Hoosir's Woodworking Diary

An Industrial Workbench In Your Garage

If you are setting up a home workshop, one of the most important things you will want to include in it is a workbench. A workbench helps you work with accuracy. There are many prefabricated workbenches you can purchase, or you can build your own workbench. You can buy a plan to do this, or buy a kit and put it together.

A workbench will come in a variety of sizes and styles and what you choose will depend on what kind of work you will be doing on it. Workbenches serve for woodworking, crafts projects or just household repairs. A good bench can be bought at a home improvement store, but if you prefer to build a bench, look for plans on the Internet or in do it yourself books. There you can look through hundreds of designs to pick the one that suits you best.

The most common design is a table style, with a hardwood top, although some come with table tops made of steel, and metal legs, in six or eight foot lengths. They are sturdy and durable and will suit just about any project. It looks like a table, with nothing underneath. You can also get a cabinet style, that has drawers or cabinets under the table top. The dead space under the table is put to good use in this way. Another option you may see, or you can hang your own, is pegboard behind the table to hang tools and other supplies and have them at hand.

Some workbenches come with a power strip built into them, and if you use power tools, this is an ideal layout. Up to nine outlets are in the strip and a heavy duty cord connects them to the electricity. They should have protection against an electrical overload. Another attractive option is a tool caddy so smaller tools can be easily reached.

If you want to customize your workbench, you may consider building your own. You can buy a kit, and everything you need for the bench will come with it, but of course, you are limited to the design of the kit. The pieces are precut to be put targeted without mistakes.

If you build your own workbench, you will have the option to make it exactly the way you want, though it will be more work. You can find free plans on the Internet and you just have to cut the wood pieces and follow the plan.

If you are going to do this, choose good wood, such as oak or a hardwood plywood. To protect it, put on a number of coats of polyurethane. Sand between each coat, so that you have a smooth nice looking finish that will be an easy to clean surface.

In order to make room for your new workbench, you will have to clean out and organize the space where it will be. This is the time to get rid of old paint, junk, and tools that are broken or you no longer use. Start with plenty of storage space so you won’t have a messy, cluttered work area. Cabinets can organize tools and supplies, and the walls of your garage can be used to store a lot of items. Consider installing high cabinets to store chemicals and paints, as well as sharp items, out of the reach of children. You may want to put locks on lower cabinets for safety as well. Large items can be stored in locker style cabinets, and you can put in drawers with dividers to organize smaller tools and parts.

About the Author

Leroy Calstard often creates summaries on problems related to woodworking workbench and garage racks. You can discover his writings on
garage workbench
on his site.

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