ByronBlack
Established Member
Ok, i've set myself a challenge. I'm going to try and make a usable carpenters workbench for under £30 and completed in under 12 hours.
The bench will have one vice, a number of bench dogs, lower shelf and a sliding tool strorage bin. The bench will be as heavy/sturdy as possible.
So far i've spent £19. This was for all the 2x4 timber that i'm going to use to make it, for that money I got 5 three metre lengths, which leaves me with an extra board if anything goes wrong.
I started out by making a drawing on a scrap bit of paper, the pencil was HB rated and performed excellently after being honed and sharpened. From this super-accurate drawing and guestimated dimensions, I wipped out my trusty Ryoba saw and got cutting, this was done on a B&Q own-brand workmate rip off - excellent value for just £10! (bought for me a few months back and not specificaly for this project)
After I cut the boards to length, I passed them through my cheapo rexon planner/jointer to make them square and smooth.
Heres a wee piccy of the hand-cut lengths:
From here, I marked out the placement of the mortices, and started to put together the rails and supports:
I finished both ends in about 2 hours:
In my third hour I fixed the rails to the ends:
That was all done on a saturday evening. Sunday evening I added some slats across the rails to create a storage shelf and the basis for the sliding storage bin:
Once that was done, it was time to add the remaining two rails to the top of the bench, at this stage it's already feeling really sturdy. I'm fixing the top rails in with half-lap joints:
The completed workbench frame after approx 5.5 hours of work:
Theres a couple of small niggly things to tidy up, but overall the bench is rock-solid and quite heavy. Monday evening I shall be adding the top.
The top will be a canteen table-top that was given to me by my dad as his works are upgrading their canteen (porta-cabin)
I will also be adding a 13mm mdf top to this so that I have a 'throw-away' flat surface.
So, i'm currently at 5.5 hours in and £19 spent. I have £11 budget left, with this I need to source a carpenters vice and the MDF top. Luckily I have some large dowling that I can use as bench-dogs, the slats were from an old single bed we have had in parts in the garage for years so they cost me nothing, not sure i'm going to get a vice for under £11 though!
The reason for the £30 budget for the workbench is that i'm skint coming up to christmas and that was all the money/change I had in my petty-cash box ;-)
So, I have 6.5 hours build time and I need to create a sliding tool bin, sand and coat the bench with danish oil, fix the top and fit a carpenters vice! Can I do this in time and under budget, will batman and robin escape from the deadly gas-chamber in time? Tune in tomorrow for another exciting instalmant!
For those who are interested in more photo's and commentry of this project, here is the link to the full photoset:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronblack/sets/1460614/
The bench will have one vice, a number of bench dogs, lower shelf and a sliding tool strorage bin. The bench will be as heavy/sturdy as possible.
So far i've spent £19. This was for all the 2x4 timber that i'm going to use to make it, for that money I got 5 three metre lengths, which leaves me with an extra board if anything goes wrong.
I started out by making a drawing on a scrap bit of paper, the pencil was HB rated and performed excellently after being honed and sharpened. From this super-accurate drawing and guestimated dimensions, I wipped out my trusty Ryoba saw and got cutting, this was done on a B&Q own-brand workmate rip off - excellent value for just £10! (bought for me a few months back and not specificaly for this project)
After I cut the boards to length, I passed them through my cheapo rexon planner/jointer to make them square and smooth.
Heres a wee piccy of the hand-cut lengths:
From here, I marked out the placement of the mortices, and started to put together the rails and supports:
I finished both ends in about 2 hours:
In my third hour I fixed the rails to the ends:
That was all done on a saturday evening. Sunday evening I added some slats across the rails to create a storage shelf and the basis for the sliding storage bin:
Once that was done, it was time to add the remaining two rails to the top of the bench, at this stage it's already feeling really sturdy. I'm fixing the top rails in with half-lap joints:
The completed workbench frame after approx 5.5 hours of work:
Theres a couple of small niggly things to tidy up, but overall the bench is rock-solid and quite heavy. Monday evening I shall be adding the top.
The top will be a canteen table-top that was given to me by my dad as his works are upgrading their canteen (porta-cabin)
I will also be adding a 13mm mdf top to this so that I have a 'throw-away' flat surface.So, i'm currently at 5.5 hours in and £19 spent. I have £11 budget left, with this I need to source a carpenters vice and the MDF top. Luckily I have some large dowling that I can use as bench-dogs, the slats were from an old single bed we have had in parts in the garage for years so they cost me nothing, not sure i'm going to get a vice for under £11 though!
The reason for the £30 budget for the workbench is that i'm skint coming up to christmas and that was all the money/change I had in my petty-cash box ;-)
So, I have 6.5 hours build time and I need to create a sliding tool bin, sand and coat the bench with danish oil, fix the top and fit a carpenters vice! Can I do this in time and under budget, will batman and robin escape from the deadly gas-chamber in time? Tune in tomorrow for another exciting instalmant!
For those who are interested in more photo's and commentry of this project, here is the link to the full photoset:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronblack/sets/1460614/
