The Great Garage Reorganization and Shop Improvement Act #10: The workbench

Well, I finally completed the workbench. This was based on the Torsion Box Workbench from Shop Notes magazine July 2010.

The construction for this was going along nicely until I inadvertently drilled the wrong size dog holes in the edging! Luckily I was able to rip the edges off using the table saw and make new ones.

The top was sized to fit the mobile shop cart underneath for storage. Although it seems I won’t be storing it away very often, it is nice to have the option.

The vise is from Harbor Freight since I couldn’t fathom spending the amount of money the name brands require. I do see a difference in quality, but it works well enough for my hobby-only requirements. Plus, it even has a quick release.

All in all, not too bad. I covered the thing with Tung oil to have some kind of finish on it and I plan to add a second coat to the top later today (maybe a third eventually).

So here is how the shop is shaping up. This is the usual layout when I’m working, but since I’ve been working so much on the shop and not on other projects, things may change a little.

The pegboard is getting filled up and I have been making a few specialty racks for the pegboard. I plan on making a bunch more, so I’ll have another blog entry detailing some of those. I will also be changing the layout on the pegboard as I get some more things accomplished. I think I may be working on some woodworking projects next (finally!) so updates on the shop may be a while in coming. But who knows, there may be some other upgrade that I just have to have done in order to work efficiently.