Thread: New Workbench

I built my own bench some time ago, HERE is a link to another forum showing work in progress, it's a long thread but it might give you some inspiration and ideas. Good Luck

G'day Nick.

Do a search on this forum on the word 'bench.'

You will find HEAPS of stuff.

Originally Posted by DarkWolfz

Hey all I'm good at making stuff with wood. I'm 14 years old and I'm planning a career in Carpentry. At the moment I'm making a wood rack with some of the wood i have sitting around. Pretty simple lol.

After i go to Bunnings over christmas and get more wood I'm going to have a go at making a work bench. The work bench i have now is old and its pretty much a table.

Im planning to make a big work bench with 2 draws. Storage down the bottom with swinging doors and some storage up the top. To me it is going to be hard work and i hope I'm able to do it. Its going to have 1-2 vices.

What I'm after is tips or ideas to make it easier or better. I'm thinking about make it in a big L shape.

So any ideas of how i should do it or what wood i should use. At the moment i only ever use timber. My uncle works at Bunnings so he can get really big offcuts and i get everything discounted so its a bonus If anyone has any Websites with pics of good Workbenches can you please post them. Will give me some good ideas

I reckon it is going to be hard but it doesn't hurt to try.

Nick

Nick
almost finished my bench ,Ive been working on it for a while in between other jobs around the place .
Steel lower frame ,solid core door and 5" jarrah skirt all bolted and dovetailed so at a later date I can change the top if I need to.Dog holes and a Veritas end vice when funds allow.
Including secondhand vice all up $400.00. Mostly it was made from recycled doors and steel I had on hand.I made swivel foot adjusters so I can raise or lower the bench to a good working height,
Plenty of room for storage cupboards under neath at to come later .
I have plugged all the holes over the coach screws since I took these pics.

There are heaps of variations on workbenches, the best thing to do is to have a look at all the different ideas and why people have chosen to go with each style and pick and choose from their ideas to make your own.

One site I did find in my travels when I was doing research on making my bench is http://pages.friendlycity.net/~krucker/Bench/index.htm the best thing about this is that the chap walks you thru what he did in making the bench, provides plans and even a version that is in the form of a downloadable PDF for future reference. The vices he uses too are pretty cheap to buy - check out carbatec, I think the two vices you will need for this come out to less than 100 bucks all up - perhaps you could hit some up for them as a christmas present.

Good luck with it, and post some pictures when you get going on it!

Ciao,

M.

Yeap, that is a good page to go to.

I bought a set of Les Miller Workbench plans from here.
I am happy with the bench but it only has one vice.

The plans are the cheap part, I built mine from Kwila.

Hey thanks for the replies ill look into it

I'm just thinking about having a big L shaped kind of bench with Draws down the bottom. I'm going to get some prices on some wood etc probably tomorrow. Planning to have a vice on each end. I don't know what I'm doing yet I'm going to have to make up some plans. And if i have all cupboards on the bottom. Or if the have the front exposed and the back covered up with some wood, What wood should i use?

By the way Lord Nibbo thats a pretty good bench

What would be decent kind of wood to have on the top?

Once i get home tomorrow I'm going to have to measure how big i want it to be and all that

Originally Posted by DarkWolfz

What would be decent kind of wood to have on the top?

I asked the very same question when I built mine. The most common answer was Beech but I'm sure others will come up with alternative cheaper wood types.

Lord Nibbo.

I just looked at the progressive work on your bench, from start to finish.

I am just about to renovate and smarten up a quarter completed bench I made a few years back, but had to stop, because i did not have a thickensser and a Jointer.

However Santa has promised to be good to me this year providing I behave myself for another week and I can look forward to the Thickenesser besides the chimney on Christmas day. The Jointer is a monty, because I have bought that for my self because I have been so good for the last month.

However, looking again at the quality of your effort has me wondering whether you have inspired me on to greatness or to having a garage sale and going back to a life at the local pub. LOL

Thank you for sharing it with us. Even your saw dust is of better quality then mine, never mind, I will try to do a better job now.

ps. There is no way a photo of my work will be on here any time soon unless a miracle happens.

Originally Posted by STAR

Lord Nibbo.

I just looked at the progressive work on your bench, from start to finish.

I am just about to renovate and smarten up a quarter completed bench I made a few years back, but had to stop, because i did not have a thickensser and a Jointer.

However Santa has promised to be good to me this year providing I behave myself for another week and I can look forward to the Thickenesser besides the chimney on Christmas day. The Jointer is a monty, because I have bought that for my self because I have been so good for the last month.

However, looking again at the quality of your effort has me wondering whether you have inspired me on to greatness or to having a garage sale and going back to a life at the local pub. LOL

Thank you for sharing it with us. Even your saw dust is of better quality then mine, never mind, I will try to do a better job now.

ps. There is no way a photo of my work will be on here any time soon unless a miracle happens.

I really only posted it to encourage DarkWolfz but if it inspires you too then all the better

Lord Nibbo.

I am inspired.

Originally Posted by DarkWolfz

Planning to have a vice on each end.

Might be better off with a side vice and a tail vice, so one on the end and one on the side at the other end. This gives more options when using the vices. This option may drive the cost of the bench up so needs some thought as the vices (good ones, Veritas) are not cheap.

Good luck and post us some pictures once you get started and the guys will be able to help you as you go.

HH.

Originally Posted by DarkWolfz

I'm thinking about make it in a big L shape.

Now thats something i havnt seen before. What an interesting idea

If you want a workbench to look at use fancy hi-falutin timber.

But if you want to use it to build things on then just about any timber will do including radiata pine. As you have some contacts, scrounge the timber.

The money you save will help pay for your vices and other tools.

I wouldn't make it an L shape. If you want it to go in a corner, I'd make two smaller benches and push them together. More flexible that way.