# First Workbench - Custom Design



## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

Hey Guys,

Figured I'd start up this thread as I'm right in the middle of the project. I have the typical problems with space that many of us face and needed to design a mobile workbench for my garage since we park both cars in it at night.

The workbench is roughly 48" long, 29" deep and around 36" tall with the locking casters installed (going from memory at the moment). I spent quite a long time thinking about design before I began construction so I hopefully won't run into too many brick walls along the way. Should have some early-stage photos coming soon.


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

Snapped some photos of how things are coming along. Hope to have the rest of the core frame put together this weekend. :thumbsup:


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## BHOFM (Oct 14, 2008)

One suggestion, I would make the base larger, give the casters
a wider stance. It would have better stability. 
I tried to use a large tool box as a base for a work bench and found
the casters were too far under the case. Sometimes when the wheels
were turned under the thing was a bit tipsy

It is looking real good. very nice work.


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

BHOFM said:


> One suggestion, I would make the base larger, give the casters
> a wider stance. It would have better stability.
> I tried to use a large tool box as a base for a work bench and found
> the casters were too far under the case. Sometimes when the wheels
> ...


I'm sort of already committed to the design at this point. I can see what you're saying about adding more stability against potential tip on the casters by increasing the stance they're mounted against. Hopefully they're spaced far enough apart that it doesn't end up being a major problem. Based on the design, the space between a front and rear caster is roughly 19.5" while the table top depth will be roughly 29".

Glad you think it's looking good so far. This is definitely the biggest project I've tried to build. 

For those who notice the green and brown bench behind the one I'm building, this cruddy thing came with my house and the legs are made out of painted metal and the top is made out warped MDF with shelving adhesive stuck over the top. There's literally no clamping space on this thing around the edging, completely useless and non-mobile. Can't wait to goodwill it :shifty:.


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## DBRhino (Nov 16, 2009)

very nice work!


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## CDN_Maple (Dec 19, 2009)

Nice work. I noticed the pocket screws with the Kreg jig - how do you like using it? I got one for Christmas and have yet to give it a whirl. An entertainment center cabinet kind of has my attention right now. Thanks for sharing your picture. CDN


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## Yeorwned (Jan 9, 2010)

CDN_Maple said:


> Nice work. I noticed the pocket screws with the Kreg jig - how do you like using it? I got one for Christmas and have yet to give it a whirl. An entertainment center cabinet kind of has my attention right now. Thanks for sharing your picture. CDN


I couldn't go a day without the Kreg jig and screws. The hardware alone is a huge upgrade over your typical chinese hardware from the big box stores. Don't know how you do it!


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

DBRhino said:


> very nice work!


Thanks :smile:



CDN_Maple said:


> Nice work. I noticed the pocket screws with the Kreg jig - how do you like using it? I got one for Christmas and have yet to give it a whirl. An entertainment center cabinet kind of has my attention right now. Thanks for sharing your picture. CDN


I'll say it has its trade-offs. It definitely speeds up the process, although if you use them on a fairly big project like this it still takes quite a while to drill out all of the pocket holes. One of the trickier aspects is keeping the two pieces of wood aligned if you're dealing with different sized wood or wood that is too thick for your kreg clamps. 

For quite a bit of this assembly, I simply held the wood with one hand while drilling with the other to fasten them together. This yielded mixed results as the wood really wants to jump on you during the first screw sinking in. I'll have to do a bit of hand planing to clean things up. Another thing to watch out for is wood split, particularly in my case since I'm using douglas fir which is quite soft. I'm sure the self-tapping aspects of the screws helped reduce this issue, but it was still present in places.

Spent the better part of last night working on the top. Took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Between all of the wood squaring on the jointer, planer and table saw, that ate up several hours. Then the glue up process took quite a while to prepare for also. My wife came to the rescue and joined in the fun at this stage. It's coming together :yes:.


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## Skeaterbait (Jul 28, 2009)

:laughing: It took me a minute to figure out it is painters tape, at first I thought you had your glue setting on a coffe cup warmer. :shifty:


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

I went hunting for the sheet goods last night and settled on some 3/4" thick plywood that looked pretty nice. At first I was staring at the 4'x4' cut goods in the "craft" section of Lowes since the sizing was more convenient to work with, but the prices weren't all that great. Would have ended up spending around $35 to grab what I needed. Instead I went to the large sheet goods (8'x4') and found that they were considerably cheaper and can be cut down for free. Since the board I was looking at getting was damaged on the back side (hadn't noticed), the guy cutting it said we could have it for $5! Pretty sweet deal since it still had lots of usable feet.

I originally planned on using 1/2" thick plywood for the top and 3/4" for the bottom, but decided to just throw 3/4" on both given the score last night. Can't see the harm in having slightly beefier plywood over the sub-top.

