Show All ItemsThink quick. What is the most used tool in your workshop? What tool do you use every day and for every project? Did you say your workbench? Well you should have. A good, solid workbench is the most important feature of any well equipped workshop. You hammer on things on it. You clamp things to it. You layout and assemble things on it. Or you can just set a bunch of stuff on it and clutter it up. However you use it, even if you take its presence totally for granted, it is actually the most important tool in your workshop.This Instructable will show you how to build a very sturdy workbench easily and inexpensively in only a few hours work, that will give you many years of use. The workbench presented here is 80 inches long by 36 inches wide by 34 inches tall, and rock solid..Step 1: Gather the Materials and ToolsShow All ItemsThe materialsThis workbench is built from a solid-core wooden door re-purposed as a bench top, and mounted on a frame of 2X4 lumber. It was built for a little over $80.
Here is the list of materials required:1 36 by 80 inch solid core wooden door.10 2X4s 8 feet long.Some 2 1/2 inch long coarse thread drywall screws. Some 1 1/4 inch long #6 drywall screws.6 steel angle brackets.Enough 1/2 inch or thicker plywood to cover an area of 76 by 32 inches for a shelf.The door was purchased at my local Habitat for Humanity Restore for only $30. The Restore is a great place to pick up salvaged building materials inexpensively. It was a brand new door that had never been drilled for a lockset or mortised for hinges. There was some damage to the veneer, which made it unwanted by most people, but it was perfect for my application. A salvaged door that had been drilled and mortised can also be used, and probably can be had even cheaper.The 8 foot 2X4s only cost about $3 each at a local big box homecenter store. Select straight pieces without twists, splits, or a lot of large knots for best resultsThe screws and 6 steel angle brackets also came form the local big box store.
The screws cost about $6 per box, and the angle brackets were a couple of dollars each.The toolsThe tools that were used for constructing the workbench consisted of:A power mitre box saw for cutting the 2X4s to length.A cordless screw gun for driving in the screws.A cordless drill for pre-drilling screw holes.A brad nailer and brad nails.Cordless tools aren't necessary to build the workbench, but if you have access to them, they make life a lot easier.Best GarageDream GarageGauge GarageProfile FileLow ProfileGarage JournalJournal BoardCore DoorsBoxes FixedForwardAnother use for a solid core door, in this case over a nice set of low profile file/parts drawers.Save it to your favorites list for later Not ready to purchase yet? Save this item to your favorites list and come back to it later. Please note that saving favorite items does not guarantee future availability. Call us to hold the item To place an item on hold, give the store location where the item is in stock a call.
For Seattle holds, call 206-763-6929; for Tacoma holds, call 253-267-0820 during store hours. Typically, we can hold an item until half an hour before close the following day, although some items in high demand may have shorter limits. For the quickest transaction, please have the six-digit inventory number on hand for all the items you would like to hold. Come to the store today Our retail stores are open to the public every day (Seattle 9AM-6PM; If you see an item you like, come on down and browse in person- but don’t forget to put it on hold if you’ve become attached! Seattle: 3223 6th Ave South, Seattle, WA 98134 Tacoma: 2328 Fawcett Ave, Seattle, WA 98402Articles on building this workbench also available in (you too can ) There are all kinds of plans for workbenches out there on the web, but they often make me wonder "why do they have to be so complicated". My workbenches tend to be much simpler and made of cheapSo here's how I build one of my workbenches.
For the workbench surface, I just use an old door - the type that were used in the 1950's, preferably solidDo not use a hollow door from the 1970's or newer, as these are too thin and flimsy. The workbench is based on two frames on either end, joined together with some 3/4" dowels. The dowels make for a very sturdy and rigid joint, which keeps the workbench nice and steady, even when using it for hand planing. The tricky part with doweled joints though is getting the holes to align precisely. This problem can be avoided by drilling the dowel hole through both pieces at once. if the holes are not entirely square, they still align perfectly. I cut a block of wood 1" thick, and used another piece of plywood to clamp the pieces to be doweled together as shown at left. To cut down on visual clutter, I only used two clamps in the picture. But the shaking from drilling the holes can cause things to slip, so four clamps would be better. Next step is to drill the holes through both pieces.
It's not absolutely crucial to get these square, as long as the hole stays inside both pieces. In fact, after I took that picture, I noticed I wasn't holding the drill completely square. I was focused on making sure it was square in the other direction, so that the drill would not exit the cross piece on either side. But really, the whole idea of doing it this way is that a slight angle on the holes won't matter. Also note the clamp near my feet. I clamped another piece of wood to the cross piece just to hold it upThis is only a problem for the first joint. For the subsequent joints, with three or more pieces part of the assembly, it will stand on its own without tipping over. After drilling the first hole, leave the pieces clamped. Use a thin strip of wood to get glue on all sides of the hole. Take a piece of doweling, about 3.5" long (or whichever depth you drilled your holes), get glue on its side, and pound it into the hole. After that, drill and glue the second dowel in.
After doing the main cross piece (the 2x6 part), use just a single dowel to attach a narrower piece (1.5" x 2.5") between the legs - same procedure, but just one dowel on each side. I'm pretty happy with joining up 2x4's this way, and ended up using this same technique again when building a bed recently. The two end pieces with the legs are joined by two long rails of 2x6's. These should be about 75" long, or just shorter than a door. The rails have a dado cut into them, and are screwed onto the legs. I cut the dado for the rail on my radial arm saw, just by making a series of closely spaced cuts. A sliding miter saw could also be used, or a table saw in combination with some sort of table saw sled. also just cut these with a skillsaw and a square similar to here I also cut the end of the rails at a 22 degree angle, just for looks. The next step is to clamp the rails to the leg assemblies, and drill holes through both for the screws.