Jeff's Workbench

… or maybe, detour ahead.

I was finishing the planing of my 3/8″ parts this morning and I started thinking about doing some assembly today.  I’d plane up the legs and get those glued and clamped.  As I was thinking about that, I started thinking about where I would be doing this.  I really don’t have a place to do any assembly.  I need a workbench.  A simple one will do fine for now.  I can always make a better one later.

I remember seeing a simple workbench with an MDF top, and dimensional lumber for the base.  I found it and made a quick shopping list.  I really only needed the MDF (which I was going to get today anyway), some threaded rod, washers, nuts, S-clips and some screws.  I already had the lumber. For now, I’m not going to put the vise on it.  Maybe later.

So, I loaded up the dogs and we went to Home Depot.  I was able to get everything I needed except the S-clips.  They even cut the MDF for me.  That was helpful as I could get it in the Explorer with only putting the small seat down.

When I got home I cut up the lumber I had to make the base.  Instead of using 4″x4″, I glued up two 2″x4″.  I’m making the plan fit the wood!   Once the legs were glued up, I cut all the slots in the stretchers.

Since they didn’t have S-clips, I’d have to make some.  No problem.  I’ll just have to make a fence for my router table.  I happen to have extra MDF (that’s why I wanted the MDF in the first place).  After an hour or so, I had a basic fence.  And it’s double sided.  A 4″ side for most things, and a 6″ side for taller pieces.   I do need to make an adjustable face for it so I can zero clearance the bits that don’t have bearings.  But again, later.

Now that I have a fence I can actually make the S-clip replacements.  Another 20 minutes or so, and I had these little guys.  No, they aren’t little chairs.

With those out of the way, I need a table.  I basically followed the same steps the video outlined for making the top.  I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom piece of MDF, spread a bunch of glue on the top piece, stuck them together and screwed it down.

One night this week this week, I hope I can get it assembled.  It won’t be tomorrow night, we have our first baby class!

That was my detour today.  Fortunately, it was a productive detour.

Stay sharp.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.