Wooden Workbench - 1

Need a small solid workbench to work on during the cold winter months. Working in the garage sucks. No room and no heat. So, I wanted to bring the workspace inside. For smaller projects. And it’ll be small and cozy enough for Persephanie to use too. It’s going to be low for sitting use. I’m thinking 3’ x 15” top. Height.. still undecided.

It’ll be made entirely out of cheap 2x4s. 10 pieces ($30)

On my tablesaw, I ripped the one end of each piece so it’s nice and square. Then split each piece into two 4 feet pieces. The top will be 10 pieces wide. Standing on the ends. This would give it a nice thickness for weight and solidness.

Then I laid out some lines to figure out where I want to put in the bench dog holes. These are for putting stops so I can hold down wood for planing or just working on.

Next step was to figure out which step to do next. Drill the holes? Plane it all flat? Glue the entire board together? 

If I glue them all together, then drilling them on the drill press would be extremely difficult. And drilling them with a hand drill isn’t an option as I want these holes to be perfectly perpendicular.

Planing it now before gluing would be ok now, but hard to put back together perfectly.

So, the solution is to partial glue and drill. I’d glue 2 pieces together first, then drill.

On the underside of 2 pieces, I’d cut out some notches for legs and handholds for easy transport.

(Wax paper under the wood while the glue dries)

With a 3/4” forstner bit, I started the holes. Setting up a stop block makes for easy and repeatable drills.

The placement was quite random. I wanted a good range for different size woods. A 3/4” hardwood dowel is stuck into the dog hole for testing.

Now that the holes are drilled out, time for the complete glue up on the bench top.

Next up: Planing