Garage Workbench

I've been eyeing up Sears work benches. They look to be laminates fastened to metal frame supports.

I asked in Lowes if they sold them and the guy, said no 'he built his own'. I guess for what they want for the sears I could buy a good table saw and the materials to build my own with money to spare.

The dimensions of the sears workbench are just right. It (the one I like) has a nice 8 ft run and a continuous worktop. But I haven't been ablet to find a piece of wood with the desired thickness and in one contiuous piece for the worktop. Lowes has pieces (precut) that come close but not as wide. Is there another way to get what I want. And what materials would be ideal for a garage workbench.

There must be plans floating around out there somewhere..

Thanks Chas

Reply to
in2-dadark
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Get a used or damaged solid core, Preferably stave core, door. I've thrown away and given away hundreds of doors. We made all new office furniture for one company with the demolition stave core black walnut doors, used them for ends, modesty panel, and top

Commercial doors are available in many sizes, but quite normal would be 3x7x1 3/4. Good doors already have hardwood stiles, or rim it out with your choice. A pair of short file cabinets will give you drawers and plenty of stability.

Bowling alley, especially the approaches, make good tops.

Reply to
DanG

I bought a 8 ft x 3 ft solid wood door from a building supplies recycling store. Makes an excellent work table. Has a varnished maple finish and weighs as solid heavy wood although I think its veneer maple.

Reply to
PaPaPeng

Only sissies "buy" workbenches. Real handymen or craftsman make their own. Mine is two sheets of 3/4" plywood laminated together. A little wood glue and th en screwed together from the bottom. Two thicknesses of MDF will be solid, but heavier.

For the legs, use 2 x 4's. Make an apron of 1 x 4's or 1 x 6's and set the top on that assembly. Put a full sized shelf on the bottom and it will be very rigid.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Do you want pretty, or do you want something you will be willing to scuff up? A 2x4 frame with a couple of cross-pieces for rigidity, and a piece of

3/4 plywood attached to top with countersunk screws, works well. And when top gets too beat up (like a real workbench should), you can easily flip it over or replace it. If you want a pretty edge, band the exposed sides with another piece of 2x4 or whatever. As to plans- just Google 'workbench plans'- there are bound to be some out there. Lotsa ways to do it, most will work okay. Really depends on your space and other available storage- my preference is to keep the space below bench clear, for easy cleanup, other than any needed cross-pieces to tie the end frames together. If you can attach to wall, sometimes those aren't even needed. My father built a 22'x2' bench along one side of a one-bay garage, under a bank of south-facing windows, held up by triangle-shaped wood brackets screwed off to every other stud. I can stand on it, and it doesn't wobble at all. I'm actually jealous- a much nicer setup than I can do here.

Those pretty butcher-block or whatever benches they sell at Sears, Sams, and similar places look nice- TOO nice. I'd spend all my time trying to avoid messing them up with whatever I was working on. A perfect-looking workbench, to me, is like those yuppie faux-gourmet kitchens in the magazines- meant for others to see. I've seen real restaurant kitchens- they look more like a real workshop. Not everything is new and shiny, everything doesn't match, and storage is placed where it works, not where it looks pretty.

aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

I have 2 workbenches, both using solid core doors. The one in my "hobby shop" is just the white composition material that is standard on a home depot door since this is not very destructive activity (computer building and such). The one in my garage shop is skinned with hardened masonite so when I bung it up it is easy to replace. I still get many years out of one skin, in spite of throwing transmissions and other nasty stuff on it. I usually also keep scraps of plywood on the bench for backstops when drilling, staining and other destructive activity.

Reply to
gfretwell

I have built several workbenches, mostly from plans then made modifications to suit my needs. Life Time books has some very good plans, check out books at your library.

Reply to
Phisherman

My workbench has a full width row of drawers just below the top, a full width shelf 12" off the floor, and pull-out bins that tuck under the shelf and just slide out on the floor. Instead of a door, I used a 4x8 sheet of 1-1/8" plywood for the top, and just stacked mass production small parts drawers on the back of the bench. I just used 1x oak for a perimeter band, but raised it 1/4" above the top of the bench, so little parts don't roll off and escape onto the floor.

Reply to
Larry Caldwell

The last one I made had to fit a somewhat narrow space next to the garage door. So it was custom built to my own sketch using used 2 by 6 lumber from a discarded deck. Overall cost virtually nil. Good and solid using screws to take engine parts. A four by four leg from an old gate-post at the end not supported by walls is under the corner mounted vise making it much safer to beat on something held in the vise. Shelves above are high enough to allow something 24 inches high to be worked on on the bench.

Benches are very much what you need them for. No one size/type fits all!

Completely different application downstairs; electronics bench is two used 6' 8" (13 foot total) doors, end to end, supported on a frame made from discarded steel shelving angle. No pounding on that one but fair amount of space with shelves not too far above for test gear.

Respectfully suggest that if anyone is capable of making things 'on' a work bench it would be a good exercise to build the bench itself as starting point.

A third bench was built quickly some 37+ years ago, while building this house, using scrapped wood from some shipping pallets. It now needs some repair and upgrading.

A fourth bench was found dumped; about four feet long, quite low but a convenient height for some tasks, it had been ingeniously made of pieces of cut off doors. Quite sturdy it mounts our largest/heaviest vise.

So; conclusion! Decide what the bench will be used for and then build it to that requirement. A gardener's potting bench need will be a completely different thing to that of an electronic enthusiast's!

Reply to
terry

I bought the wood (lowes calls it white wood.. so 'technical' they are) today for my workbench. I only have a camry, so I had to get it broken down for me. I had the 2x4's cut in half for the legs and I'll further knock them down to about 42 inches as I want a 43 inch finished level (like the fancy, smanzy one at sears)..

I got 5 (2x4's) of those and 5 -1x2x8's as well as a couple of 1x1x8's and 2- 1x12x8 for the top. I guess I'll just have to knudge them together as best I could (withe the 1x1's underneath) as I don't have a planer to butt them up to be glued. I want a 24 inch work surface.

With the screws and all I'm at about 50 bucks. Could have done better if I had a truck.

Another question is -should I stain the work bench. I guess it can't hurt? Or is there a better finish for a shop bench...?

I might as well do the individual pieces before I slap it together (?)..

TANKS Charles

Reply to
in2-dadark

I mentioned all this crap I bought because I was amazed I got it all in my car. When I was walking around with a dolly full of stuff I needed, I was thinking ...no way..

Reply to
in2-dadark

I used Watco Danish oil on my bench. It penetrates and hardens the wood, plus gives some protection. You can use just about any finish, even some older finishes you might otherwise toss out. Stain doesn't offer much protection, but is better than nothing at all.

Reply to
Phisherman

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