Another new workbench

April 14, 2009, 07:36:09 PM

Just so I don't derail chooglin's thread. He's not the only one with a new work bench :hick:

My need arose out of several things: First, the existing bench in my garage was becoming way too crowded - although 10' long and L-shaped, it was crowded by a drill press, grinder, bench vise, and parts washer. Second, the right hand side of the garage was becoming way too cluttered, with a few sheets of drywall, several bits of lumber, two 16' lengths of fiberglass covered plywood, three boxes of hardwood floor, a brand new 8X8 screen house that my father bought for the cottage and never installed, and a bunch of other stuff all piled up there. Basically most of the leftovers from the house renovation ended up there. And finally, I needed a bench to install some of the tools I'd received for Christmas over the past several years, including a pipe bender, sheet metal brake, metal bender, and 20-ton press. Most of this stuff was piled along the side of the garage along of the other stuff.

The new bench is 12' long. The framework is 2X4 lumber, the top was made out of one of the aforementioned lengths of fiberglass covered plywood. This wood actually used to be part of the sides of a U-Haul truck that a friend junked. It's 3/4" thich with 1/8" thick fiberglass bonded on each side. I totaled a saw blade cutting it, but got it cut. Makes a nice bench top: Smooth and strong.

Unlike Chooglin, I built AND cluttered my bench all in one day (I say this not poking fun at his speed of building his bench, but of his dread of cluttering it). Most of the stuff that was piled up against this wall is now piled up under the bench. The larger stuff that wouldn't fit under it was disposed of (it's been there three years, I got tired of looking at it). There is some serious weight on this bench. In addition to the tools on top of it (the mitre saw is not there permanently, I was just using it there), there are the three boxes of hardwood floor, two boxes of ceramic tile, some misc bits of wood, a pair of E7 heads, an HO upper & lower intake, and a pair of T-Bird tail lights.

The first pic shows the new bench. The second and third show the newly-aquired roominess of the garage with that bench in place. Before, you could not fully open the doors of the T-Bird without hitting the tool chest on the driver's side or the junk pile on the pass. side. Now both doors open fully with enough room to squeeze around them!

I've still got a small bench to build down where the snowblower is at on the bottom pic. That's where the old computer I've got will go with Mitchell OnDemand, and with my MP3 collection on it, to serve as a jukebox while I'm working out there.

Another new workbench

Reply #1 – April 14, 2009, 07:59:46 PM

Looks great!!!!!.where did you get the fiberglass coated plywood?

Another new workbench

Reply #2 – April 14, 2009, 08:08:59 PM

A friend of mine junked a U-haul van, and its box was made out of this plywood. I had asked him to save me the two lengths because I was gonna use them on a trailer I'd built, but decided against wood sides for the trailer because of the wind resistance it would have caused and went with stretch steel screen instead. The plywood has sat in the garage since, and I was wondering what to do with it because it was too good to throw away. I used one piece for the bench top, the other piece is outside the garage leaning against the wall. It's funny - the plywood is covered in lawyer stickers. Being a rental it's got all kinds of warnings about how a cube truck drives differently than a car, to use diesel fuel only, the maximum weight allowed in "mom's attic" (the space over the cab of the truck), etc. Those stickers are now part of my bench :hick:

Another new workbench

Reply #3 – April 14, 2009, 10:14:52 PM

Thats awesome. My dad had a bench nearly identical. You will probably want to put a couple of diagonal pieces of wood in there to stop the nails from coming out.