2x4 Basics Work Bench

I know there are several here that have used these kits to build benches and really like them. Well, I needed to build a new bench so I thought I would experiment with one of these kits to see if they were everything they were advertised to be.

This is what I'm talking about in case some of you are unfamiliar with them



You basically but the legs and screws in a kit and just add whatever size wood you need to create a new piece of garage art.

I wanted to build one 8' long and 32" wide to fit a particular space. I used scrap lumber for everything except the top and I chose 3/4" CDX plywood for that. I wanted something hefty, so I used 2x6's for the top shelf and 2x4's for the bottom with 1/2" plywood for the bottom shelf. I decided to leave the middle shelf out so I would have more storage space on the bottom shelf.

Assembly took about an hour and was pretty straight forward. Just cut the boards and screw it together. I did have to use some bar clamps to square it up before installing the top, but that might have been the scrap wood I used or it might have been something to do with the plastic legs. Assembly took about an hour or so and I was not in a big hurry. The framing was all cut with a miter saw and I used a 18v impact to drive the screws in. I liked that the screws for the legs went in at an angle to pull the wood into the corners tight.

With 2x6's on top and 3/4" plywood it came up to a nice height of 37" tall. That was very comfortable for me at 6'-2". I actually used it for scaffolding to stand on to work on my lights this afternoon, but it was heavy to slide around and I wanted to make it more mobile.

The bottom of the bottom board is about 3 1/2" from the floor so I needed 4" casters to get it up to rolling height. Off to Home Depot I go and come back with 2 rigid and 2 swivel 4" casters with brakes.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...aster-with-Brake-49512/203661087#.Un663uJin_E

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...gid-Plate-Caster-49484/203661071#.Un66e-Jin_E

Flipped the bench on it's top and scabbed on a 2x4 inside the bottom shelf to give me enough room to bolt on the casters. This raised the legs up about 1 1/2" from the floor and the work height to about 38 3/4" which still works well for me, but shorter folks might like it better with a 2x4 top instead.

Overall I am very happy with the end result. The bench is extremely sturdy and it now glides anywhere I want it to go. I know y'all like pics, so here's a few before it gets trashed in the shop.

Where did you buy the legs from? How much was it? I like the scaffolding idea.

I ordered the kit from Amazon since I do not have a store local that sells them.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030T1BRE/?tag=atomicindus08-20

After I crunched some numbers, the same bench could have been built with 4x4 legs for about $50 less. I am going to build another the same size out of only lumber this week and picked everything up (less screws) yesterday for $102 at Home Depot.

It should be about as easy as using the kit legs. Really just wanted an excuse to try them out.

spotco2 . . . .

I have been trying to figure out how to install casters on the bottom of my 2x4 Basics bench. Could you PLEASE PLEASE try to take a pic (or several) of how you attached the casters to your bench from underneath ???




(Here is where I had been previously asking --> http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132313)

These expensive plastic legs look like cheap plastic legs, IMO
Notching 4x4's for legs would give you a stronger bench for less money.
YMMV

(Nice job on the bench, though.)

PugetDude said:

These expensive plastic legs look like cheap plastic legs, IMO

Click to expand...

Have you actually seen/held a set of those legs?

They're actually very sturdy and strong ... and, unlike wood, they won't rot.

CaptainMarvel said:

Have you actually seen/held a set of those legs?

They're actually very sturdy and strong ... and, unlike wood, they won't rot.

Click to expand...

A 6x6 PT notched will be stronger and won't rot. Wood will also allow you to put nails to hang things or attaching outlets on the legs for power tool usage. Probably cannot do that very well with those Fisher Price work bench legs.

I do commend spotco2 for going with 2x6's.


bob

bob15 said:

Probably cannot do that very well with those Fisher Price work bench legs.

bob

Click to expand...

Well, I'm not going to get into a ******* match about what's better ... because in the end, it's WHAT WORKS - and I can assure you from first-hand experience, the 2x4 Basics legs work very well for a sturdy workbench or assembly table function.

As you can see from the numerous photo examples within THIS THREAD, the work bench legs are very versatile as well.

And FYI, if one wanted to add a power strip to a 2x4 Basics bench, one could do so very easily by attaching such to any one of the the 2x4/2x6 sides of the bench - just as you would/could with an "all wood" bench.


Again, not worth getting into a ******* match .... but I will say that I'm really not sure how you can opine the 2x4 Basics bench legs to be "Fisher Price work bench legs" when - in all likelihood - you've never seen nor handled the legs yourself in person.

Nice review. Thanks.

CaptainMarvel said:

... and, unlike wood, they won't rot.

Click to expand...

A workbench sitting in your garage won't rot, legs or flat surfaces. If you are worried about rotting legs, you also need to be worried about rotting flat surfaces, none of which will happen, even if Sandy comes along.

Charles

Great looking workbench. It looks like you done a very good job on it. Thanks for taking the time to document it and share it with us. Don't know why people want to rain on your parade.

Thanks for the kind words. Like I said, I just wanted to see what all the hype was about with these kits and I needed a few benches, so I tried one.

I built another that is a similar size (not mobile) this evening using 4x4 legs and 3/4" MDF for a top. That was the only difference and the ticket came up to $102 at Home Depot (minus screws) for a bench that was 37" tall, 32" deep and 8' long. It would have been about the same price if I had used 2 pieces of 2x6 screwed together for legs. Honestly that might have gone together faster since the 4x4's were not exactly straight and had to be pulled pretty hard with ratchet straps to get the base square for the bottom shelf to fit.

The 2x4 Basics "kit" was assembled in about an hour (taking my time) and the bench with 4x4 legs took about 2 hours because the base gave me some issues.

