Building new workbench - any good plans out there?

[austin552]

Here are my new cabinets I am putting up over the workbench with a shop light between them.

[yelcab1]

Originally posted by mthomas58
Follow pic of Family Handyman plan

that is what I call a bench !!!
What is with the heater? It does not get that cold in atlanta?

[mthomas58]

25 degrees here this morning! When doing this project.....my neighbor asked if my wife had kicked me out of the house and I was moving into the garage! Couple neighbors remodeled their kitchens and put these ovens out by the curb....now we've got overflow ovens for the holidays!

[yelcab1]

And the Porsche is parked diagonally in the garage, king of the garage!

[TerryH]

Here's a very basic bench I built in my new garage. Didn't take long.

[rrichar]

I have built the "weekend bench" from the plans now site that Austin552 had recommended. Its a great, extremely well engineered and sturdy bench. I used a solid core door for the top.


http://plansnow.com/index.html


__________________

[cak]

The main lighting are 4ea. 8' dual fluorescent hardwired in the ceiling, which is 9' high. I'm also going to hang a couple halogen banks above the workbench. The walls/ceiling are painted ceiling white.

I'm a big fan of a light gray floor with a shiny finish - light enough to help you find stuff and reflect some light back up.

It sounds like you have a finished ceiling, which is nice. I don't, but painted everything above white, and have a couple of fluorescent tubes pointed upward, on a separate circuit. Those are my "walk-in" lights - when I just need to go in, grab something, and get out.

I thought about putting lights low on the walls, to illuminate the floor near and under the cars, but never did.

Lots of light. And then add some more. The older you get, the more you'll want!

[Charlie V]

a recent addition to my shop. sorry for the mess - didn't clean up from the garage day/tech session last Saturday. need doors and drawers. Bench top is 18' long. Will be installing a metal top over the main work area.

[WPOZZZ]

Originally posted by Dan J.
Lots of good info...

I have lots of plugs and lights. Probably overkill. The old garage that this replaces was a dungeon, so I have erred on the side of kitting this out like an operating room. For power, theres a plug every 32" along the workbench wall, plus a 220 for the compressor/welder. The main lighting are 4ea. 8' dual fluorescent hardwired in the ceiling, which is 9' high. I'm also going to hang a couple halogen banks above the workbench. The walls/ceiling are painted ceiling white.

In another couple weeks I'll seal the concrete floor. Haven't decided on a clear sealer or a colored epoxy. There's a huge selection of products out there.

Again, thanks everyone for the input.

Dan J.

If you can, put the compressor elsewhere and just run hard lines in the garage with taps on each wall. Then you can tap into it wherever you need it instead of lugging around a long hose.

[Charlie V]

Good to see this surface again.....

My latest look.



Need to get the stationary air compressor set up and plumbed in. But, house renos are taking up time and cash flow over the last couple of years.

However, still able to squeeze in a few Porsche parts and wrench time. Yahoo!!!

[rpmgroup]

I keep seeing benchs showing up at the local scrap steel yard. Bought 4 for $35.00. this are the kind we had at the dealership, welded casters to one, two are attached to the wall and one is outside(not attached, but dragged over if needed)

[euro911sc]

Dont underestimate the value of a good tool box as well as a good bench.



I used a 2" butcher block table that is mounted on to some steel table legs I got out of MSC. I mounted a shelf under the table as well as building a back wall. The back wall is peg board that I though I would use a lot, but it really turned into a place to hang stuff I dont use much. I mounted a Vise on the corner and used 14 Gage steel plate under the vise of a bit more support.

The table legs had outlet ports so I stuck outlets on them. I also put two 4 outlet boxes on either end of the table mounted to the back wall. In retrospect I should of hung those from the top shelf or mounted them 1/2 up the wall. Stuff on the bench blocks their use a lot of the time. I also have a switch and outlet combo. That one gets used a lot and the switch runs the lights over the bench.

My roller tool cabs are from harbor freight. They are really nice units actually. Much more sturdy than the craftsman/kobalt stuff I was looking at. If you time it right you can get them on sale and with a 20% coupon. They have held up well over the last 6 years of weekly if not daily use. The only thing that has failed is recently I noticed that the rubber on the casters has disintegrated/chipped off. One of these days I'll just remove the casters and scrape off all the rubber leaving the metal behind.

The tool box is great and works well in my compact work space. I have considered buying another set and moving all the tools into it as I do store non-automotive related tools on other boxes on shelves.

Oh yeah, the bench is not mounted to the wall. When I built it I thought I might be leaving in a year or two so I wanted to take it with me to my new domicile... that was 7 years ago LOL!

-michael

[HawgRyder]

I have mixed feelings about having a window right next to the bench.
For one, it cannot be used as a tool-hanging area....and it might provide a thief with an easy access to the tools.
When I am working on my bench, sometimes a wrench slips and hits the wall...result...broken window.
Just my $.02
Bob

[daleflesburg]

tell you what. I have built 5 in the last 3 years. All different. One has a stainless steel top I bought from a steel fabricator. It is 8' x 2' with a rolled 1 1/2" front lip and a 3 1/2" rolled backsplash. Paid about $250 for it. Heavy gauge, took three of us to carry it around. It is glued to two thicknesses of 3/4" plywood. My vise is mounted to it. the whole thing is like an anvil. The base was built up of 2 x 4x and a bottom shelf of 3/4" plywood. It is anchored to the walls of the building. I can hang off of the vise at the end of a 6' 2x4. Solid as the building, and the concrete floor.

