Folding Work Bench

[AlbertaGuy]

As I've seen in a few posts, some members have opted to build work benches that can conveiniently fold up to the wall and lock in place when they are not in use. This is a great idea and one that I haven't thought of before but I am always looking for another place to work from. I am wondering if anyone can post some pictures/ ideas or plans to build one. I also like the idea of a consealed storage area that is hid when the bench is up where I can store my woodworking tools, clamps, handsaws,etc. I am hoping to find something very sturdy but not so bulky that I need to winch it up to the wall. As always, and help is appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

[Jack Olsen]

In my initial clean-up of the garage, I added a fold-down table for wood projects. It had pre-drilled holes for my router table and was at the same height as the other bench in the garage so I could use it for cutting long pieces of lumber. I liked it so much that when I took up welding, I added a second, steel table for welding. Both of them fold up along the wall of the garage so I can still park my car there. But when I back the car out I can lower one or both of them for work. It’s a really handy thing to have when you’re working in a small space.

I don't have anything like plans for them, I'm afraid. I kind of make stuff up as I go along when it comes to building. But I'm happy to answer any questions here.

 

[d33pt]

do you think the legs that go to the wall are better, or the ones that go straight down? i see you have one of each.

 

[TN_GARAGE]

do you think the legs that go to the wall are better, or the ones that go straight down? i see you have one of each.

Probably depends on how handy you are with a miter saw.

You can also support the table with a rope/chain and no legs.

 

[AlbertaGuy]

I prefer the legs myself as I did metal fabrication as a journeyman welder for many years and I tend to be a little rough. I'm guessing that your legs lock in place to make the table sturdier which is good. Your first table looks like its steel. Is it heavy? Do you have pictures ot the hardware of how its fastened to the wall and secured when its not in use?

 

[82_454_shorty]

I picked this one up at Princess back in December. It was on sale for $150.

http://www.princessauto.com/worksho...storage/8338097-heavy-duty-folding-work-bench

 

[RoarkIndustrialSolutions]

These are used in food prep.

http://roarkindustrialsolutions.indoff.com/media/RIS/NEW_PVICatalogRetractablePages.pdf

 

[Falcon67]

Probably depends on how handy you are with a miter saw.

Some guy named Pythagoras had a theory about that. It's Friday, put up with it.

 

[jeffk14]

I picked this one up at Princess back in December. It was on sale for $150.

http://www.princessauto.com/worksho...storage/8338097-heavy-duty-folding-work-bench

DAY-um, I'd be all over that for $150! You couldn't buy the material and build one for that cheap. Never seen one of those for sale here in the states though.

 

[28HopUp]

DAY-um, I'd be all over that for $150! You couldn't buy the material and build one for that cheap. Never seen one of those for sale here in the states though.

Although the price isn't bad, seeing that pic got my mind racing as to how I could fabricate that design with lumber.

 

[Chris Adams]

I 'borrowed' from Jack Olsen's idea and put a single folding shelf in my shop, don't have a close picture right now, but there is enough to see it.
I had a scrap of leftover .7 birch plywood, two legs and some door hinges. I also mounted a 2x4 as a back ledge to hang it from.
My reason to make it a folding bench was to get two more feet of parking space when I have the dually in the shop. 21 foot dually, 24 foot shop depth means I need to fold up the shelf at that point.
Most the time I leave it down, and dock my little cart under it.
That still leaves a good view of the mirror.


The bench doesn't look like much but it will hold my weight (235) with ease, and cost me nothing but scrap.
If I had bought the stuff for the job it would still be under 30 dollars. When it is up I have a gate hook that holds it.
The two tubular legs insert in sockets (steel) on the bottom of the bench, but I would use wood if I hadn't already had the legs and sockets.


Mirror is for one man parking on the lift, and is priceless, though I got it free.

 

[Jack Olsen]

do you think the legs that go to the wall are better, or the ones that go straight down? i see you have one of each.

Straight down is stronger, but the diagonal legs allow me to still park the car with the table down. I knew the wood table wouldn't carry as much weight as the steel one.

But I've jumped up and down on the wooden one without any issue.

I prefer the legs myself as I did metal fabrication as a journeyman welder for many years and I tend to be a little rough. I'm guessing that your legs lock in place to make the table sturdier which is good. Your first table looks like its steel. Is it heavy? Do you have pictures ot the hardware of how its fastened to the wall and secured when its not in use?

