Lets see your workbench

[homeschool]

Mine run the length of the rear wall of my garage. On the far side I have a smaller workbench that was my grandfathers. It's really solid and weighs a ton. Little welding table on casters I can sit at comfortably.
Untitled by Joe, on Flickr

I see your copy of "They Live" on the bench. A Classic!

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[maybemaybenot]

Two solid-core doors on reclaimed deck bord posts. Only about $20 total in the bench construction.

 

[Hawkman24]

Hi, New to the page. Here is mine. Hope it loads correctly.

 

[johndeereman]

welcome HAWKMAN24 looks like a nice setup you have there.

 

[tjc1965]

Two solid-core doors on reclaimed deck bord posts. Only about $20 total in the bench construction.

My Dad was a facilities manager at a big hospital in Boston. Every time they renovated an area, another workbench or two was born in one of our garages. Solid core 36" wide doors are the best!

 

[Sticks McGee]

Love the colors of the cabs

 

[Rewind97]

Hi, New to the page. Here is mine. Hope it loads correctly.

Very nice set-up Hawkman24!!! Welcome to the GJ!!

 

[Lssix]

picked this up last week along with some other cool stuff, Paid $5 for it thinking it would make a cool bench base.

The shelf got rattlecanned hammered grey (doesnt look grey or particularly hammered tho)and moved up top for storage.



Top is a solid core door I picked up free, the plastic cover is some counter top material I got from the same guy as the base for another $5. theres still plenty left for other ptojects.



The vise is a small one from a local antique shop, it was priced a fair $19, I,ll get a larger one later on. The cabinet on the far end was a gift from my wife.

So all in it cost me about $30 not counting the $0.38 x 3 for the hardware to mount the vise.

i still want an all steel table for welding and engine/trans work.

 

[racinfarmer]

2 workbenches into 1.

Started out with a unexpected $40 garage sale haul:

After picking away at it here and there in my "free time." Forgive the mess as I had **** scattered all over 2.5 bays while I extracted the old bench, sorted, threw, sorted some more, and wedged the new bench into place.

 

[Redboy]

2 workbenches into 1.

Started out with a unexpected $40 garage sale haul:

Oooh, that looks mighty familiar - are the legs stamped ASI at the "ankles"?

I just brought this number home over the weekend. It was a bench out of an old school shop class, complete with gum on the underside and everything!

 

[racinfarmer]

I don't recall seeing anything stamped on them.

I was hoping to find something similar to yours, but when I found them, they were not only size prohibitive, but cost prohibitive (Craigslist). I figure I have about $250 into this one, but the way I wanted it. I'd change a couple small things, but not much. Example, if I'd have done a butcher block top like I wanted, I'd have over $1000 into it, easy. Instead, free boards from when we poured the foundation for a shed.

 

[Lssix]

Oooh, that looks mighty familiar - are the legs stamped ASI at the "ankles"?

I just brought this number home over the weekend. It was a bench out of an old school shop class, complete with gum on the underside and everything!

And the school standard issue stool no less, for what ever reason those get listed for serious $$ around here.

 

[doorfx]

I am trying work a deal on this 90 year old 2 1/2" thick bowling alley lane. The guy wants $450 for a 26" x 18' piece. Thoughts?

 

[koditten]

I'd tell him to pound sand. Bowling alleys are closing all the time. There are adds for ally lumber all over.

 

[koditten]

Edit: I thought it read 18". 18' is decent, but he should be willing to negotiate.

 

[doorfx]

Edit: I thought it read 18". 18' is decent, but he should be willing to negotiate.

It did ! I just changed it after I saw my typo lol
Thx

 

[JRC3]

I am trying work a deal on this 90 year old 2 1/2" thick bowling alley lane. The guy wants $450 for a 26" x 18' piece. Thoughts?

Another member did that too. I think it might be in this thread.

 

[drivesitfar]

DoorFX: there are fewer and fewer bowling alleys with real wood lanes existing because they started going to plastic or laminated about 15 or 20 years ago. that said if you look you might be able to find some, but you really need to be careful because if it wasn't stored correctly or you don't store it correctly after you buy it the wood can almost end up in a U shape.

if it's flat and looks like it's trimmed out that would make a HELLUVA workbench if you have an 18 foot wall to put it against. all you need to do is see if there really is much else to buy in your area and then determine if $450 is too much or a good deal.

you have my vote to buy it if it's flat and in great shape.

 

[SoCalSk8r]

^^nicely put. I have no clue what this should cost, but I did a quick Google search and butcher block is roughly $40/square foot. So a butcher block equivalent is north of $1400....if the Google cost is accurate, and I have no clue if it is.

You would be paying roughly $12/sq foot for this cool and durable work surface, that's not too shabby.


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[stage20]

Starting to swap everything over. Have my current workbench sold. Don't have money for a stainless top at the moment so this poor man's butcher block craigslist score will have to suffice

 

[doorfx]

DoorFX: there are fewer and fewer bowling alleys with real wood lanes existing because they started going to plastic or laminated about 15 or 20 years ago. that said if you look you might be able to find some, but you really need to be careful because if it wasn't stored correctly or you don't store it correctly after you buy it the wood can almost end up in a U shape.



if it's flat and looks like it's trimmed out that would make a HELLUVA workbench if you have an 18 foot wall to put it against. all you need to do is see if there really is much else to buy in your area and then determine if $450 is too much or a good deal.



you have my vote to buy it if it's flat and in great shape.

