Workbench #1
***RETIRED: April 2019***
After a while in the shop, I was growing tired of the 2’ x 4’ Basics workbench. I had moved it a couple of times in the shop, trying different layouts. In the process of moving it around, a few cracks had developed on the resin legs (not meant to be slid on a concrete floor), so it was time to retire this bench and make something else. I ultimately decided to just make a replica of the same bench (except with plywood), dimensions and all (I was still stupid back then). I kept the ShelfLinks pegboard hutch (not pictured here) from the old workbench as it was still perfectly fine.
This would be my stationary workbench up until moving into the new house. When it came time to move, I took the whole bench apart and reassembled it in the new shop (there was NO WAY I could move this thing in one piece).
After having the rolling work table and stationary workbench in the new shop for a few months, I was growing tired of both of them. This led to the creation of Workbench #1 and the miter saw station (but that’s a whole other story).
The base and frame are made from 2” x 6” and 2” x 4” material and the top is two layers of 3/4” plywood with a piece of sacrificial hardboard on top of that. For storage, I used half of the bottom for a cabinet with drawers and the other half for open storage. The drawers would hold my clamps, glue bottles and other things needed at an assembly table. In the end, it was really more of a place to collect junk that was laying around the shop and get it out of site.
The drawer box was an absolute nightmare of a build. I was trying dados for the drawer bottoms, and those came out horrible. I made the mistake of cutting everything according to my cut list instead of waiting until things were dry-fit to make the measurements (lesson learned there). The really wide drawer at the top was meant to hold all of the parallel clamps I had at the time, which was not a whole lot. Installing that drawer was an utter nightmare. That drawer would bind up so horribly that I eventually just didn’t use it. After maybe a year or so, this workbench would eventually be replaced by Workbench, Version 3. Now, you may be wondering if I know how to count and, in fact, I do. As it turned out, Version 2 was another iteration of this workbench that was drawn up, but never built.
