Workbench Upgrade

Nice Table, love the tread involved !!!

Welcome

-- Pat - Worker of Wood, Collector of Tools, Father of one

looks solid

-- Life is enjoyable especially when you borrow from people

I would find a saw table height too low for a bench, although I’m on the tall side.

And looking at those plans, I would have pocket-screwed (and glued) the edging. It would be stronger and more attractive, IMO.

And why MDF for the top layer of the bench? I see that fairly often, but I’m not sure why MDF is a better work surface than plywood. I suppose it does save you from buying a decent grade of plywood for the top face.

The real question is whether you’re going to lose your shelf when your son suddenly remembers about his bike jump :-).

I used the same plans for my workbench, except I bought a 30”x60” maple top from Woodcraft. It really is a rock-solid design for a bench.

My only real panic was after dry-fitting it all together to make sure the tenons would fit together was late one night trying to glue up four tenons from the two stretchers into two of the back legs. After slathering up everything in glue the last tenon got stuck half way in. I started to panic when the glue was really starting to set up. No matter how much I wailed on it with a 2lbs dead blow rubber mallet that tenon just wouldn’t budge.

I ran out to the truck and grabbed some of those 12’ long 3” wide ratchet web straps from Harbor Freight. Strung two sets of two together to go around the top and bottom stretchers. And another two strung together diag to square things up & used the ratchets to pull the stuck tenon home and pull EVERYTHING together square. But to break the stuck tenon free I REALLY had to ratchets things tight to get it to move.

Next time I’ll used the extended time version of Tite-Bond.

-Dave

-- I'm not old. Just "well seasoned".

I personally used MDF since it is more flat and heavier than plywood. Just my opinion, but it seems to be a fairly common sentiment. Also, it doesn’t seem to dent as easily since it is more dense.

-- David from Indiana --

Great looking bench.
I bet you get a ton of use out of it!

-- Eric

Nice looking bench.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

Nice bench! Thanks for sharing.

-- Glen - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Nice bench

-- Norman

a good Bench ,it should last a long time.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

this turned out good, any plans for some dog holes?

-- David - Houston, Texas. (http://www.justsquareenough.com/)

Yeah, I need to put in some dog holes. I was so excited to be done putting it together that I didn’t realize I wasn’t actually ‘done’.

As far as the MDF goes, I was just following the plans since I had no thoughts one way or the other about it. I do like that it is perfectly smooth – which makes moving things around on the top very nice. My last ‘bench’ surface was just rough plywood and there is a huge difference between that and MDF, but a higher grade plywood might be fine. The cost for the MDF is very attractive too, compared to a hardwood top.

-- Steopa

that’s hilarious; I just finished commenting on your mitre stand which I built the same one; then I see your bench which is identical to the one I made a couple months ago. You have good taste in projects!

-- Rob, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Great design!! I think I’ll build one like this.