Garage Workbench

After the house was built, I was spending so much time building the closets, than the mudroom that I got fed up and decided to stop working on the floor of the garage. To be honest, I should have built this first but better later than never!

After watching the builders work I learned a vital lesson in construction. If you can build a jig, any jig than it would be better than free handing cuts over and over again. A simple jig is measuring a cut on a workbench with a mitre saw and just screwing a stop at the point that you want. For example, if you want 10 boards cut a 2′ each than just measure 2′ and screw down a wood stop and than cut all 10 boards. They don’t have to be measured after the first cut and in fact they will be more precise and identical than if you measured each individually. A jig can be made for most purposes but I find having a wood work bench more useful than a store bought mitre saw extender because you have the flexibility of screwing things right into the top if you want or need to make a jig.

I built this workbench out of construction grade plywood. The design limitation was that I wanted it to fold into the wall for storage (only takes us 6″ floor space from the wall when put away) yet it allows up to 8′ of working space for cutting full boards. The middle insert is levelled to the top of the mitre saw. The mitre saw can be dropped in or removed to drop in a router insert to make it a router table. To make it complete, it has a 4″ overhang all around for clamping, a power bar for turning on equipment and it is levelled to the top of my table saw as well for large cuts.

With this table, you can make almost anything by yourself! Rip 4X8 sheets on the table saw by yourself- no problem. Rout 8′ lengths with no jiggle- no problem. Again I won’t get into the details. The design idea came from http://www.core77.com/posts/25533/the-story-of-how-ron-paulk-discovered-he-had-inadvertently-created-a-product-design-hit-25533 and http://www.ana-white.com/2015/04/free_plans/fold-down-workbench-featuring-wilker-dos and was of course modified to meet my needs. The ideas for the drop in router insert with a pneumatic lift came from Colin Knecht of woodworking web https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiBUMnAstj0. Here are the pictures!

 

had to work on the floor initially

i than built the undercounted cabinets being careful to leave a 4″ overhang for clamping

bottom of insert. all screws were made with pocket holes for strength

what it looks like on floor with insert cut out of the top

cutting boards with pocket hole jig

cutting legs, holes were made with a drill press

table completed on ground

mounting stud

table anchored to mounting stuff with piano hinge

on wall with stops on all side to keep from falling

finished look

router table insert was made

i bought the weatherboards and the plastic router mount

insert in table

in routing position

in open position to adjust router

back of router table insert with knob screws to adjust. table also has a powerbar in front for turning on easily and a mount in the back of the insert for the shop vac!