My workbench

This is the supposedly ”$100 workbench in a weekend” from a Shop Notes article last year. It ended up costing about twice that, even at about half the size of the bench in the article, and built with redwood rather than hardwood. The original was 7 1/2 feet long and just under three feet deep. I modified all the dimensions so my bench is 4’ 4” by 2’ 4”, since it has to fit in my very small one car garage with a lot of other stuff. It’s built with redwood and MDF. After I finished it, I was able to find a good deal on a quick-release woodworker’s vise, and installed that as well. (The first picture shows the vise in the process of being installed – the jaws are poplar, which I’ll replace with a piece of maple I have since bought.)

I’m most proud of the “cloud lift” pattern I made on the end pieces of MDF – it was the first time I’d done pattern routing. (With my router I got for Christmas 2006.)

The bench has wheels attached to one set of legs that I can use by tilting up the other end. However, it’s so heavy that this is not really feasible (the top is four layers of MDF!) so my next workshop project is to add an additional set of wheels ala the ones Norm Abrams showed on a workbench project on a NYWS episode, where the wheels drop down when you lift the end of the bench and get locked down with some hinged pieces of wood. I haven’t quite figured out how to attach them yet, and they’ll probably hide my cloud lift, sadly.

-- Nils Davis, Menlo Park, CA