The table is secured to the wall with very large hinges every 16" -- lag bolts into the studs. On the wood bench, there are also supports under the table surface so that the table (when out) isn't putting all its weight on the hinges. But with the metal one the hinges were so big I wasn't worried as much about that. The legs swing out on hinges and then snap into place with the help of some large magnets. It's pretty simple. There isn't much lateral force on the legs because of the way the top is secured to the wall. It's held in place with carabiners going into eye bolts going into the wall studs again. I used two so there would be some redundancy.

The table is made of 1/8" mild steel sheet with 1/4" thick 2" angle stock for its frame. Any thicker on the top and I think there would be a weight issue and I'd need to have assistance raising it and lowering it.

If I'd thought about it more, I'd have found a way to space the hinges further away from the studs so that there would be more space behind the top when it's folded up. As it is, I worked it out so my thicker clamps were up higher and my thinner stuff was stored down lower. It's handy to have all that stuff stored behind the bench, but not so much when you just need one thing that's back there and the car is inside the garage.

I covered the plywood above, around and below the table with aluminum flashing (some of it's painted to match the wall) to address fire concerns. I have a large attic fan up above it to evacuate fumes when I'm working.

My cost for the steel bench was less than $100. I got the tables second-hand when I was making a jig setup for my front-yard fence.

AlbertaGuy, I'll be interested in what you come up with. I'm the opposite of a journeyman welder -- not in the trade at all. I was making it up as I went along.

 

[TN_GARAGE]

Some guy named Pythagoras had a theory about that. It's Friday, put up with it.

For sure, that book learnin stuff is probably why I'd be more apt to go with straight legs (my skills...er lack of skills....command me to keep things simple)

 

[m.james]

These are used in food prep.

http://roarkindustrialsolutions.indoff.com/media/RIS/NEW_PVICatalogRetractablePages.pdf

Is that side paneling removable if so these would be the perfect premade ones.

 

[RoarkIndustrialSolutions]

Not removable as its part of the bends. However, I'm sure I could have the factory come up with another design with the bends the other way.

Is that side paneling removable if so these would be the perfect premade ones.

 

[AlbertaGuy]

Jack Olsen, I really like the clean and practical look of your table and plan on using that as my template. I have a couple of small changes I am going to make but keep it similar. I am going to make a 2X4 border around the tool board that the table will rest against, this will allow me to inset the tools and the table will sit flat against it. The steel top will be a bit more pricey than what you paid I am sure but blame the wife for not allowing my hoarding tendencies to store spare steel stock in our walkin closet.

 

[NJHandyGuy]

These are used in food prep.

http://roarkindustrialsolutions.indoff.com/media/RIS/NEW_PVICatalogRetractablePages.pdf

WOW i really like the idea behind that i can definately see the practical crossover application

 

[Ocho]

Mine are 2x8 work surfaces. I screwed a 2x4 to the studs, then hung the tabletop with three door hinges from the 2x4. The tabletop is made from two layers of 23/32 plywood ($25 a sheet at HD) glued and screwed together. I'm not sure what I was thinking with the 2x4 frame along the bottom. It doesn't really do much but add weight. I used window latches bolted to the wall and the edge of the tabletop to secure it in the up position. The whole thing is pretty "hefty" but by no means needs a winch. Was pretty tricky hanging it on the wall by myself, though.

If I had it to do over again*, I would have used three or four legs and tied them together. I would have also done the bottom differently and used four hinges instead of three. I prefer the legs at an angle so there is less interference when working. Straight up and down legs are stronger, but the angled legs resting against the concrete slab ledge are plenty strong.

*[note] Shortly after I got to this point in the pictures, we found a house we fell in love with and put ours on the market. The new buyers did not want the fold up workbenches so I took them with me. I'll get a do-over on my install.

View media item 5710View media item 5715

 

[little d]

I modifyed Jacks idea a little (thanks again Jack). repurposed floor grate.

 

[pro-rallye]

Seeing all of these folding benches has got me motivated. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to fit a light fab table in my one car closet, errr garage with all my other junk in there, but now I know exactly what to do. Thanks for the great ideas fellas, can't wait to finish mine up. Cheers!

 

[AlbertaGuy]

Well, got the bench finished. Actually it was done last month but I took off to Cancun for a while and dove into some other projects that I had kept putting off so here it is. I compiled ideas from all the guys that had built theirs and come up with... well something along the same lines. I built out a frame on the wall of 2X6 so that the bench sits flush and theres room to store stuff. I built the legs out of aluminum and the work well, telescoping in for flat storage. Thanks to everyone that gave me ideas.

 

[Jack Olsen]

That looks great!

 

[AlbertaGuy]

Truth be known, alot of the inspiration started with yours Jack. Thanks again.

