Building a workbench in the shop, ideas?

[Ed HD]

Hey guys,

So this week (spring break) my friend Chad and I are going to be building a workbench in our shop in the corner by our lift. The current plan is for a 9' long, 2' deep, 3' high, framed with 2x4's and skinned with sanded plywood, with a double plywood top, with bent steel (1/16"?) over it.

Underneath, the left 3' from the corner of the shop will have a drawer on top with doors underneath. The middle 3' will be empty to sit under to work on things. The right side is where things are going to get interesting. It will have 2 doors that cover 2.5', then the right 6' will be occupied by an air hose reel, with the fair-lead sitting in a cutout.

On top, I'll have a cutout with a pipe leading down to a pail, so if I have something oily, I can squeegee the mess into that and contain the mess.

Above, we will have some steel cabinets, which we will mount some lights underneath for better lighting, and possibly a gooseneck lamp for working on things as well.

My question to you guys: Any other ideas for things to do on it? Seems we have it fairly well covered, but any other ideas would be cool as well. Things you've always wished for, etc. I'll definitely throw up pictures as we build it.

 

[bison]

2" deep is gonna be to narrow.:nonod:
3' is much better:agreed:
The oily mess will usually end up dripping down were you least expect it and the furthest away from the cut out with the drain :WTF:
The cut out however will collect small parts and tools that you then will have to fish out of the oilcontainer

 

[Ed HD]

Our other benches are 2' deep and they're just fine, this way we can cut a 4x8' sheet of plywood in half for it. I don't think that will be too big of a problem.

Thought about that, gonna probably make some kind of cap for the drain. Or a piece of mesh. Still working out the details on that.

 

[dangerousdave]

Sounds great, but "Bison" is right; 3 foot wide makes much more useful room. You want too much room rather than not enough.
I've had both sizes. It's a little more of a stretch to plug things in and chase rolling pieces, but I have long arms. Maybe 2 1/2 feet works for you. I have bad memories of wrestling with stuck parts on the ol' 2 footer only to have things end up on the floor. I've had fewer floor drops with the 3 footer. I once had a workbench with a sink , and it was realy handy.

I'm sure you've already thought of the following, but here they are anyway.

Vise, bench grinder / buffer, LOTS of electric capacity and ground fault sockets, lights, radio/CD...

Enjoy it for years to come. Install a good fire extinguisher and you'll probably never have to use it.

Hmmm, kinda sounds like a "Man Cave". Toss in some chairs, a refer, bar-b-q, TV, surround sound, DVD-blueray...Never mind.

 

[Ed HD]

Ended up doing 2' deep, 3' was just gonna be too big. However, it's going to suit my needs well I think. We have more benches and space, by no means is this THE work bench in our shop, just the one by the lift, and likely the one I'll use the most, by all my tools. We also built it so that the snap-on rolling box we have is the same height, so for long projects, etc. We're going to get a steel top made soon, and I actually have a neat idea for my center portion for porting & polishing, basically making it into a down-draft table for that and sanding, but that won't happen now. We only really had 8 hours to work on it, and basically got it all framed and closed in with the top, have the drawers and doors to make. I have my buddy Chad to credit, if I'd have built it it'd be crooked and awkward, lol. I did a lot of assisting, he did the building.

Pics:

We also had a steel top made for the bench on the other side of the shop, and did some organizing over there, making a small cabinet to house my CD turntable and stereo reciever, and a shelf to get the tower speaker off the bench too.

Chad's going to finish up the doors and drawers in his wood shop, and we'll re-assemble it and paint it later, as well as send over the measurements for the steel top. We also have a few steel cabinets to mount above this bench, which we're going to mount lights onto the bottom. Not sure when that's going to happen, but I'll post pics as it happens!

 

[dmaxx3500]

nice bench,ive used kitchen counter tops from menards/home depot,get the ones that have scratchs/dents there cheap

 

[Ed HD]

I have a source to get cheap laminate, but I think steel is going to be much better for the final product. It's probably going to be $150 for a piece with a backsplash bent up, etc. Worth it for something that's going to be there for 20+ years...

 

[handcannon]

Depends on how you set up the laminate top, and plan to use it. This is coming from someone who worked with laminate for around 40 years. A laminate (1/16th") top with a good cabinet grade chipboard core, and a good laminate backer sheet, is a very tough work surface, as long as no moisture is allowed to get to the core. It is possible to put a hole through even a well made laminate top with a misplaced hammer blow. If you plan to do any extreme hammering on the surface, then the metal will hold up better. The laminate and chipboard core will break, where the metal will just dent.

Don

 

[Ed HD]

Yeah, I don't necessarily plan on doing heavy hammering (but you never know), potentially welding things, maybe a transmission or an axle even on there, and this way it will also match the other bench better, and hold up long-term.

 

[Ed HD]

Man it's funny how things work out. Just got a call from Chad, he was at a guy's place, buying some dust collection parts he had on craigslist, when the guy was showing him some other stuff he had for sale, including the wall-mount dust collector like we had talked about for my down-draft setup. Guy originally said half of new ($250 new) then talked himself down to $80, for what Chad could tell was an almost new unit! Looks like it might happen sooner than I thought!

 

[btfarm]

Nice Ed! :thumbsup: Put a door over the stereo though so it stays dust free. Mine has stayed clean that way for years.

 

[Ed HD]

Yep, the plan is to get some nice wood to finish off the front, and a couple pieces of plexi-glass for nice clear doors, with the pop-out magnets.