Work Bench

There has been a lot said here about the space we use to work. As per a recent forum on the subject of benches, I just recently finished my bench.

I went with yellow pine as my main building material here. Despite what most people say, it actually makes a very hard and forgiving top for the space. There are 10 2×4s laminated top to bottom to make the top and I used two more plus a 2×6 to make the tray. That was part one. It sat on a couple of plastic saw horses for about three months before I moved onto the base. I flattened it out best I could with a 8in plane (bought for me from Westlake [got to love family gifts]) and eventually my Ryobi power hand planer. Made a nice surface. Also, before I made the base, I had two cheap vise grips, one on the end and one on the opposite front, for holding lumber. Those got taken off in hopes of replacing them with a stouter one later.

The base is 2x wood as well. Most of it I got at 7ft lengths for $1.50 at HD. It wasn’t grade A but fished through an entire batch of it to get the best dozen I could find. Parts are held together with the regular nuts and bolts in the joints. Nothing fancy there. The nicest part is the piece of birch plywood I had laying around that became the bottom shelf.

The height is taller than most people have recommended to me. I have worked on the just-below-the-hip height and found that I kept having back pains. So, this one is just barely higher than a kitchen cabinet. So far, my back has thanked me. To each his own, I guess…

Going Forward:

I hope to eventually build some drawers for underneath on one side to store hand tools and other fun nick-knacks. When I do that, I may try to seal up the wood with poly or something else just to keep it nice. I probably should do that soon since my basement is prone to leaking during the wet seasons.

She ain’t pretty, but she sure holds up to some pounding!

-- Happy Ripping!!!