I have the 18' wall lol

From his ad this looks like it was stored outside in sea can. I'll have to check for flatness. The other concern I had was weight. It must be really heavy.

 

[doorfx]

^^nicely put. I have no clue what this should cost, but I did a quick Google search and butcher block is roughly $40/square foot. So a butcher block equivalent is north of $1400....if the Google cost is accurate, and I have no clue if it is.

You would be paying roughly $12/sq foot for this cool and durable work surface, that's not too shabby.


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Thanks for taking the time to do that. I'm in Canada so it's probably more here!

 

[drivesitfar]

DoorFX: i know a few members that have taken these directly out of the bowling alleys and i recall they mentioned HEAVY more than a few times and had to cut them up in sections of 8, 10, 12 feet so 18 will be a bit HEAVY that is for certain.

one thing i like about the piece you found is it already has a boarder on it and not sure i've seen that before or ever either in a bowling alley or for sale. not to mention it looks like you have the perfect spot for it.

is the one you posted maybe local to you? since that person figured out how to move that 18 footer in the first place how about asking for free delivery to your driveway and a little help installing and give him full price? you might want to check it out in person first to make sure you like it before it shows up at your door.

good luck

 

[555]

Mine run the length of the rear wall of my garage. On the far side I have a smaller workbench that was my grandfathers. It's really solid and weighs a ton. Little welding table on casters I can sit at comfortably.

I recognized that BSA from The Jockey Journal build thread. Nice to see the shop!

 

[drivesitfar]

Stage20: your Snap on box looks great and good to see you put up a solid temp top until you find a better one. You might look at some local auctions where they are selling restaurant stuff and pick up a nice stainless countertop or bench to make a nice inexpensive top for your Snappy.

good luck

 

[Redboy]

Here are a couple of workbenches that I traded away recently to get the big butcherblock monster I posted on the previous page...

The Lyon bench was the nicer of the two - these things are built like tanks!

This Equipto had some nice curves but was surprisingly lightweight as compared to the Lyon. Still well worth your time, should you come across one.

 

[dittle fart around]

I have the 18' wall lol

From his ad this looks like it was stored outside in sea can. I'll have to check for flatness. The other concern I had was weight. It must be really heavy.

Bowling alleys are 42" wide and have an maple strip on each side. There a shop in Portland that makes conference tables out of the stuff.
The hard rock maple from the front of the lane is the most expensive, a chunk with the lane markers is the one to have. The farther you go down the lane they use pine or fir. I'm guessing they have to compensate for the dropped balls at the foul line.
The first photo is my small workbench, my wife's computer desk is bowling alley and so is my oak desk's top.

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[stage20]

Stage20: your Snap on box looks great and good to see you put up a solid temp top until you find a better one. You might look at some local auctions where they are selling restaurant stuff and pick up a nice stainless countertop or bench to make a nice inexpensive top for your Snappy.

good luck

I've been looking. Seems they are all 15 and 18 inch from what I've found.
The last one I ran into was a 2 tier 11 foot wide. If I had room for it would be mine. It was commercial piece. Very heavy. Just don't have the room

 

[Narddog]

So here is my fold-away workbench. My wife can't park her car in the garage with a permanent bench in that spot so I needed to be able to stow it. Just a few regular gate latches mounted to the cabinets above it hold it in place. The legs hinge into the slots automatically. I angled the legs in to the corner where the floor meets the wall because I was too afraid that my toddler would kick the legs out otherwise and kill himself with this heavy freaking table.

 

[dittle fart around]

The folding bench is very cool.
I wonder if you could have a rod through the top of the legs, then you could bolt the bottoms of the legs to the wall. The rod would need a slot in the guides on the bottom of the worktop. Then when you want the bench lowered the legs now fixed at the bottom would pull out from the wall as the top was lowered.
I need to try this out.

Thanks for the inspiration

 

[Val_C]

My current set-up.

 

[stage20]

Val.....love those old Mac boxes. Nice setup

 

[nev]

Need some ideas for organizing my workbench there is **** all over it at the moment

 

[smalltown]

Narddog nice idea. What do the legs pivot on?

 

[tweidman]

I just got mine set up in my new shop.

 

[drivesitfar]

Dittle: did you end up buying that bowling alley section for your bench top? if not one of our members is going to post on his thread how he made the top for his kitchen's island that i think is pretty cool. here's a link to his thread and he just put stainless on top of his cabinets in his new garage that is another option for you.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311609


NEV: i have FSD (flat surface disease) so don't feel like the lone ranger. here's a thread i started where members can put up their ORGANIZING TIPS so we don't have to look in a hundred threads eventually they will have a ton on this one. here's the link and take a peek and add your ideas or take some already posted and maybe that will help.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=335623&highlight=ORGanizing+201

TWEID: I'm more into a vintage look, but no denying that your set up is very impressive.

 

[-Brent-]

Here's the start to my new bench. This week I'm going to fab the base.



It's 2' deep and 4' wide. The steel is 1/4". Planning to integrate index card files (my hardware storage) into the base.

 

[Redboy]

Here's the start to my new bench. This week I'm going to fab the base.

It's 2' deep and 4' wide. The steel is 1/4". Planning to integrate index card files (my hardware storage) into the base.

NICE, Brent! That's one I'll want to follow...

 

[drivesitfar]

BRENT: i need some 1/4 inch diamond plate bent something like that. do tell how you did it or did you find this piece like that to start your new bench with?

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Love the ideas here.