Projects: Work Bench

Introduction:
Ever since I moved into our new apartment, I've been feeling the absence of a decent workbench. There are just so many times you can spill five-minute epoxy onto the dining room table until your wife starts to get irritated. Also, having a good solid table that you can clamp items to for drilling, chiseling, gluing, etc., is a practically a must in my book. If I were to go out and buy a bench, or a bench kit, I could easily drop several hundred dollars, and essentially end up with a heavy table. Seeing as how I probably had the necessary tools already, I decided to start from scratch and make my own.

Materials:
For the work surface itself, I had originally planned on laminating two 24x48 1/2 MDF pieces together, as a 48x96 sheet of 3/4 MDF cost more, and I'd only end up using half of it. As it turned out, however, Home Depot stocks nominal24x48 sheets of 3/4 already, so I just used those. Note the "nominal" measurement. Like a idiot, I only measured one piece, which had dimensions about 24 1/4x29, and assumed the other piece was the same size. It ended up not making too big of a deal, but it did leave an unsightly gap on the bottom shelf cutouts in the end.

For sealing the work surfaces, I chose a nice satin polyurethane. I'll discuss more on why this particular finish later.

For the legs, I chose 4x4 lumber. For whatever reason, treated lumber was cheaper than interior, so I picked that and made sure to hold my breath while I did any cutting or routing on it. (It's treated with Copper Chromium Arsenide or CCA, or some other nasty stuff to prevent rot).

For the cross members, I got bone-standard premium 2x4 pine. Interestingly, basic framing lumber is dirt cheap right now, because no one is building houses. All the manufactured stuff (like the MDF) is damnned expensive though, I'd assume because everyone's remodling instead.

For the dowel pins, I cut up 1/2" wooden curtain rods that we weren't using anymore. For holding the long stringers together, I got 1/4x6" lag bolts, as they were going into soft pine, and I needed all the surface area I could get. Finally, I used 1-1/4" or so drywall screws to hold the work surface on.

The tools I used during the project were as follows:

• Plunge router (w/ straight bit)
• Circular saw
• Power drill (w/ assorted bits)
• Miter box and saw
• Rafter square and regular (carpenter?) square
• Spring loaded punch
• Assorted chisels
• Tape measure & ruler
• Small paint roller / pan
• Sand paper / block
• Assorted fast clamps
• Socket set w/ ratchet

Work surface:
MDF hates to get wet. If it gets wet, it swells like a bitch and loses all structural integrity. This is not a good property for a bench top. (Cold beer + condensation + MDF worktop = ruination). To make sure my workbench wouldn't bloat up like Rosie O'Donnell at a kegger, I chose a high-quality satin polyurethane. As polyurethane dries, it forms essentially a plastic coating both on top of and within the wood. For normal (i.e. "native" wood), it might only penetrate a few hundredths of an inch into the grain. The very porous MDF, on the other hand, will soak up lots of urethane and you can essentially generate your own melamine countertop. The key when working with MDF and urethane is to not go easy with it. For the first coat, I made sure that the MDF sucked up as much urethane as possible. As you can see in the first picture, un-stained MDF is pretty light.

After the first coat, a light sanding, and then a second heavy coat, the MDF turns a nice deep tan. Interesting note: I brought the MDF in from the car while it was raining (that was fun) and then did all the painting in my bastement. The fumes made my brain tickle!

Once the workbench tops were done, water basically beads up on them and cant penetrate the wood to damage it. To get an idea on just how far the urethane can penetrate MDF, take a look at this cutout that I was using for a hammer cushion block:

As you may be able to see, at some point during my bashing it with a hammer, almost a 1/4 inch layer of MDF came off, which is (I presume) how far the urethane was able to penetrate into the MDF.

Legs:
I decided to go with a combination of pegs and sockets to hold the work surface support beams onto the legs. This is probably big time overkill, but I wanted to practice this kind of wood working. This turned out to be a good thing to, as it's pretty difficult to do right.

Here you can see the 1/2" holes I bored into the 40" tall workbench legs. I used a Forstner bit so they'd be nice and flat at the bottom of the holes that would eventually recieve the 1/2" pins. I made the legs themselves 40" tall, because I'd primarily use this bench standing up, and because I'm fairly tall. Yet another benefit to making your own bench: customization!

As I'd eventually be routing 1/2" deep pockets around the pin holes, I drilled the holes about 1-1/2" deep. Here's a bonus picture of me in action. Notice the bitchin' work gloves I'm wearing. These things are awesome, and I never work w/o them. Let me rephrase that: I'll never work without them from now on, as about halfway through putting all the pieces together, I tore a big chunk of a finger off with a hammer while not wearing them. Live and learn.

Once I got the holes bored, I broke out the router, armed with a 1/2" straight bit. Using the guide, I routed out enough material to form a 1-1/2" pocket to hold the 2x4 crossmembers. (Free bonus catch of my wife's feet, or as I like to call her: "clampy")

Once that was done, I freehanded tearing out the middle ridge that was left, as well as the bottom of the top pocket, and the top and the bottom of the bottom pocket. In retrospect, I should have made the pockets wider than I needed, because some 2x4's are wider than others, and busting out a chisel to open the pockets is a hassle.

Pins:
Once all 16 pockets were made, I set to cutting up the necessary wooden pins. I needed 32 pins in all, which was massive overkill. In retrospect, one pin would have been plenty. Again, live and learn.

The workbench ended up with four legs, each with four pockets and two pins per pocket, and two holes per pin. That translates into a lot of sawdust. At least I smell fresh and piney.

Careful measurements really pay off in assembly. I love my rafter square, and keep several fine-tip sharpies on me at all times. In addition, I have a spring-loaded prick punch I got at Harbor Freight that I use to mark all my drill points. It significantly cuts down on bit wander, and thus makes my life much easier.

As I originally planned it, I wasn't going to use any metal screws, other than to hold the workbench top on. As it turned out, trying to keep the legs and crossmembers together and square enough to get the top on was impossible. Much cursing and swearing ensued, until I wised up and decided to at least bolt the long crossmembers through the legs. I ended up gluing the short crossmembers together, creating two leg "ends", and the lag-bolting the remainder beams onto those. If I were doing this again, I'd use one pin and one lag bolt per beam.

Crossmember install:
Here you can see the long lag bolts I used to hold the beams on. I used another 1" (I believe) Forstner bit to make a pocket for the head and washer of the bolt, and then drilled through the leg to the pocket on the other side. Obviously, if you were going to use lag bolts to hold both beams on, you'd have to stagger the holes. You can also see a bit of my mashed finger. Obviously, I'm dumb enough that I'm still not wearing gloves. You can also see all the hammer marks while I was futilely trying to keep the assembly together while installing the worktops.

Shelf install:
I used a bit of rope and a scrap 2/3 to bring the assembled legs into square, using a large carpenter's square to keep track. As you can see, I've already installed the bottom shelf, but haven't screwed it down yet.

Worktop install:
I used way too many fasteners to hold the top down, but that's just the way I roll. I used a countersinking bit to make sure that my screw heads didn't end up above the plane of the work space. Also pictured is my trustworthy rafter square. I love that thing. Fun note: my power drill is a 10$ Harbor Freight special, but it's got a keyless chuck and variable speed. It's driven 3" drywall screws through hard lumber no problem, and has yet to make any bearing noise. A great buy, in my opinon. Should have gotten two or three, in fact.

Completion:
Here's the finished product. It weighs a ton, but that's a bonus for a workbench. As you can see, I've already clamped my hobby drill press to it, and it'll soon be covered with crap. Probably some burns or a drill hole or too in the near future. At least there won't be any cold beer rings, though!