Project Information
Finally finished my new work bench. Because of space issues I wanted a bench I could roll out onto the middle of the garage floor and then roll out of the way when it's time to put the car away.
I got the idea for this design when I was at an Industrial Liquidator sale. They had this nice sturdy 24"x60" steel table already on casters and I thought that might make a good base for a mobile workbench. Cost was $60 but I ended up spending a little more to replace the casters with a locking version.
The steel table was too low and even with the thickenss of the wood table top, wouldnt be the height that I wanted. So the first I thing I did was build a frame out of plain old 2×4's which I sized so the table height would end up just slightly under the height of my table saw, my thinking being that if the bench is portable, why not use it as a side table on the saw when I'm cutting bigger pieces.
After reading a couple of blogs about making workbenches I decided to purchased the hardrock maple table top from Grizzly (1 3/4×30"x72") rather than make my own, primarily becasue of time constraints. The top from Grizzly was very nice and very flat and the price was reasonable. It had a polymer finish which I ended up sanding off. The only other thing I didnt care for was the edges were slightly rounded but that ended up not being a big deal.
I mounted the table top to the frame and steel table by through drilling the steel table and frame and then using lag bolts and washers to secure the table top.
I purchased some hardrock maple for the sides and vise (1 3/4×6 1/4) cut it to length and after putting some bench dog holes in one long side, I doweled three of the sides onto the top.
I had purchased a veritas twin screw vise and followed their instructions on making the two vise jaws and then mounting them.
Using a plunge router I put a pattern of 3/4" bench dog holes in the top to finish the job. Since I want to use the table for other things, and I dont want small parts falling through the bench dog holes, I purchased some ABS hole plug caps. They seem to work pretty good. They have a slight dome shape but not enough to cause me problems. They fit snugly in the holes and since they are ABS, they dont seem to leave marks in the wood. I just use a paint scraper to remove the caps when I want to use my bench dogs.
Jeff T
I got the idea for this design when I was at an Industrial Liquidator sale. They had this nice sturdy 24"x60" steel table already on casters and I thought that might make a good base for a mobile workbench. Cost was $60 but I ended up spending a little more to replace the casters with a locking version.
The steel table was too low and even with the thickenss of the wood table top, wouldnt be the height that I wanted. So the first I thing I did was build a frame out of plain old 2×4's which I sized so the table height would end up just slightly under the height of my table saw, my thinking being that if the bench is portable, why not use it as a side table on the saw when I'm cutting bigger pieces.
After reading a couple of blogs about making workbenches I decided to purchased the hardrock maple table top from Grizzly (1 3/4×30"x72") rather than make my own, primarily becasue of time constraints. The top from Grizzly was very nice and very flat and the price was reasonable. It had a polymer finish which I ended up sanding off. The only other thing I didnt care for was the edges were slightly rounded but that ended up not being a big deal.
I mounted the table top to the frame and steel table by through drilling the steel table and frame and then using lag bolts and washers to secure the table top.
I purchased some hardrock maple for the sides and vise (1 3/4×6 1/4) cut it to length and after putting some bench dog holes in one long side, I doweled three of the sides onto the top.
I had purchased a veritas twin screw vise and followed their instructions on making the two vise jaws and then mounting them.
Using a plunge router I put a pattern of 3/4" bench dog holes in the top to finish the job. Since I want to use the table for other things, and I dont want small parts falling through the bench dog holes, I purchased some ABS hole plug caps. They seem to work pretty good. They have a slight dome shape but not enough to cause me problems. They fit snugly in the holes and since they are ABS, they dont seem to leave marks in the wood. I just use a paint scraper to remove the caps when I want to use my bench dogs.
Jeff T