 

[LennyTheLizard]

Well, got the bench finished. Actually it was done last month but I took off to Cancun for a while and dove into some other projects that I had kept putting off so here it is. I compiled ideas from all the guys that had built theirs and come up with... well something along the same lines. I built out a frame on the wall of 2X6 so that the bench sits flush and theres room to store stuff. I built the legs out of aluminum and the work well, telescoping in for flat storage. Thanks to everyone that gave me ideas.

AlbertaGuy,

This is exactly what I'm wanting to build for my attached garage. Do you have a side view of the bench folded down? I'm interested in exactly where and what style hinges you used.

Is the back of the bench only held up by the hinges, or do you have some sort of ledger board that holds the weight up?

 

[Joeydabomb]

Bumping this up, I'm thinking of a folding work bench in my tight 2 car and would love to get some more ideas.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I don't know if it will help, but the new issue of 'Wood' magazine has a thing on my fold-down woodworking bench. The strange thing is that for the sake of the article they had someone build an identical copy of my bench. I've got to say: it's weird to see something I made up as I went along (and mostly depended on scraps and hardware I had on hand) show up on someone else's wall, presented as a finished and instruction-worthy design. It's flattering, sure -- but it also makes me think of all the things I could have done better with it.

Here's the first thing I think could be improved on. Those little chocks along the base of the wall are not the best way to make sure the legs don't get bumped and slide laterally. A better way would be to use a piece of 1x4 lumber as a crosspiece connecting the two legs. (You could even notch the legs so the crossmember mounts flush.) The 1x4 would keep the two legs parallel, and it wouldn't involve putting four little dirt-catchers down at the floor line.

Also, as I learned with my second (steel) fold-down bench, it makes good sense to have a long piece like a 2x4 or 2x6 run between the bench and the wall so that you can use the wall space above the bench to store stuff that (in the case of a 2x4 or 2x6) is up to 1-5/8" thick.

Albertaguy's full box on the wall is also a very cool way to do it.

But that's the nice thing about a forum like this, you can continue to make improvements on new ideas.

 

[Rezarf]

I love this thread, I am planning on a fold down 3 sided welding table that sticks out from the wall roughly 5' and is three feet wide. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[A**holes Garage]

I occasionally have the need for a fold up, portable bench. If I'm welding or tinkering just for a quick project, I often pull out this Strong Hand Welding table. If I need a bigger, no holes surface, I place a 1/4" plate over the top and clamp it.

It folds up and has a handle to wheel it to wherever you want to store it. Takes up minimal space and is very convenient.

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Nice examples yall.
I had to drop this thread on my radar. Got a small room (10'x10') that needs a workbench and a fold down with top storage for hand tools.

A reserved 24" x ~46-48" between the two closet doors ought to work nicely.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Take pictures.

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Will do Jack
And if it'll stop raining already so I can go get materials. Vacation time's a'wasting

 

[QwikKotaTx]

Keep the pictures coming!

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

I've got a question about folding tables:

Why doesn't anyone make them fold UP? So the "guts" - the legs and folding mechanisms can be hidden from view instead of showing? I'd understand if doing it this way meant you couldn't store things in front of it, but you can't anyway, right?

 

[rsnip988]

I've got a question about folding tables:

Why doesn't anyone make them fold UP? So the "guts" - the legs and folding mechanisms can be hidden from view instead of showing? I'd understand if doing it this way meant you couldn't store things in front of it, but you can't anyway, right?

I was thinking of doing this as well...

 

[sgt_splat]

When I built my folding work bench I decided to fold the bench down so I could park my car with no problems. Good thing too, its heavy! 3/4 plywood base with 1x6 side framing, and 3/8 MDF work surface. I'm really glad I used paired 2x4s for the legs.

I'm finally building the cabinet to go above it now.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Exactly. The one I made with legs coming down diagonally to the junction of the wall and the floor let me park my car under the bench when it's down. Granted, I have a small car. Having the bench fold down also allows you to put tools on the wall behind where it stows. Although you could do this with a fold up bench, I suppose. But they wouldn't be concealed.

 

[hayhauler71]

10 foot long one leg missing in pic

 

[Coopduc]

Here's mine. 6' long, space between legs for stool, Masonite sacrificial top, 4x4 legs, and angle iron edge.

 

[lakeroadster]

I made a hinged counter top in my last shop. Merely used a piano hinge from Home Depot and made the legs from pipe and pipe flanges.

Pull off the legs and hinge it down.

 

[WWShop]

Jack, how often do you use your fold down benches compared to your other workbenches?