Assembly Bench Completed

[Leon]

A week or so back I posted pictures of the workbench/assembly table that I was building and finally today I am just about finished. I'm debating whether to add 2 attachment bolts to hold the two units together.

I elected to not drill the 32,548 holes in the top.... My Festool work table has enough. ;~)

The legs. With material storage on the wings that stick out.

All set up with a full sheet of plywood on top.

I jumped up to sit in the middle of one side. Not a sound did I hear....

[DerbyDad03]

How heavy is each section? Where will you keep them when the table isn't being used?

[Leon]

Thank you.

Weight, not sure. Probably 50 ish. Lbs each. Light enough for me to pick up in the middle and carry around by my self. Think about the weight of a single sheet of 1/2" plywood. Just a little more than that. Because the sides, ends, and inner supports have the middles cut out they are just a few pounds total. Each section is 20"x96".

I think I will be standing them on their ends at a wall just behind the end of the garage door support rail. I have 9' ceilings in my garage so that should not be an issue.

[krw]

The ceiling of a garage is a good place for a lot of this sort of thing.

[dpb]

...

I had wondered the purpose of the wings in the construction photos earlier...

Flat assembly surfaces are always near priceless--what's the height; I made mine somewhat lower so a 30" or so piece on top wasn't out of reach or such a strain to reach...but they weren't nearly so fancily-built, either! :)

[Leon]

I used to store stuff like that way up there, total PIA, plus my cieling are 12~16" taller now.

[Leon]

Pre-cicely! Worthe their weight in gold!

-what's the height; I mentioned earlier 50 lbs ish but maybe less, The top and bottom on one side add up to 40" x 96". All vertical pieces are hollowed put, 2 long on the sides and 5 shot perpendicular to the sides. Just a hair over the weight od a full sheet of 1/2" ply. Light enough to not be concerned about setting up and breaking down by my self.

I

I wanted large the large flat area as a work surface. I assemble FF's and I want them to be flat. This should work for those. IIRC this is about 39" tall.

A close look and this ain't so fancy, no sir! ;~) I was not going for purdy so much as functional.

I will say the blue nylon webbing/straps to replace hinges and to limit the splay of the legs works surprisingly well. I think I got 25' of it for $11.

[Leon]

Forgot to address in my precious response.

The top wing, if you will notice, extends out a few inches further than the lower wings.

It extends past the side of the work surface so that I can have a place to put my track with parallel guides. It is normally an issue finding a place to put it when working with multiple sheets of plywood.

[krw]

I used to store all my ladders hanging from the ceiling. I had pulleys and lines for each one to help put them away. Worked well.

[krw]

See? The fishing works. ;-)

I like it. A lot! How do you deal with cutting the top of the bench?

I built my cutting bench on a solid-core door with a sheet of 3/4" MDF just sitting on top, held in place by side rails 1/4" shy of the surface. I'm not short on space so portability wasn't important. It's on casters but it never moves more than a foot or two.

[-MIKE-]

Flat surface doors make great make-shift work surfaces. I've been known to buy hollow core cheapies for on-site work benches. Dead flat, light, cheap.

[DerbyDad03]

I've picked up a few hollow core door over the years 'cuz I kept hearing that they are "Dead flat, light, cheap". Maybe it's the doors I've tried 'cuz I only get 2 out of 3 and dead flat ain't one of them.

This style:

The lower face of the main one in the picture is convex, the other one (on the right) is concave, as shown here:

I've tossed 2 or 3 more that were also not flat.

On the flip side, last week I ran across a local place on Offer-Up that has dozens of salvaged workbenches of all shapes and sizes. Some workbench tops without legs also. The guy was tossing around prices of $50 for tops, up to $150 for complete benches. I wasn't dressed to dig around and crawl through a salvage warehouse and I didn't have a straightedge with me anyway, but I' ll be going back.

[-MIKE-]

Maybe it's a regional thing and I'm sure it varies by lot, but the ones I've gotten have pretty darn nice. Also, I guess "dead flat" is relative to the context and applications. I don't mean dead flat like a granite machinists table. I mean dead flat for portable work surfaces when compared to a couple

2x4s sitting across sawhorses with a sheet of whatever on top.

[Leon]

I kept full sheets of plywood up there. ;~(

[Leon]

LOL

Well preciousely I cut on top of a grid of 2x4's and they were not flat like this. I used a sheet of foam insulation board between sheets to take the blade hit.

Ron Paulk, just uses thin strips of scrap plywood under the cut and to support the keeper and waste side. I'm going to try that.

If room was no object..... ;~) Your method sounds great.

[Leon]

And that is a great use of those cheapie doors too. LOL

I finally wanted something 96" long and wider, 40". I can sit in the middle of these torsion box sections and I get about 1/16" deflection.

[krw]

You said your bench top wasn't as heavy as a sheet of plywood. Didn't the plywood sag? I wouldn't think that would be a good way to store sheet goods.

[krw]

I've used 2x4s, too, but they're all twisted differently. Kinda defeats the purpose of a flat top. Foam insulation board had crossed my mind but foam is a PITA to get rid of.

Nice idea. At least they'll lie flat.

No object at all. As long as it stays in the basement, SWMBO doesn't object. ;-) It's my 2000ft^2+ man cave. ;-)

[Leon]

Well the piece I have has the aluminum skin on both sides. There is little to no foam escaping. But after using this piece for about 7 years it is getting to where it dies not lay flat. Seems to want to bow on the side that has the most cuts. BUT it tends to be kinda easy to break and can be a PIA.

Yeah, but who has scraps. LOL

That is like my whole house. LOL.

[Leon]

I had a support system made up of 2x4's that had an interior opening of

54" wide and spaced 2' apart for 8'. The plywood would have had to bow between the 2' spans. And I mostly had 3/4" sheet goods up there. AND that was in a 2 car garage above the garage door.