It's really nice when you already have material ready for a project you don't have to go out and buy any. That's the case with this project, I had a ton of 2X4's that were leftover from a project that my brother-in-law was working on and I decided to use all those two-by-fours to create a new workbench.
Material used
2x4's
Wood screws
Tools Used
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STEP 1: MILLING & GLUE UP
before I do any milling for the top I decided that I was just gonna glue it all together and mill it after, so I used a ton of glue and as much clamping pressure as I can to reduce any
twisting and turning.
As you know 2x4's aren't the straightest so I kind of made do with what I could. I made four different sections like this because the boards were already cut shorter than
what I wanted for the workbench so I had to glue part of this workbench end to end.
Once the glue had dried overnight I ran each piece through the planer to
clean up the faces of the board.
Once all the planing was done, I cut each board to length on my miter saw.
And then cleaned up the edges on my table saw.
Now, like I said before I had to glue the board's end-to-end to make it as long of
a workbench as I wanted it to be. The process was pretty easy I just used a
couple dowels to go through the center and make sure the board stayed straight.
After that I planed the two pieces that are now the full length of the bench, and then glued them together to give me the full width of the bench.
I used a couple support pieces of wood to make sure that the bench stayed straight while the glue dried.
now for some reason I didn't get any of images of me making the legs, but it's pretty simple it's just three 2x4's glued together and then ran through the jointer and planer to clean up the edges. I also created some braces that are connected a smaller brace going across on the side and then longer brace that goes along the back to give it support
Here is a picture of the back legs and long brace after step 2
Step 2: JOINERY
I was going to originally cut the lap joints using hand tools, but i'm not that great at using hand tools so I stuck with my table saw. I marked where I wanted the lap to its to be cut and I clamped two of the legs together so I could cut two at a time.
Then I use my miter gauge to help me cut these lap joints make sure that they were straight.
During this process I also cut the tenon's of the mortise and tenon's where the legs will connect to the workbench top.
I don't know why but the funnest part about not having a dado stack is being able to chip out and chisel out this center part of the lap joint
Now another thing that I failed to film was me cutting these through mortises. It's actually good thing that I failed to film it because I'm not very good at it. That's something that I'm still learning.
Step 3: ASSEMBLY
It was a pretty straightforward glue up just used regular wood glue on the mortise and tenon's and then also on the cross supports.
on the cross supports I also drilled 3-inch screws to make sure everything stayed aligned while the glue is drying.
Step 4: FINISHING
On the bottom of the legs I used my router with a round-over bit to give a smooth round edge to make sure that the legs won't split when this workbench is picked up and put down hard.
Because the glue was all dry removed the screws,
drilled holes with a Forstner bit,
and then filled it with a couple dowels to plug up the holes
I like this look (especially after its all sanded) instead of having these metal screws in the side of this nice wood workbench
Because my through mortises were so terrible it made the bench top not flat so I filled in the through mortises with some epoxy that I could sand down.
Once the epoxy was dry I gave it a good sanding with my belt sander.
I'm not gonna put any finish on this workbench because I know that the top is gonna get dinged up and to me it's just not worth putting any finish
After sanding I put some rolling casters on all four legs.
I love this style of rolling caster because it just takes a little push to engage the wheel, but then I can lower the bench and allow it to be on the ground sturdy and strong. It also allows me to push it out of the way when I'm not using it.
Step 5: OBSERVATION
And this guy is done!
I love how this turned out, and I've loved using this workbench so far it's add so much functionality to my workshop. It's nice being able to have a place to use my hand tools and
being able to have another place to build stuff it really helps me out on all my projects.
One of the many things I didn't film for this build is how I drilled the dog holes and installed the tail vise. but if you have any questions about how to do that, go ahead and email me.
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Never Stop Creating!