Work Tables & Workbench
***RETIRED: February 2018***
I’ve had a multitude of workbenches and/or assembly tables, dating back to when I had my small basement workshop in Maryland. I think the very first one that I built was a Norm Abram-style work table.
It was simple to construct and infinitely adjustable depending on the space one had available. Prior to selling our house in Maryland, I moved most of my shop tools into storage (this made it look cleaner in the basement for showings). I didn’t figure the work table was worth keeping (it was, after all, cheap plywood and MDF), so I disassembled and scrapped it.
After finally settling into our rental house in Florida, I finally got to work on making another work table. It was essentially a carbon copy of my previous one. This was a mobile table, so it was great as an assembly table as well as an outfeed table for my table saw. However, I wanted a stationary workbench where I could sit down and work on small projects, whether it be small electronics, computers or anything else. I also wanted a bit more storage/organization. This led me to build a stationary workbench utilizing a system by 2 x 4 Basics.
This system consisted of a set of four resin legs which allows for the construction of a bench/table of almost any size (up to 4’ x 8’) with two stationary shelves.
While not exactly like my build, this is an example of the type of unit I built with the 2x4 Basics system.
I also included a set of their Shelflinks which allow the construction of a “hutch” that can sit on top of the workbench. I wound up making a bench that was 3’ deep and 6’ wide. Looking back, the depth was just way too big (2’ would have been much better). On the back of the ShelfLinks I attached some pegboard to hang a lot of the common tools used in the shop (wrenches, screwdrivers, etc.) This worked out fine, but with the addition of 3/4” particleboard as the shelves, this thing was monstrously heavy.
