My workshop makeover #2: Bench tops beginning...

Well…since we built the shed…it has been tough to find multiple days in a row to get shop time…between visitors and our own travels I have had a day here and a day there…but I have made lots of progress and tomorrow I hope to finish my first table top for the new miter station…

Since my last entry I have:
1) moved 95% of “the “non-shop stuff” out of my garage…so now it is A SHOP…
2) put up shelves in the shed for all that stuff…
3) sorted through all my lumber and organized it neater so that I can for the first time in several years exit my shop to the RIGHT of my work bench…
4) moved out my sawhorses and put the new (old) cabinets i acquired for free into the places they will stay…I can now go all the way around them…
5) purchased lumber for 3 tables—-I went the cheap route for the table tops 2×4’s that I am standing up for maximum thickness and strength…
6) cut all the 2×4’s for the three tables—-two small tables that will make my miter station along the wall.
7) 6 foot long table in the middle (end) which will rest on top of the two larger cabinets i acquired…
8) Today I had time to trim the tops off the 2×4’s off the top edge….and I then used my jointer to smooth the face of each side so that when I glue them up their will be no gap…
9) after that I glued up the table top of the one smaller table…I am gluing up the smallest sections first so that I can learn from each attempt.
10) for example in the first picture you see three small glue ups that I did a few days ago…I did these first so htat I can learn and get practice for the bigger and bigger pieces…these three pieces will actually be the dividers on my new bench—-so it will have to halves and these will provide tool “bins” (for lack of better word)...

Here is the cabinet and table top BEFORE i trimmed, surfaced and glued it up…i set all the wood on each table so that I could get a real feel for how the shop will look with each table done…IT LOOKS GOOD!!!

This last picture is to show how big the shop is with NOTHING in it…but the benches and my SHOPSMITH…which i can turn in ANY direction and still be working INSIDE my shop…all my stuff that had been spread out on my “old bench” (plywood on top of sawhorses) is now in the cabinet drawers…

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...