Mystery Bench revival???

[UroWerks]

Hello all,

Today my father in law gave me what looks to be a heavy duty work bench.This thing looks old and needs to be refinished.I don't see any identifying markings on it maybe someone could identify the bench itself?

On the corner there's a small plaque it seems as it just has a serial number on the plaque nothing more or less any ideas? Dark green in color and the bench top is wood nice and thick but badly stained from years of use?

 

[LXCam]

Brother, it would sure be a big help if you could organize the pictures a little better, and shrinking would help too. But at a minimum, how bout top to bottom instead of a internet collage.

 

[Bob-B]

Looks like a standard 6' catalog type Maple top industrial bench. Lyon and Equipto both used to paint their stuff, bench frames, lockers, cabinets, etc., green back in the old days.

 

[G_P]

The tag is likely an inventory control tag put on by the company that was the original owner of the bench. They are commonly found on equipment that came out of factories and schools.

The manufacturers name may be lightly stamped on a metal piece and is obscured by paint, or it could have been burned into the wood and was obliterated at some point by refinishing or sanding of the benchtop.

 

[UroWerks]

Thanks for your input guys.any ideas on how to get the top into like new condition? should unjust clean it and sand???Same for the frame??

 

[69supercj]

Lots of elbow grease and sandpaper. If its oil stained you might never get those stains out.

 

[pendragon1998]

That top is wood, right? It's an old bench top; I see no reason to make it look like new. If you're dead set on it, you could sand or handplane down to cleaner wood, but I imagine the oil stains go into the wood quite a ways. Alternatively, you could laminate a sheet of plywood or mdf on top. But I think you should limit yourself to cleaning the grime off while retaining as much of the original appearance as possible. Age looks good on a workbench and it's just going to get dirty again.

 

[vintage nut]

Personally I think nothing looks better than a beech top stained from years use (patina) heck, if I could figure out how to fake beech patina I would do it!

you can never have too many tools