# Workbench construction question...



## Revrand1 (May 23, 2011)

Hi,

I am fairly new to woodworking and I have a question about general workbench construction.

I'm in the planning phases of building a large workbench/assembly table for my basement workshop. Because the shop it will occupy now will definately not be its permanent home, I am planning to build it so I can take it appart and have it be fairly easily to move.

The question: Should I use lag bolts and nuts to join the legs/top etc.. or should I use lag screws? 

I have built a few basic benches already (2x4) just using deck screws, but none of them would need to be "broken down" when the time comes to go. 

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Steve (My profile name is a nick name I got from a previous job :smile


----------



## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*You said...*

Quote: The question: Should I use lag bolts and nuts to join the legs/top etc.. or should I use lag screws?

You probably meant cap screws (bolts) and nuts or lag bolts/screws. The terminology is a little confusing! 
A bolt has evenly spaced threads and is meant to be use with a threaded faster , a tapped hole or nut.
A lag screw/bolt has a coarse tapered thread which is meant to be screwed into a softer substrate like wood, where it can create it's own threads. 
In my opinion either will work fine. Use washers in either case to distribute the compression forces over as great an area as possible. A workbench could use either 5/16" or 3/8" dia bolts.
The heavier "deck screws", not drywall screws will also work fine. Use an impact driver to drive and seat them, square heads are best!
Remember the joint itself has no resistence to "racking" if it's free to rotate. Any braces or plywood panels on the sides or back will prevent racking in those directions. A bolted triangle is a fixed joint, a bolted rectangle will collapse under force. Hope this helps.  bill


----------



## papagreg (Jan 4, 2011)

My suggestion would be to use draw bolt joinery. This will allow you to disassemble and reassemble easily and allow you to adjust for seasonal changes that can sometimes loosen joints and cause racking. http://eberhardt.bz/GME_Wood_Land/G...ues_Information/Joinery/3_Draw_Bolt_Joint.pdf


----------



## amckenzie4 (Apr 29, 2010)

I'm also building a new bench, and I was planning to use either draw bolts or lag screws. As it turned out, my father left half a box of 6" Timberlok fasteners at my house that he didn't want, so I've been using those... they're certainly easy to use! I'm not using them anywhere where weight is critical (everything is designed so that cross-pieces rest on the verticals, and are basically only use for spacers), but they do a fantastic job of tightening joints. Where my cuts were square, so is the final product. Where my cuts were off, well... so is the final product. 

In theory, they should be at least as strong as lag screws, but I'm not sure how well they'd do for repeated removal and re-application. Given the need for that, I'd probably go with draw bolts instead.


----------



## Locodcdude (Oct 24, 2010)

For my workbench I just have a 2x4 frame screwed to the wall with a 1/2" plywood top and then 1/8" hardboard on the very top. Nothing special or expensive. Once I get out of this shop, and into the next one, I'll be making a solid maple work bench that you typically see in a lot of wood shops.


----------



## Jordan (May 22, 2011)

It depends on your design, I would use nuts bolts and washers as screws may have a tendency to strip out of soft wood with the racking forces experienced by benches used for a wide variety of work. You could get fancy and use through tenons and wedges.


----------



## woodmeistro (Jul 9, 2010)

I recently completed a work bench for my shop, but I built a hybrid. I like to weld, so i made a frame from 2x2 steel tubing and put a 3'' oak top on it with a veratis twin screw vise on the end. It is extremely solid and suprisingly lite. I am able to easily remove the top if I need to so it is seaier to move


----------



## RetiredLE (Jan 20, 2011)

One option would be to get a metal leg work bench similar to this one and put a two by four/plywood sheet top on it. It is pretty easy to disassemble when the time comes to move it.

The one pictured I got from Grizzly and it assembles with nuts and bolts.


----------



## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

Revrand1 said:


> I'm in the planning phases of building a large workbench/assembly table for my basement workshop. Because the shop it will occupy now will definately not be its permanent home, I am planning to build it so I can take it appart and have it be fairly easily to move.


I would suggest nuts, threaded bolts, and washers, since you want it to come apart. I wouldn't use lag screws or deck screws, as you could lose the integrity of a previous mounting hole. 

In using threaded bolts, you could use *tee nuts* in lieu of nuts. That would eliminate the need for one nut and one washer on each fastener (less hardware to keep track of). Installing tee nuts is easy. I first use a *spade bit* (AKA wood boring bit), slightly larger in diameter than the head of the tee nut, to recess enough wood to have the thickness of the top of the tee nut to be flush (or below the surface). The spade bit will leave a center pilot that you use for drilling the hole for the diameter of the sleeve of the tee nut. When the tee nut gets tapped into place and the bolt gets inserted and pulls up tight, the tee nut stays in place and will not come loose on its own.

I would suggest using at a minimum of two fasteners per connection, three would be better. Multiple fasteners provides a few points to minimize movement of the pieces to each other. Adding to the joining of two pieces would be a gusset, which can be as simple as a triangulated piece of wood added to the fastenings creating a stronger link to the connecting pieces.












 







.


----------



## Gerry KIERNAN (Apr 20, 2007)

I am not familiar with the term "draw bolts", but that might be a reference to what I refer to as carriage bolts. These are the rounded head bolt with a short squared shank under the head. I like to use them any where the bolt heads will protrude, as there are no sharp corners or edges to catch on. I would definitely go with bolts for anything that I was planning to take down for moving. You might also consider putting the bench on casters, and making it narrow enough to fit through doorways. If you could roll it around you might not have to take it all apart to move.

Gerry


----------



## Revrand1 (May 23, 2011)

Thanks for the input. This is what I had invisioned when I posted the question and is likely the way I will go. Your feedback helped confirm my notions. Its going to be a large bench (36' x 96) and the legs assemblies will be 4x4 construction with notches. I will post pictures when completed!


----------



## acducey (Jul 29, 2011)

I modified a plan from Fine WW by Cecil Braden entitled 'Rock-Solid Plywood Bench' that has heavy-duty five-layer laminated legs and a frame that can be taken apart for moving fairly easily. I don't remember in what issue it first appeared; it was reprinted in a 1998 FWW special publication called 'Workshop Solutions' and in may still be available on their website.


----------

