Luckily all of my tools are already mobile, but my mobile bases are thrown together and take up a lot of space for their lack of utility. For example, the miter saw stand I made last year shortly after getting the saw. It’s basically a gigantic sawhorse that I made a box I could mount my saw to, and a moveable support. It’s footprint is 8’ by 30” so it takes up way too much space.

So, with all of my overtime I’ve been working lately, I got the go-ahead to build my own Ultimate Tool Stand! Now, I have to give credit to this page http://www.christophermerrill.net/ww/plans/UTS/Tool_Stand_1.html for inspiration. I used the basic design, but modified the dimensions to better fit my needs. I wanted to make mine the full 8’ lenth of my MDF sheets… Partially because I didn’t want to manhandle and cut that stuff any more than needed, but mostly because I wanted more storage space.

Here’s the carcass after the first two days of work:

I decided to see what spraypaint would look like on the thing… I’ve never painted (or even worked with MDF before) so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Even using ‘primer’ spraypaint didn’t work so well.

I gave up on the spray paint idea and go a gallon of primer and a gallon of flat white exterior house paint. After a week of painting an hour at a time in the evenings (between getting home from work and going to bed) I finally had it looking pretty good. This weekend, I built the tops which are made of mdf and plywood. I put two coats of poly on the plywood with sanding in between. I put the mdf together with glue and screws, painted, and let them dry. I mounted the whole 2’ x 4’ plywood sheet to the MDF boxes with screws. I then ran the whole box through my tablesaw to get the channels perfectly straight. There was probably a better way to do that, but I couldn’t think of it.

I wouldn’t call it done, but it’s at a good spot where I can start using it for it’s intended purposes of being an organizational tool center, and a work bench. I still have to make the center table piece which will be a downdraft table on one side and another set of clamp slots on the other. I will also be building drawers for the small slots in the top and a couple for the section in the middle.

Now to clean the garage… =(

So here it is…

To call it a mess at this point would be a gross understatement. When we moved in the fall it was a catch-all for things we couldn’t find a place for. Over the winter I had it cleaned once, but a few hurried projects without heat meant it ended in an extensive state of upheaval. You can’t see in this picture, but there is another garage door out of the frame to the right. The door on the left goes to the back yard.

I have a lot of good plans for this summer. I’m going to clean everything out, and get rid of all of the current built-ins. I want to insulate the walls, doors, and ceiling. I’m going to start putting up walls, though I’m not sure exactly what I want. I was thinking birch ply with vertical trim strips (like wood siding). There are new built-ins I want to build too.

We’ll see if I can just get it insulated for this winter… any bets?

Anyway, we have traditional couches, no recliners, and a very hard/pointy coffee table. And to be honest I like having a coffee table MOST of the time. But there are times where I really would rather just have something soft to rest my feet on.

I could throw some pillows on the coffee table because lord knows we have enough of them on the couch. What’s up with twenty pillows on the couch anyway? Unfortunately the coffee table is really too tall to put your feet on to begin with, and it’s sometimes hard to see over my toes.

So… I want an ottoman and a coffee table without needing two pieces of furniture.

Everything in dark brown would be made of hard wood, while the light brown would be 1/2” ply. The dowels are colored just to stand out.

That red thing on top is my lame SketchUp attempt at a cushion.

It would have flanged slots on each end to support the top as it flipped over. Some sort of roller would be attached to the top at one edge so that the top would act like a lid, or could be lifted to vertical, rolled to the other edge, and laid flat on the other side revealing the opposite face.

At 6’ long and 30” wide I believe it should be large enough to accommodate anything either piece of furniture should. There are supports on either edge to support the lid, though I’m not sure how much support will be needed if the kids start jumping on it. The storage compartment will be lined with rib supports across the bottom, but even with those this thing would not fare well to be overloaded with magazines and book, but blankets and pillows would be supported wonderfully.

The first problem I run into is that I have just over 1000 square foot per floor. I’m not sure I can handle ripping 35 pieces of plywood and running over 200 pieces through the tongue and groove process. Let’s not forget finishing 1000 square foot of plywood seems like a daunting task.

