A co-worker of mine pointed me in the direction of this site, and it seems like a great resource for information.
I'm starting to learn how to do simple woodworking projects, so I started with a workbench for the house I just bought which did not have one in the garage.
I started by drawing by hand and eventually making a CAD model of the final product, which actually helped me quite a bit to avoid some stupid mistakes in the final product.
To start cutting the wood for the top and bottom frames, I cut one template piece and ascribed all the others based on the template.
Here are the two frames completed:
I used 6x6's for the legs. This proved difficult to cut because I didn't have good way to support the legs. The problem I had without proper support of the wood was the sag of the wood while the blade was still cutting. Then when I flipped the pieces, the cut wouldn't make a flat plane. I wasted a lot of time fixing this and ended up with legs that were ~1/16th off one another. It didn't end up making the bench rock in the end but it was a huge pain.
Legs getting attached to the frames:
I used 1/2 in. x 5" long lag bolts on the front faces of the leg attachment to the frames for a "beefy" look.
I clamped the legs to the lower frame to get to them all squared up.
Then it was time to put on the 2x6's on the top:
And add the OSB panel for the shelf (it was too long to slide in, I had to cut it in half unfortunately -- my mistake for not putting it on earlier):
And finally, a disposable hardboard top that can be swapped out in 1 minute. These cost $13 at Home Depot and make for an easy replaceable work surface.
All in all, I made a ton of mistakes, learned a lot, and got a great bench out of it. I look forward to learning a lot more from all of you on the forum.
I'm starting to learn how to do simple woodworking projects, so I started with a workbench for the house I just bought which did not have one in the garage.
I started by drawing by hand and eventually making a CAD model of the final product, which actually helped me quite a bit to avoid some stupid mistakes in the final product.
To start cutting the wood for the top and bottom frames, I cut one template piece and ascribed all the others based on the template.
Here are the two frames completed:
I used 6x6's for the legs. This proved difficult to cut because I didn't have good way to support the legs. The problem I had without proper support of the wood was the sag of the wood while the blade was still cutting. Then when I flipped the pieces, the cut wouldn't make a flat plane. I wasted a lot of time fixing this and ended up with legs that were ~1/16th off one another. It didn't end up making the bench rock in the end but it was a huge pain.
Legs getting attached to the frames:
I used 1/2 in. x 5" long lag bolts on the front faces of the leg attachment to the frames for a "beefy" look.
I clamped the legs to the lower frame to get to them all squared up.
Then it was time to put on the 2x6's on the top:
And add the OSB panel for the shelf (it was too long to slide in, I had to cut it in half unfortunately -- my mistake for not putting it on earlier):
And finally, a disposable hardboard top that can be swapped out in 1 minute. These cost $13 at Home Depot and make for an easy replaceable work surface.
All in all, I made a ton of mistakes, learned a lot, and got a great bench out of it. I look forward to learning a lot more from all of you on the forum.
