The Best Tools For Our Workstands

Now that we have more than the first workstand, there seems to be more need to assemble and disassemble the workstands. There are some tools that I use that have become almost indispensable. I thought I'd mention them here just as a matter of documentation.

Although other types of tools might be used, these work so well that I consider them essential for maintaining the workstand. A ratchet wrench with a 7/16 inch socket and an extension works best for the lag screws holding the wooden base together. Two (2) 1/2 inch enclosed end wrenches are used for the swing frame pivot shafts.

(Best Tools To Use)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]557167[/ATTACH]

I'm also working on a manual for the workstand, which may be used by others who might have occasion to use it. I'll post something about that very shortly, when it's done.

More soon,

John

I received a question on the post above, and realize I omitted the length of the socket wrench extension.

It isn't critical, but the extension shown is 6 inches. If you have one, I think a 12 inch extension is even better. The longer the extension, the easier it is to spin the wrench around, holding the extension in one hand, letting it slip, to help keep the wrench stable.

More soon,

John

Socket? check
extension? check
ratchet? check
wrenches? check

Cari

I will print the tool suggestions out and take it to my friendly local hardware store...probably hubby has these yet won't want them to disappear down the rabbit hole of my workroom.

BASEBOARD DEVELOPMENT

We now have a total of seven baseboards for use with the workstand. I'm taking pictures for the manual I'm writing and thought I'd post it here, too. I got the Kenmore board done only recently, so this is the first picture of the whole group together. It shows the versatility of the workstand.

(Selection of Baseboards)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]557270[/ATTACH]

(A) Singer Universal (Light Gray) - This baseboard will fit a great majority of machines that you encounter. It was the standard for Singer sewing machines for more than half a century, as well as a great number of clones and even competitive manufacturers to Singer, such as Necchi, Brother and many of the Japanese clones.

(B) Kenmore (Army Green) - This baseboard will fit most Kenmore machines. They can be identified by looking at he corners, which are more square than other machines.

(C) White (White) - This baseboard will fit many older White machines. The machines this baseboard fits may be identified by their more rounded corners, having a larger radius.

(D) Singer Three-Quarter (Light Green) - The three-quarter sizes of Singers and some other manufacturers may fit into this board. The cutout, as the name implies, is smaller than the standard size sewing machine.

(E) Singer 221 Featherweight (Yellow) - This baseboard fits the popular Featherweight, made by Singer. The shape and size of the machine never changed over the many years that it was manufactured and this baseboard will fit any of them. This baseboard has a different method of securing the machine to the swing frame, using its own specialized crossbar.

(F) Singer VS-2 (Light Blue) - This baseboard was made for a VS-2 machine we acquired. It is specific only to that machine, so it sees little use.

(G) Weed (Black) - This is a baseboard made for a very old Weed sewing machine that we have. Similar to above, it only sees use with this particular Weed machine.

More soon,

John

Beautiful!
The colors themselves make a nice palette!

John, This thead is a major reason I joined QB. Great stuff. Haven't fired up to build anything yet, but considering it.

Nice!!!! That's fantastic!

leonf and CatD,

Welcome to QuiltingBoard and thank you for your interest in the thread.

This thread has sort of evolved over time. With its eighteen meandering pages, I'm afraid Its not as well organized for newcomers as it could be. If anyone is thinking of building a workstand with these plans, I'd almost suggest reading the thread backwards, since there are improvements shown in more recent pages.

We monitor views for this thread. It would be nice if there was a feature to let us know who was looking. So thank you for posting. If there is anything I can do to help, just ask.


MANUAL

I just finished a first draft of a manual for the workstand. It covers assembly and precautions in use, in several sections with pictures.

Other people have expressed an interest in using the workstand. When the prototype was all that there was, this wasn't practical.

Now that there is more than one workstand, this becomes more practical and I'd like to have a manual available. I set up sort of a portrait shot of the workstand. It features an Anker machine we got recently. Not only is it a new brand of machine to me, but it's nice and shiny, making it a good subject to photograph.

(Workstand and Manual)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]557750[/ATTACH]


John

Pretty machine, and check out that pic, you're looking all professional now. :thumbup:

Cari