Just found this community, here’s my workbench I built!
Got a mini-lathe for Christmas last year and needed something to put it on. Hundreds of spinning tops and mushrooms later, I’m pretty sure it was worth it. Here’s a couple other things from my lathe.
44 replies
Hey!!! I appreciate the design, it looks a lot like my shelves. Great minds think alike! 😁
Gorgeous! You just reminded me of my build! So much fun. Enjoy! I had so much fun continuously modifying it and adding to it.
This is beautiful stuff, wish I had a house with a space for a workshop!
Thank you so much! We bought a house a couple years ago. It’s surprised me how much stuff like this I’m wanting to do, now that I have a “permanent” place to keep it and a space to make my own.
This spring I passed on a small one-story house with a surprisingly large basement with enough room for both electronics and a small workshop.
I passed because there seemed to be problems with the drainage (roots in the sump pump basin).
Should have taken the plunge, whenever I look at my small miserable condo in comparison!
I watched This Old Tony on Youtube and now I can't stop reading it as "manila-the."
A guy at work, who sometimes takes his own path through the English language, pronounces it lath-ee. It’s ruined me, can only think about “lath-ee-ing” when I’m out there messing with it.
Good work! It looks solid.
Good looking workbench! How did you secure the top, just of curiosity? Glue or screws from underneath?
Also do you have to put a lot of weight on the bottom shelf while you're turning to kill the vibrations? Or is it heavy enough as is for your lathe?
Thank you! I used some small corner braces to attach it, figured it just needed to stay put horizontally. Anchored it better than I thought, though I did use about 20 little braces down there…and had about 20 splinters in my back from that cheaper plywood on the bottom shelf.
I ended up just screwing the bottom shelf on around the edge and a couple in the middle. Doesn’t vibrate at all!
Looks like it will serve you well for many years. Thanks for sharing friend!
I can run my mini lathe clamped to a 3x7 plywood table on swivel casters. this thing should handle it no problem
Nice!!
One of the most useful things I added to my workbench was casters. That way you get to easily move it at will.
That’s a great idea! This big one stays pretty much permanently there, but I’ve been thinking of building a few small tables for some smaller tools. Would be nice to have wheels to scoot em around the garage.
you say that now...
I have 3x7 rolling table that moves all about my garage. well, where it can fit, anyways, which is about 30% of the square footage of the garage. but it's helpful to be able to move it to use as an outfeed, unload the car and roll everything back into the garage, just give a shove when I need a bit more floor space...
problem is keeping it clear, as is the problem with all flat surfaces
Did you notice any less stability with adding wheels? More I think about it, it would be nice to pull it away from the wall for some projects, and I’ve always thought I should’ve built it just a few inches taller. Wheels would take care of both those things…
it always had wheels, it was made for this purpose. I have solid benches against the wall if I need to really beat on something, and that my vise is mounted to
that said, I still do most of my work on the rolling table, including planing, because it's just.. more than good enough.
my garage floor is very not flat and so I do need to position the table so the legs all more or less touch at the same time, and sure there is some rocking because of racking of the foldable leg design, but again.. it's more than good enough.
Hi there! I don’t do woodworking but have always wondered about this, so maybe someone can enlighten me!
What advantages does using two planks of wood have over using one thicker chunk of wood? So, the first image I see the legs are two pieces of wood, and am just wondering why not use a thicker piece of wood?
Sorry for being clueless, but I find woodworking fascinating. :-)
Ease of construction is the answer. The lower shelf rests all of its weight on the shorter leg portion 2x4 making a kind of faux half lap joint. If they used one chunk of wood for the leg instead of three pieces they would have to remove the material where the shelf nests into the leg which would take more time and complexity to the work.
So, essentially, using this method, they were able to have the top part of the table rest on the outer side of the two planks, and the lower shelf's weight is distributed to the plank that was cut into?
That’s it exactly. Adds the extra support without adding all the extra time of cutting that bit out of a 4x4. I could’ve just put a small piece to support the bottom, but this way all the weight is transferred to the ground.
Nailed it!
TIL! Thanks for the help, seriously! I love learning new things! Cheers! :-]
Screw it!
2x4 can be cut by any circular saw or chop saw in one pass. 4x4 is usually just a bit too big for a standard saws, so it's just mildly annoying vs doubling up 2x4s.
Self design or copied from existing plans? Do you consider it 'done' or are you still planning to add/modify?
Just sharing in case you find it useful, but these are the plans I used on my first workbench.
Final product had a few tweaks but was mostly as-written (I made it four inches taller, used trim screws on the trim, and finished with polyurethane).
Thanks... That looks pretty nice. You said that was your first one... What generation are you on, now? What motivated the change(s)?
Thanks!
I gave the workbench to a friend when I moved to a new place without a garage, but haven’t made another quite yet.
Only brought up that it was my first one because I found the plans easy enough as a beginner :).
I checked out a few designs and built my own from those ideas. Used some 3d software to build it there first, mainly so I could make sure I didn’t do anything stupid.
Need to add a vice still but figure it’s mostly done, though I’m already running out of room now. Why? You have some ideas?
Just curious at this time... my 'workbench' is just a centipede, currently. :) At some point I'll need something more substantial.
This was surprisingly easy. At the time I only had a drill and the lathe so I got Lowe’s to cut everything for me. Felt bad asking for that many cuts but they said it was cool.
Nice... What kind of fasteners did you use? Any advice (do or don't do) when I get around to building one? I have a nice contractor table saw and a sliding miter saw, so I can do any cuts I might need.
Truly, the only problem I ran into was imperfect cuts, but it sounds like you have the cutting bit covered. I did like the double 2x4 idea for the legs, made it easy to support the bottom shelf while still be sturdy.
I used 2.5 inch deck screws for everything except attaching the top. Bought some 1 inch corner braces to attach it to the frame.
Best of luck when you build yours!
Thanks
Wow, that is a serious butt plug.
Funny you say that, I was fooling around with a resin/wood combo mushroom and accidentally ended up with this. Friends keep asking me if I’ve made anymore buttplugs…
Love it, nice work.
Very nice, well done.
Thank you! Happy with how it turned out.
That is some impressive thumb dexterity, my gosh.
wtf is going on with your thumb?
nothing? mine does that if you mean bents back that far.