3/8" workbench with drawers

[Renze]

10 years ago i bought an old glue table from my employer back then, for 90 euro. It was used to hold a sheet of plywood on stainless steel table tops with some big air cylinders holding it tight while the glue cured. I ground off the upper frame to use it as a workbench, welded M36 nuts under the 1.5 inch pipe legs so i could adjust the height and level.

Anyways, the 10mm (3/8 inch) top sheet kept me from cutting the 1250x2500 table (50x100 inch) to workbench size.

Untill last week, when i was done with the rear 50 cm which piled up junk because i couldnt reach that far without climbing on top.

I torched it down to 90cm width last week, and got launched by the engine hoist while tilting it

here i just took a couple of wheelbarrows of junk off it, before taking it out of the corner:



the 3/8 inch sheet made it a bit top heavy: If you take a look at that engine hoist, can you guess where i was ??


cutting it up from 125 to 90 cm:


putting the heavy C channel back


back on its feet:


Tomorrow its time to put the drawer blocks under: I bought a steel archive cabinet for 20 euro off ebay, and have two drawer cabinets under an old desktop, which i'm going to discard of because it takes so much room. Will post pictures of the finished result

 

[Ed of all trades]

Thanks for the post. I have a workbench in the shop that is the same way. Need to make it so I can reach the back, mine it wood and I am taking it apart to move so it will get done in the process. Ed

 

[Renze]

Here its finished: It still needs some mint green paint

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

I see the 'couple wheelbarrows of junk' made its way back on to the bench pretty quickly. I'm not much better but keep telling myself that I will be. I think cleaning off a workbench is like trap and relocate for nuisance animals.... sometimes we don't move it far enough away and it just goes back to where it was :laughing:

 

[Renze]

I see the 'couple wheelbarrows of junk' made its way back on to the bench pretty quickly.

The idea is that the drawers beneath it will contain the valuable stuff, so i can sweep the rest of it to the floor

 

[EddieWalker]

Good job, it came out nice. I've also found that it is almost impossible to have an empty bench or table top. I try to make an effort to create a place for everything, but my wife doesn't grasp the concept at all. As soon as I clean it up, she uses that spot for dog food, toilet paper, or whatever she just bought at the store!!!

 

[Steave]

I like a heavy sturdy table like you have, looks good. I try to leave about 2-3 " of the top protruding out past the main supports makes it easier for me to use C Clamps and Vise Grips to hold material down.

You say mint green paint and that seems bright enough. My cousin has a machine shop and he was talking about how all the metal darkened his shop. The next time I visited he had someone paint all his mills, lathes, and other machinery white. It really brightened up his shop. When I came home I painted 2 of my work tables white, top and all, as these were not welding tables. My old welding table is dark and just like it was.

 

[Renze]

Mint green, i mean machine green, like most lathes, drills and band saws are. I wanted to use it on my workshop press, but i use it as is, and i havent finished the dual pump setup yet

 

[Big Barn]

3/8" workbench with drawers

Mint green, i mean machine green, like most lathes, drills and band saws are. I wanted to use it on my workshop press, but i use it as is, and i havent finished the dual pump setup yet

Your table looks terrific, Renze.

I too, am impartial to "machine green"




Terry

 

[Renze]

I too, am impartial to "machine green"

Thats it ! RAL 6011 if i remember correct from the year i designed some testbenches at a production company

 

[Renze]

Slow progress: RAL 6011 machine green applied to the framework. Monday its time to get a new can of paint and do the drawers, and hoist the bench itself back to its place.

 

[Renze]

Paint is dry, drawer cabinets put in place... now its time to think where to put what, and throw away whatever is left over

 

[newbury]

Thanks for the post. I have a workbench in the shop that is the same way. Need to make it so I can reach the back, mine it wood and I am taking it apart to move so it will get done in the process. Ed

Most of my work benches are to wide to comfortably make use of the far side:




Because they are based on 8' x 42" wide pallet racking.

However I'm putting recycled cabinets and shelving on the backs of the one I want to "narrow" down.

Good job, it came out nice. I've also found that it is almost impossible to have an empty bench or table top. I try to make an effort to create a place for everything, but my wife doesn't grasp the concept at all. As soon as I clean it up, she uses that spot for dog food, toilet paper, or whatever she just bought at the store!!!

I had the same problem 40 years ago. Back then I only had a 15'x15' space and one 30x60 table. Quickly figured out that if I put large boxes on my workspaces (the table and tablesaw) that LOOKED like they contained "project oriented" stuff she would leave it alone and put stuff away where it belonged. She caught me one time stacking a bunch of empty boxes so I could lay out a project, but I wiggled my way out of it. It's best if you can accumulate a bunch of triple thick cardboard boxes that you can nest like russian nesting dolls.

Now with 5,500 sq feet of shops and over 100 linear feet of worksurface 42" wide I don't worry. Plus it's over 50 yards from the house so she rarely unloads anything in the shops .

Paint is dry, drawer cabinets put in place... now its time to think where to put what, and throw away whatever is left over

Looking good!

What is this concept

throw away whatever is left over

left over is what is needed for the project you don't know about yet!

 

[Steave]

Paint is dry, drawer cabinets put in place... now its time to think where to put what, and throw away whatever is left over

Left over stuff is not junk; it's good for future use.

 

[Renze]

Left over stuff is not junk; it's good for future use.

I have about 30 years worth of odd sized sockets, like 21, 18, 23mm ones. When your ratchet is broken, and socket 13 and 17 and 19 missing (most used sizes in Metric) its cheaper to buy a new socket ratchet set. You end up with lots of never used sizes if you never throw away some...

The same goes for old paint, a few years ago i opened my paint cans, and could throw away two third of them because they dried in the can, over one or more decades.

 

[Steave]

I know what you mean about the paint. Had a disaster with a metal 5 gallon bucket of concrete epoxy paint, floor grey. It had about 4 1/2 gallons (17 Liters) I had set the bucket under an outside work table and sort of forgot about it. One day picked it up by the handle of course and the bottom come off, was rusted all the way around and the weight from me picking it up blub, blub, blub. What wasn't dried up probably half went on the ground. Shovel time, man what a mess but lesson learned. Reminds me I need to go check the paint shelves in my shop and discard all the dried up cans.

Work table looks good. So far I have enough room to walk around 2 of my tables and one is on wheels so the depth don't bother me much.

 

[Renze]

I had a can of paint with the rim of the lid rusted all around. i could pry the lid off with a screwdriver but wonder if it will ever seal again. I threw away about 1/3 of my paint cans. When i couldnt hear a slush when shaking them, i opened them, and most of them were indeed stiff as a corpse.