Another is a welding table, 2' x 4' 1/2" thick cold roll mounted to a welded up 3/4" square tube frame mounted on casters. I can clamp my welder ground anywhere on the table. Great table.

On another I used 1/8" tempered two side masonite that I put about 4 coats of varnish on. Nice top for storage of stuff.

Two other bench tops are made out of a bundle of oak hardwood flooring that I fastened to a top made of a sandwich of two 3/4 pieces of plywood. 6 or so coats of tung oil finished it. Nice looking top. May be too nice.

Attached are a couple of pictures.

Go to The Garage Journal for lots of ideas. Search for workbenches.

[T77911S]

i have a "clean" bench, an old 10ft long counter top, a dirty bench, 8ft long with rubber matt on it for easy oil wipe up and i have a 5ft "electronics" bench for working on, hat else, electronics. the dirty bench is for takiing things apart, the clean bench is for putting them back together.
but i think i am going to redo all this. my plan now is to build a corner bench. one that raps around the corner and is 8 to 10 ft down each wall. the reason is, corner space seems to be "wasted" space. if you put smething in a corner, you have to leave room in front of it to get to it.
my goal is to not store things on the floor. all car parts, that will fit or are not too heavy, will go in a box and go up above to the new attic. the attic is 8 ft wide and runs the leangth of the shop and is open on both sides. i have one of those 2 sided roling ladders that i use to get to the attic.

the best thing to do is build something that fits your needs and your shop. i would not waste the money on a store bought work bench.

[Jack Olsen]

Hello, my name is Jack Olsen and I am a bench-aholic.



I only have a 20x20 garage, but it's got eight work surfaces in it. Four are wood and four are steel. (In fact, if you look in the above picture, you can see a ninth bench suspended from the ceiling above where I park my car. I won't defend that as even a halfway good idea.)

My main bench is just a solid-core door on top of a tool box.



This is inch-thick steel on top of a Strong Hold cabinet. For fabrication, it's nice to have a solid surface like this.



Putting soffit-style cabinets up above also gave me a recessed area for task lighting above the benches.



My table saw fits under this small welding table.



The most recently finished one is around the sink. While it might fit into the 'too pretty for a working garage' category, it's also notable because everything you see above, below and around the sink was made out of another second-hand Strong Hold cabinet, which I cut up and welded back together and then painted to match the rest of the garage.



This (pretty, plant-filled) shot shows the two butcher-block covered benches -- one in the center and one at the opening. They're stained dark and covered with marine varnish. You can also see the fold-down tables I put along the far wall. When the car is out of the garage, they give me one more woodworking surface and another fairly large welding bench.



Here they are folded up:



And down. I store clamps behind the welding one. The woodworking one has pre-drilled holes for a table router and a cut-off saw.



I built all of them myself.

[pplkook]

Originally Posted by Jack Olsen

Hello, my name is Jack Olsen and I am a bench-aholic.



I only have a 20x20 garage, but it's got eight work surfaces in it. Four are wood and four are steel. (In fact, if you look in the above picture, you can see a ninth bench suspended from the ceiling above where I park my car. I won't defend that as even a halfway good idea.)

My main bench is just a solid-core door on top of a tool box.



This is inch-thick steel on top of a Strong Hold cabinet. For fabrication, it's nice to have a solid surface like this.



Putting soffit-style cabinets up above also gave me a recessed area for task lighting above the benches.



My table saw fits under this small welding table.



The most recently finished one is around the sink. While it might fit into the 'too pretty for a working garage' category, it's also notable because everything you see above, below and around the sink was made out of another second-hand Strong Hold cabinet, which I cut up and welded back together and then painted to match the rest of the garage.



This (pretty, plant-filled) shot shows the two butcher-block covered benches -- one in the center and one at the opening. They're stained dark and covered with marine varnish. You can also see the fold-down tables I put along the far wall. When the car is out of the garage, they give me one more woodworking surface and another fairly large welding bench.



Here they are folded up:



And down. I store clamps behind the welding one. The woodworking one has pre-drilled holes for a table router and a cut-off saw.



I built all of them myself.

I hate/envy you so much...you sure did it well, and best part you did it on a budget.

-Jack

[magnuskgc]

can I live in that garage.. please lol

[KTL]

Nice stuff by everybody. Great incentive for me to get mine reorganized

Nice anvil Jack- looks like it weighs almost as much as your 1 in. steel-top bench vise! Impressive stuff, seriously. What's equally impressive is how clean & organized you keep it. What gives with the 5 angle grinders?

[jpnovak]

No doubt that Jack's garage is impressive. I still love the overhead gantry system to support the lights under the door.

I would like to see more about the pull-out mount for the anvil. Notice that it is retracted in an earlier photograph.

Come on Kevin, I keep 3 grinders at all times. One has cut-off wheels. One has grinding wheels and one has wire wheels. They all have different spindle requirements and this makes it easy to switch back and forth.

I close on a new house next week. This gives me some great ideas for the new shop. I am going to be recycling cabinets from the old kitchen into the garage.

Personally, I like to buy the large lateral file cabinets on CL. Usually you can pick up 2 or 3 drawer units for about $40-50 each. This gives tons of storage when you stack them. Plus they are rated with heavy weight drawers so that tool and part storage is easy.