On a side note, the once spoke-about old ugly green and brown bench :thumbdown: included with my house now has a home at Goodwill. :devil2:.


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## MLHatcher (Jan 2, 2010)

I would be very interested in the step by step instructions with the measurements of all the lumber used to build the bench. This looks like a great project.


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## Eusibius2 (Jan 6, 2010)

wiseachoo said:


> For those who notice the green and brown bench behind the one I'm building, this cruddy thing came with my house and the legs are made out of painted metal and the top is made out warped MDF with shelving adhesive stuck over the top. There's literally no clamping space on this thing around the edging, completely useless and non-mobile. Can't wait to goodwill it :shifty:.


I've got the same deal here. Bought a house and it came with a real dud of a workbench, albeit mine has no metal and it's all wood. Instead scrapping mine, I'm replacing the crappy MDF top and making it fit my needs. I hate wasting anything and the base of this is fairly sturdy. New coat of paint and it should look pretty new.


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

What's the best approach for leveling both sides of my glued up bench top? I initially figured some hand planing and sanding with my ROS would be the way to go, but the bottom side of the glue up I couldn't get to during the drying phase and so it's got a lot of glue to remove. I started down the path of, let's see how my hand planes do against this glue...seems like a bad idea and bad on the blades. I presume my only recourse is to combine hammer plus chisel at a low angle to take care of the glue and I'll just have to suffer with the chip out and sand / plane it out afterward? 

Another topic related to the hand planing portion. I'm new to hand planing so I need a bit of guidance on the direction of my strokes for a big glue up like this. The individual boards were already jointed/planed before glue up but the ridges between them where the boards weren't perfectly aligned needs to be flattened so I wasn't sure whether to take strokes at a diagonal angle, across the grain entirely, or with the grain over the ridges (Won't this create dips at each ridge causing me to have to plane between the ridges to keep the table flat?).


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## BHOFM (Oct 14, 2008)

Use a paint scraper to remove the glue. It won't
hurt the wood.


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## RUSSR (Jan 6, 2010)

Looking good so far.
When looking at your plans it seems like very wide drawers that is questionable about the weight they will hold. Have you thought of putting a frame under them with center hardware? Just a thought.


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

MLHatcher said:


> I would be very interested in the step by step instructions with the measurements of all the lumber used to build the bench. This looks like a great project.


Once I finish off the bench completely, I'll see about putting something like that together if there's enough of a demand. I really didn't design it with the general population in mind, just designed it per my own needs and space constraints.



BHOFM said:


> Use a paint scraper to remove the glue. It won't
> hurt the wood.


I've added one of these to my shopping list, thanks.



RUSSR said:


> Looking good so far.
> When looking at your plans it seems like very wide drawers that is questionable about the weight they will hold. Have you thought of putting a frame under them with center hardware? Just a thought.


The drawers are indeed somewhat wide (34.5" x 21.25" interior space). I may build in a couple cross beams on the underside of the drawers to prevent sagging, but the total weight of the drawers (as determined by what I shove in them) will place most of the strain on the drawer rails and corresponding stretchers which they'll be mounted to. Not entirely sure what kind of weight these drawers will be able to handle just yet...probably won't know until they're done.

Updates:

I've cut the sub-top to size now, scraped a bit more glue (got lazy here, didn't see it impacting levelness since it is getting covered with 3/4" ply anyways), cut the top ply to size, rough cut the bottom ply, cut the pedestals for the caster mounts out of the same 3/4" ply since I had lots of leftover, mounted the casters to the pedestals to the bottom of the frame, secured the sub-top to the frame and aprons. 

All that's really left at this point is to cut the bottom ply to size including the corner cutouts, secure it to the lower stretchers, secure the top ply to the sub-top using countersunk screws (need to pick up some countersunk bits), cut and mount the peg boards to the sides of the frame, begin the journey of building out the drawers and mounting the rail hardware (first time in this department), followed by some thought on whether I really want a top-side vice or whether I'll retro-fit a tail vice of some kind if possible or have no vice at all.


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

I picked up some countersink bits today, fastened down the top ply using countersunk wood screws, cut the bottom ply to size including the corner cut-outs (quite tricky to do holding a massive piece of ply and trying this on the bandsaw :shifty and fastened it down as well using the countersunks. 

Also picked up 2 pairs of really sweet (albeit spendy at $15 per pair) 100lb.-rated ball-bearing rails for both of the drawers. They slide like butter. Can't wait to get these mounted and begin drawer construction :thumbsup:.


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## DBRhino (Nov 16, 2009)

its taking shape now! keep up the good work!


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

DBRhino said:


> its taking shape now! keep up the good work!


