console from that same book and it would not work, the measurements would not line up. I followed the directions and the cutlist but some pieces were too small and others were too large. I double checked all the measurements but I had to adjust quite a few pieces.

Now when making a SU model it is just a matter of a few clicks and hey presto the piece is bigger and actually reaches. In real life if you followed the cutlist you would have trim some pieces and to go get a new piece of timber because some pieces were too short.

I just goes to show that plans even from the pros like Popular Woodworking are not always perfect.

I see the answers to my question falling into 2 category's:

1. I don't have SU Pro and don't think I need it.
2. I do have SU Pro but the effort to setup dynamic components is not worth it.

It was a question I asked out of curiosity. I wasn't planning to buying Pro and I don't think I need to create Dynamic components, I just wanted to know if anyone was using DC's in woodworking models.

@gaieus said:

When I am making a website, I generally check it in all major browsers - mostly IE, FF, Opera and lately Safari (for Windows), too.

The best way to do that is use Firefox with the IETab plugin. You have the site open in two seperate tabs. Then just use the IETab switcher so that it uses the IE engine in one of the tabs.

I would love to buy Pro but I have no justification for it. I was wondering if there are any woodworkers here that have SUPro and take advantage of the Dynamic components.

I can imagine that you could use them for things like a bed. You stretch the bed to take it from a single to a double or a Queen and the lengths increase but not things like the mortise and tenons etc.

@rfritz said:

as well as my web site "CreeksideWoodshop.Com" along with the renderings. Ron

I had a look at your web site, it says "Best viewed in IE". It is ONLY useable in IE, I use Firefox and the menu system on the right does not work.

More and more people are using Firefox, that means less and less people are using IE, that means you site is alienating more and more people.

These are great models, I hope you don't mind but I have started to add your models to the "SketchUcation Woodworking" collection.

I just throught of a much easier way, create the shape. Then create your own material with the various widths and project it onto the shape.

If you don't have a decent graphics editor then you can always download The GIMP.

Well I am at home now and am able to use SU7, I don't think I should have because now I will miss the extra features of 7 when I go back to work in a week. Any who here is a simple model I knocked up in about 20 minutes because the on-line game I am addicted to is doing it's weekly server inspection and I can't play:

Limbert Wastebox

To do that in SU I would create a seperate component/group for each layer. I would then create the shape you wanted. Lay each component next to each other so that the entire volume of the shape is filled.

Edit the component, select all, then use intersect with model, erase the unwanted section. Do the same thing with the next component. Delete the shaped component. Save the file with a different name.

To do the next one open the original file, change the thickness of the coloured components. Make them line up again after the thickness change. Repeat the intersect/deleting that you did with the first one.

So are mine, we are what I term as "complete" modelers, the other type is "surface" modelers. There is also "hybrid" modelers that are somewhere in between, they will model the woodwork but the entire drawer is one piece instead of 5.

I have only had a quick look but what I saw leads me to believe that model and you others are very well made.

Here is one I started just after posting the last one. I did take a breaks but all up I would estimate about 4 hours work.

Six legged Huntboard:

Ok I have coloured this one:

Simple side chair:

BTW. You can click on the images to go to the 3DWH page for the model.