Here's a pic of this evenings bench.

bob15 said:

A 6x6 PT notched will be stronger and won't rot. Wood will also allow you to put nails to hang things or attaching outlets on the legs for power tool usage. Probably cannot do that very well with those Fisher Price work bench legs.

I do commend spotco2 for going with 2x6's.


bob

Click to expand...

Thank you Bob, I think.

As far as the Fisher Price legs, they impressed me with their strength and ease of assembly. I own many firearms that are built from Fisher Price plastic and they seem to hold up very well to thousands of rounds of abuse.

These are a niche item. They are built for speed and sometimes faster is better. I don't always have time to stick build something from scratch and I'm sure there are many others here that feel the same way. They are also made for ease of assembly. There are plenty of people out there that have a limited number of tools and skill that need a bench, but might have trouble designing and assembling 4 legs that all are the same height. Heck, I'll admit I'm one of them sometimes and most things I build have a wobble to them. We're not all perfect and items such as these help in certain situations.

As I said, I walked all over this bench and drug it all over the shop using it as scaffolding to swap out the ballast on 8 lights after I built it and before I installed the casters. I would not hesitate to put anything I will ever have in my shop on top of this bench or hammer the snot out of it. If something breaks, I'll just fix it but I do not expect it to be an issue.

As far as hanging **** off the legs, probably not but there is no reason that you could not run a 2x4 parallel to the legs from the top shelf to the bottom and attach your bottle opener there. I am actually planning on building drawer units under the top of this particular bench and hanging them from the bottom of the top shelf.

Honestly, I do not plan to ever hang anything with nails from the front or sides of the legs of any of my benches. Things like that just seem to get in the way of whatever is stored under the bench and anything that sticks out (like a nail) is just another place to snag your leg and rip a good pair of pants or even your skin.

CaptainMarvel said:

spotco2 . . . .

I have been trying to figure out how to install casters on the bottom of my 2x4 Basics bench. Could you PLEASE PLEASE try to take a pic (or several) of how you attached the casters to your bench from underneath ???




(Here is where I had been previously asking --> http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132313)

Click to expand...

I'm no Captain Marvel or Incredible Hulk. I'm 6'-2" and weigh in at 156 lbs, soaking wet while holding a brick. This bench weighs more than I do. I love ya, but I don't see me flipping this back over just to take a pic of the casters. I can draw you a simple pic though...



Imagine this is looking up from the bottom of the bench at one corner. Just scab on a scrap piece of 2x4 inside the bottom long leg at each corner. This will give you sections about 3" wide at each corner. This is plenty of room to lag bolt the mounting plates for most 4" casters. 3" are to small because they will not raise the bottom of the Fisher Price legs off the floor but about 1/2" and most concrete floors might have high or low spots causing them to scrub when you roll it across the floor.

If planning on casters, you might want to consider 2x4's for the top instead of 2x6's as this made the top rather tall. I think I'm ok with the height but have not really had a chance to use it yet. That's the beauty of these legs, you can change the size of the bench easily if you are not happy with what you built the first time.

I still have a set of their shelves to play with. I'm just not sure what I want to do with them yet.

spotco2 said:

I built another that is a similar size (not mobile) this evening using 4x4 legs and 3/4" MDF for a top.

Click to expand...

Great minds think alike.

I built the table below about 15 years ago to hold up a 750 pound mill. Almost identical construction to yours. It was rock solid all those years. Sold the mill recently and wanted to keep the table, but the buyer wanted it.

Rot??

spotco2 said:

Imagine this is looking up from the bottom of the bench at one corner. Just scab on a scrap piece of 2x4 inside the bottom long leg at each corner. This will give you sections about 3" wide at each corner. This is plenty of room to lag bolt the mounting plates for most 4" casters. 3" are to small because they will not raise the bottom of the Fisher Price legs off the floor but about 1/2" and most concrete floors might have high or low spots causing them to scrub when you roll it across the floor.

Click to expand...

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for this !!!

I am going to be giving this a try this coming weekend.

So I followed spotco2's lead and worked on adding casters to my 2x4 basics workbench - which is 3.5' x 8' using 2x6 beams. Exactly as diagramed above, I "scabbed" an additional 2x6 piece to the bottom support beams, but I found that the base of the swivel casters were too wide too attach to the two scabbed pieces of 2x6.


So my question (to spotco2) is, how did you go about attaching the wider base swivel casters?
Did you scab a third piece of 2x6?

CaptainMarvel said:

So my question (to spotco2) is, how did you go about attaching the wider base swivel casters?
Did you scab a third piece of 2x6?

Click to expand...

Not spotco2...and I don't have this system, but the answer will be the same...

1. Determine the width required of your caster.
2. Note that a 2x6 is really 1.5" wide.
3. Add appropriate sized lumber to 2x6 to hit your caster width.

I would presume a 4x4 (3.5" x 3.5") or 4x6 (3.5" x 5.5") would work. You could also scab another 2x6 but I don't like the fact it's not secured to the main frame.

nolimits76 said:

Not spotco2...and I don't have this system, but the answer will be the same...

1. Determine the width required of your caster.
2. Note that a 2x6 is really 1.5" wide.
3. Add appropriate sized lumber to 2x6 to hit your caster width.

I would presume a 4x4 (3.5" x 3.5") or 4x6 (3.5" x 5.5") would work. You could also scab another 2x6 but I don't like the fact it's not secured to the main frame.

Click to expand...

THANK YOU . . . Pretty much the solutions I was thinking - though I was just checking to see if there was a method that spotco2 utilized that might have been different.

I made sure the casters that I bought had based all enough to fit on 2 boards. If your bases are to wide for that, just add a third piece of scrap to make the mounting area wide enough.