It sure is , although this bench has proven to be quite time-consuming to build - unlike those "build it in a weekend!" type benches.

Updates: As can be seen below, I've cut the peg-board to size and mounted it on both sides, threw on some hooks for good measure, and mounted all 4 drawer rails. All that remains is the drawers now. I'll need to hold off on starting them until after I replenish my wood and pick up some 1/4"-3/8" ply for the drawer bottoms (need to give thickness some more thought). 

Anyone have any thoughts on the wood I should use for the drawers? After having built the entire thing thus far out of construction grade fir and fir ply, I was leaning toward being consistent here but unsure if the wood would warp on me after squaring (as I saw with some of the frame pieces) and cause my drawers to eventually bind when sliding back and forth in the rails. Just want to make sure I aproach the drawers correctly since it's my first set.


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

[Edit]Removing comment to user...his account magically went poof lol.[/Edit]


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

Spent some time this weekend working on the drawers. I decided on a rabbited front with dados cut out toward the rear of each side for the back to fit between. Also cut out grooves for 3/8" ply to be slid in from the back. The pictures were taken when I had finished up the rabbits but I'll take more next time around to capture the dados and grooves.

Still need to spend some time cutting the ply bases to size but in the meantime, here's a couple pics :smile:. This was great practice, as this was the first time I've cut rabbits, dados and grooves (all with my table saw with a single blade - can't justify purchasing a dado set in the near term). A couple of my next projects will definitely be a table saw sled and an adjustable outfeed with ball-bearings on top :yes:.


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

Being the weekend warrior mainly, it has taken a couple weekends to get these drawers in order. I still have to put the fronts on, but they are at least functional now and quite sturdy indeed! On a side note, I learned a lot about what not to do when mounting the first drawer. Let's just say, the fit was too tight after the glue-up (should have checked for a looser fit) and I had sunk a couple brads into both sides so I couldn't actually use my power tools to take off a bit from the sides without gouging into the metal brads so I ended up hand-chiseling off the side of the first drawer . 

This experience also taught me that my entire life I had been holding hand chisels upside down the few times I'd ever touched them before (that is, I always thought the beveled edge of a chisel was suppose to face away from the wood :no. I got so frustrated after about an hour of chiseling that I flipped it over and went OHHH! Needless to say the second drawer was checked for a looser fit and went in a lot more smoothly.


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## ben arnott (Nov 15, 2008)

Nice Job! That looks like a great workbench, plus you have some perfect storage features as well. Nice job laminating the top. Looks flawless. Having recently done a similar lamination, I know this is a tricky operation. I didn't have the stones to glue up the whole thing in one glue up. I did smaller chunks and then glued those chunks up on a different day. Bravo


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

ben arnott said:


> Nice Job! That looks like a great workbench, plus you have some perfect storage features as well. Nice job laminating the top. Looks flawless. Having recently done a similar lamination, I know this is a tricky operation. I didn't have the stones to glue up the whole thing in one glue up. I did smaller chunks and then glued those chunks up on a different day. Bravo


Thanks Ben. The top was indeed a bit of a tricky glue up. I had my wife help as the extra hands are always helpful on the bigger glue ups. The actual 3/4" plywood top is not glued down but merely attached via some countersunk screws so I can switch it out sometime in the future if the top takes a beating.

The storage space was definitely a major consideration when I was putting together the design. I must say that working with drawers of this size is quite tricky but they turned out well. Definitely looking forward to finishing off the fronts as time permits.


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## steveatkins (Feb 11, 2010)

nice work bench. A master craftsman.


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## jlhaslip (Jan 16, 2010)

I could use (need) two of those... nice work.


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## bnew17 (Nov 10, 2009)

me like me like!


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## juanation (Jan 17, 2010)

wish it was mine!!! ill get there!!!GREAT WORK!


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## wiseachoo (Jan 4, 2010)

steveatkins said:


> nice work bench. A master craftsman.


Thanks, but I certainly don't feel that way . I made a number of mistakes that I won't make next time around.



jlhaslip said:


> I could use (need) two of those... nice work.


I too could use a second one, but unfortunately my garage is somewhat limited when both cars are pulled in!



bnew17 said:


> me like me like!


Thanks :smile:



juanation said:


> wish it was mine!!! ill get there!!!GREAT WORK!


I think it's one of those things where you need to just start it and you'll be done before you know it. I'm certainly no master woodworker, still a newbie myself :yes:. Good luck!


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## jlhaslip (Jan 16, 2010)

> I too could use a second one, but unfortunately my garage is somewhat limited when both cars are pulled in!


Built a garage 5 years ago. Hung the garage door. Haven't tensioned the springs yet, so no cars are allowed in there.

:lol:


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