My second problem is the cost of plywood. Even on a recent sale (todays Menard’s ad HAR HAR) A1 Maple was $70 a sheet which works it’s way to just over $2.33 a square foot (since you lose 2 square foot per sheet in tongue material if you’re getting 6 8” strips and making 1/2” tongues). Even the B1 grade at $47 works it’s way to $1.56 per square foot. And don’t get my started on Cherry ($3.33 sqft) and Walnut ($3.67 sqft). And even after ripping and tongue and grooving all of the material it will still need finishing!

I’m just wondering if it’s a worthwhile project, or if I would be better off getting pre-finished hardwood flooring at Lumber Liquidators for $3.00-4.00 a square foot.

Even after all of the things telling me to not do it, I’m still considering it. Not to be cheap, but more to have my hand in the house and have more impressive stories to tell about it (I’m a bit of a showoff when it comes to my handywork).

What do you guys think about using plywood as flooring?

Is it economical or worthwhile?

Are there any benefits other than being able to say you did it yourself?

What grade would you suggest using to keep it looking nice but bring the cost down to make it more economical?

Anyway, we’re remodeling our whole main floor and I would like to put two non-stationary booths in the newly opened-up kitchen.

Once again, this should be a very sturdy piece.

I had wider boards on the top of the table so that it would share the same look with the benches (4 boards across with one at each end) but she wanted the boards to be similar size rather than scaled up. I’m not sure I’m keen on it yet.

The benches are fairly similar to the entryway bench from my previous blog, but has several significant modifications.

I’m not sure exactly how I want to carry out the joints between the back legs and the backrest support. The angle is a bit awkward to go with a dovetail, but I want something that looks nice.

The top is similar to the first, but I’ve changed to to include less angle cuts. I’m still very fresh to woodworking and while I don’t doubt my ability to properly measure and cut angles, I would rather focus on my joinery and finishing techniques than worry about angles.

So, I’ve straightened out the legs, added stretchers across the bottom of the legs, and added a shelf of sorts for shoes and whatever else fits.

Here is a bottom view to show the stretchers/support build up on the underside. The support is probably overkill, but I really like solid, heavy furniture.

I may switch the through-tenons under the seat from the long stretchers to the short ones to be consistent with the next piece I’m going to post.

She showed me a couple styles that she likes, and I’ve put some thoughts together.

First, she wants it to look antique, so I’m thinking a distressed finish over dark stained pine.

The stretchers will be full-size through-tenons. I’m not sure what to do with attaching the top to the legs (always a problem of mine) but I’m thinking of going a very different route and finding some large bolts (3/4” ?) and counter-sinking them into the bench top.

This last picture is just to show some sample measurements.

Questions:
1) What are your thoughts on attaching the legs to the bench top?
2) What is a good way to get a distressed finish? Does it just take time and a little controlled chaos?

However, this project is going to be seen through to completion as I need a workbench in my shop for future projects I probably won’t finish.

I’ve scoured books, magazines, and the internet to come up with a good vision of what I think I need in my bench.

• My current shop is 10’x20’ so space is at a premium. I feel that somewhere between 6’x2’ and 6’x3’ is the ideal size.
• I’m rammy, and can usually find a way to mess anything up so I would like an easily replaceable hardboard top.
• I want my bench to be rigid and heavy.
• I would like to have two perpendicular clamp vises.
• I would like to learn/practice some techniques such as mortise and tenon joinery, and get some time in on my new power tools.
• I want to make most of it with cheap lumber since it’s my first bench.

I’ve done some work in SketchUp (which I’m still learning) and came up with a design that seems to meet my needs. This is a rough version as not everything is to size.

Here we see the bench I’ve started designing. There should be a good bit of support with the 3.5×3.5 legs and large and plentiful stretchers mortised through. As you’ll notice I didn’t put any hardware on the vises.

In this picture I’ve removed the top layers to show the cross supports that would run through the inside sort of like a torsion box, though not complete. I’ve also put in support for the dogs. If you notice, they aren’t all evenly spaced, though I hope for them to be in the final version.

This picture I had a little fun with some textures. I would like to build most everything out of standard lumber from the box store including a top and bottom made of MDF and a sacrificial surface made of hardboard.

I’ve learned, in the process of trying to figure out workbenches, that there are a lot of styles out there. Nobody wants to show you how they’ve attached the legs to the table. I now know what the rows of holes are for.

Any thoughts on how I could improve on this design to better meet my needs.