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14 1/4 Inches Wide X 23 7/8 Inches Long X 24 Inches Tall
Wonder Bench Plans
This
is a really fun project and you can even make the cuts with a jigsaw but
a circular saw or electric miter saw is recommended. All your cuts are
square cuts except for the bottom of the legs which are simple cuts to
make. I use screws so a battery powered drill makes this project a real
breeze. You can also nail this bench using #6 finish nails or box nails.
You need to pre-drill the holes if possible. This project takes four
1X4 pine 8' long or 32 feet. I paid about 20 cents a foot at my local
Home Depot. You'll need some 1 1/4 inch coarse thread drywall screws.
One small box is enough. Glue is recommended to ensure the workbench
doesn't loosen up over many years of use.
Here's
Your Cut Sheet *Legs: 4 @ 23 1/4 inches long
Horizontals: 4 @ 22 1/4 inches long
Horizontals (ends): 4 @ 12 3/4 inches long
Top: 4 @ 23 7/8 inches long This leaves 48 inches of stock left you
can use for extras or use to re-cut pieces you cut the wrong length. One
tool you really need is a framing square. This makes your job simple and
critical to ensure your workbench is square itself. The horizontals are
glued to the legs and 1 1/4 inch screws are used. Each end horizontal is
held back from the edge 3/4 inches. I use a drill bit that has a beveled
collar but it's not necessary. Drill a pilot hole is helpful but don't
drill into the second piece. Only drill the piece laying on top or your
screws may not hold well. I
attach the top longer horizontal piece with the workbench laying on its
top. I place two screws into the horizontal piece directly into the
adjacent horizontal end piece. I also place one screw through the leg
from the end into the long horizontal piece in the middle of the board. Then
add the rest of your horizontal pieces by screwing them into your end
horizontals. It is highly recommended that you check your workbench with
a framing square as you are constructing the parts. Often, you will
discover that one piece may be slightly too long or short. You have a
bit of extra and could make an adjustment to improve your bench. As soon
as you have inserted all the screws, stand your workbench up and make
sure it is sitting firmly on a flat surface. [Fast Fix - How To] I use
plenty of glue on all the joints and especially the top. Here you can
see the glue applied before screwing on the top pieces. When
you lay your top pieces on, the ends may not line up perfectly across
the narrow end. This is ok. You can draw a straight line and trim it
slightly. The lengths of the tops pieces should be slightly longer than
the outside length measurement of your existing bench you just
constructed. This allows for a simple trimming or sanding because it
is much easier to construct a rectangle that is is more a parallelogram
than a perfect 3 dimension rectangle. I commonly use long pipe clamps to
force parts back to square using cross clamping techniques. By allowing
your top pieces to overlay your sides slightly, you build your workbench
more like a real table and allow some of imperfections. I usually sand
the edges flush and then hit them with the Porter Cable Sander.
This
design allows for you to lay your 4 top pieces and the spacing between
each piece will allow you to install them without worrying about the 4
pieces being too wide. Mark your screw line 1 1/8 inches back from the
edge and insert two screws in each board at the end. Keep all your
screws about 3/8 inches from edge of the board. Your horizontal ends
required you to drill your pilot hole 3/8 inches from the end of the
board also. This centers your screw into the 3/4 inch material you are
screwing into. I add a handle in the middle by cutting the two center boards. Simply
use a compass, draw a perpendicular line 1 3/4 inches back at the center
(11 15/16"), and draw an elliptical curve on each piece. This is the
most comfortable handle and doesn't require special sanding requirements
such as inside corners. This requires a jigsaw. If you don't have one
and would like a handle, notch this area out with a chisel or other
cutting tool. Make your handle at least 4 inches long from long point
measurement.
Here
I clean up all the corners by sanding a small bevel with my Porter Cable
Heavy Duty 7 Inch Disc Sander. [See Close Up Picture] With this
particular tool, this function takes seconds. This is a very powerful
tool that moves some serious wood. I have used this for grinding wood
down for carvings and it really saves time. I add a lower shelf in my
workbench to throw stuff while I'm working with the bench. You only need
for smaller pieces of scrap to nail or screw in the inside lower
banding.
Here
I have ripped 1 inch wide strips from the left over 1X4 pine, glued and
nailed to the inside flush with the bottom edge of the horizontals.
Then, I cut a piece of 1/4 Birch plywood 12 3/4 inches wide X 20 3/4
inches long. Any piece of material up to 3/4 inches think will work
fine. It's nice to keep your workbench lightweight because you will be
moving it around a lot. Lastly, you can always add additional screws
into the ends as I have done below right here.
Surprisingly, these workbenches last forever if you keep them dry. If
you leave them outside, they can rot out in just a year or two. Store
your workbench out of the rain! This is critical to its life. Please
refer back to the [plans] to help you build a basic workbench you can
use for all kinds of tasks around your home. I still have two older ones
around that were built with a solid piece on the end. They however are
not as wide, not as stable, and not as lightweight as this workbench.
Your workbench will become even more stable by standing the bottom of
the legs inside corner at the corner of the bevel. Once your workbench
ever starts to become unstable or loose, remove the screws and install 1
5/8 or 2 inch long coarse drywall screws. All the screws are there to
hold the boards in place until the glue no longer is working. Remember,
you have screws on the inside also. Copyright 2005© Randy Sink
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