Even the most basic carpentry jobs are hard to do without having some kind of workbench. You can use a couple of saw horses and a piece of plywood if you’re in a pinch, but if you’re going to do a little more than sawing a couple of 2 x 4s, you might want something that’s sturdier and safer, that’s what we’re going to do today. We’re going to build a workbench in just a few hours using a very simple plan and some basic tools, so let’s get started.
Our supplies are pretty simple, we’re going to use these 2 x 4s some wood screws, and this sheet of plywood for the top and the shelf. We’re also working off a set of plans that our technical adviser Liz came through up and posted on our website at MichaelHoligan.com. Now these three 2 x 4s are going to give us all 6 legs, and 3 cross members for the upper frame. So the first thing that I’m going to do is measure and cut our 24-inch cross members.
Okay we’ve got our 3-cross members cut now our boards are 6 feet long, and we’re going to cut these in half to give us our 6 legs, so that’s 36 inches. Okay now we have all of our 6 legs cut, we have four boards left, so what we’re going to do with these is build the outside frame for the bench top and we’re going to build a lower shelf underneath our workbench to give the workbench more stability, and room for storage.
Now this is a top view of the lower shelf and you can see we need 3 more cross members, only this time I’m going to cut them of at 18 inches. That’s because the lower shelf is narrower than the bench top because it sits inside the legs. All right we’ve got all of the pieces just cut to size and the next step is to assemble the frame. I’ve started with the workbench top and I’m going to use two 3-inch screws in each corner. Once the 4 corners are done, you can attach the middle cross member. You may notice however, it’s a little bit off center, that’s because we need the middle legs to be right in the middle.
Now I’m going to use 3-inch leg screws with washers to attach the legs and I’m going to start right here in the corner. First, we’ll pre-drill holes for leg screws, if you have a clamp this is a good time to use it to hold the leg in place while you drill the holes. We’re going to use 2 legs to secure each leg. You need to be sure that the drill bit you use is just a little smaller than the diameter of the leg screw. We’re using a washer on each leg to make sure that the head of the screw doesn’t sink into the wood. Once all four corner legs are secured, we can set the table on the floor.
Now we’ll install the center legs. We saved this for last because we wanted to make sure that we mount it flashed to the floor. Next we assemble the shelf frame the same way we assembled the top frame. Okay, I’ve just finished with the bottom shelf framing and all of our framing is complete. Now, what’s really good about this plan is all we’re left with is this 18 inch of scrap 2 x 4, but I’m even going to use this, I’m going to use this to mark all of the legs at the same height and this is where I’m going to attach the bottom shelf. We’re going to use clamps to hold our bottom shelf in place. Now this is a good time to make sure that our framing is square. Then you can use leg screws to attach the shelf to the legs.
Now we’re going to use this piece of plywood for the top of our shelf and also the bench top. Now our workbench is 78 inches long, so I’ve come down to link up the board on both sides and made this mark at 78 inches so we can cut this off. Now here’s a tip for you, I’m going to use a circular saw to make this cut, but I’ve got an inch and a half distance between the blade and the edge of the shoe. So I’ve taken this 2 x 4 and clamped it down exactly an inch and a half away from our line that way I can use as a guide to make a nice clean straight cut. Okay, now it’s time to make the last cut. Another thing that’s great about this plan is it was designed to make use of the standard 4 foot wide piece of plywood. After I make the cut, we’ll use the wider piece for the top of the workbench and the narrower piece for the bottom shelf.
Again I’m going to use this board for a guide to make the cut and because the plywood is only 3 ¼ of an inch thick, I’ve adjusted the depth of this blade to only cut 3 ¼ of an inch, that way I don’t cut through the saw horses. Once the plywood is cut, it’s time to attach the top and the shelf to the frame. Okay the plywood fits on here perfectly. I’ve put a few screws on the top to hold it down. The bottom shelf is such a snug fit that we really don’t need to put any screws down there. Now this whole project costs less than a hundred dollars and took us about 3 hours to complete, and this was the only scrap wood we have left.
If you wood like more information on this project, or others, visit us on the internet at MichaelHoligan.com.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services