the garbage workbench build

[coldfoot_luke]

1st post, been lurking here about a year.

Background: I'm an engineer at a bearing plant, the job is part mechanic/troubleshooter, part machine component/tool designer. I do woodworking for family projects and a bit of car work, planning on doing metalworking at the house in the future.

I've been renting a house with no garage, just a carport, so half my time spent working outside is setting up and putting everything back in a utility shed. About 6 weeks ago I bought a house with a two car garage...

...so to celebrate I started laying plans for a "new" workbench.

At my plant, I'm able to take home scrap, and as luck would have it one department was getting new (company bought) toolboxes, the old ones were getting trashed.

Inspired by the guys making benches with boxes, I picked up two old craftsman boxes.

Unfortunately, this department grinds steel, and the whole area is pretty dirty with coolant... and the guys there don't really take care of their boxes... They are in sad condition to say the least.





So, it's going to be a resurrection project. They have all sorts of **** welded to it, covered in grime, broken vice missing the jaw, welded to the top. I like how someone welded on a hack job paper towel holder - to wipe his hands after touching his box, I guess.

First step was to cut all that junk off... ironically the only weld that was any good was the one holding the vice. I had to cut off part of the top, which was separated from the sides anyways.




I've been stripping the paint, have one box primed. Using rattlecans, epoxy from autozone, wet sanding between coats. It's not going to be getting beat up every day so I'm not going to break the bank on it.

These pictures are at the old house with the car port. I had to put this on hold for a little while during the move...

Then two days after the move I got some more scrap from the plant: two 4x6x12' beams that a machine was lagged to for transportation. These are going to be the legs. Also, picked up two solid core doors from a Habitat Restore for the top and bottom.



Cutting the beam into feet. I'm going to do big rabbits for these into the bench for a bit of extra support. I do a big deal of woodworking by hand - my daughters (6 and 1.5) like to "build" with me, and the noise of power tools scares the youngest one still.



Got one of the doors stripped of veneer. I'm planning on staining everything ebony with a satin polyurethane coat.

Now my wife is visiting her mom for a week so it's time to get this knocked out... I've seen a lot of people post about wooden workbenches with metal toolboxes, hopefully this will be interesting to come...

 

[rambo19]

Looking good

 

[zkling]

You sir have alot of ambition. I probably would have looked at those boxes and ran. I can't believe they actually WELDED the vise on. Interesting on the solid core door, I never realized what was inside of them. Is that end grain I see mixed in?

I'm excited to see where this goes, keep up the good work.

 

[djjsr]

Welcome!

Nice project and nice door. How did you get the veneer off?

 

[Val_C]

Looking good. I am about to make workbench from the old Beach roller, so will keep an eye on your progress

 

[KEH]

In my limited experience, there are 2 types of solid core doors. The best type is made from glued up lumber scraps. I'm guessing the assembly, after being glued, is drum sanded to thickness, then two sides are glued on. The other type is made basically from glued together sawdust with vereered sides glued on. Both are heavy and make nice, flat workbench tops.

KEH

 

[coldfoot_luke]

The veneer was easy, the door was already splintered at the top and bottom so the veneer peeled right off. The door is made from edge glued blocks, the top is sidegrain and the edges are face grin. I got two doors, the one I started on will be the bench base. For the top, there is two layers of veneer so I will probably keep one on and refinish it.

I started working on things by fixing/refinishing furnite from the side of the road, thift stores, etc. That way my learning mistakes doesn't really hurt any investment.

My goal for this is to build a real nice bench, for less than the cost of a new box. So far I've only paid for two doors at 15$ each.

As far as gumption to restore two destroyed tool boxes... at my job we do a lot of production machine rebuilds, I enjoy taking a piece of run down equipment and bringing it back to life. I'm proud to say in one of my departments we have a 1937 USA made cold forming machine that has been rebuilt and is running like a clock.

Thanks for the interest so far, I'll be hacking away at it...

 

[In The Doghouse]

Lookin' good Luke. I'll be watching to see how it turns out.

 

[rburke65]

At theGM plant I worked at, they welded the vises to the tops of the Roll-a-ways all the time!

 

[coldfoot_luke]

A few months ago I saved a small top box from the **** pile, stripped it, and refinished it. Turns out it was a 1996 craftsman. It build a bit of confidence that these neglected toolboxes could be restored and put to use again.



Talking about the door veneer, the ends were peeling off so I as able to pull it all by hand. The core was edge glued blocks, some gaps in between pieces, so I filled that in with wood putty.




There will be four front feet, four back feet, with leveling bolts and t-nuts in the centers. The front four will be short, only between the floor and the base, with the toolboxes as pillars holding the top of the bench. The back will have legs that run from floor to bench.

I'm rabbiting and lapping all the feet/leg joints. Again, cutting by hand, chiseling it out, filing it square. I just didn't feel like using power tools last night.


I'm gluing the feet in, as well as screwing.



Four front feet in. I got a bit creative with how to block it up so it would be a bit less awkward to work on. Here I'm using the 4x6 I got from the scrap crate pile at work that I haven't started cutting yet. Eventually it will be chopped up for the long legs. The side you see here is the bottom side.



No time to work on it today, Friday and the weekend will be all about getting this closer to done.

 

[coldfoot_luke]

This took forever to finish. I had about ten other projects started and finished while I tinkered on this for a few months, spend time using it as a temporary workbench for other things.

I got a vice from a scrap pile at work. It was welded to a metal table, no one claimed it since it was welded, so after a few minutes cutting it off, it was mine.




The bench in a semi-assembled state, had a door sitting across the top to house other projects that distracted me.



And the final product:

 

[Just F Me]

FYI…none of your images throughout the whole thread are showing up...

 

[Arps]

FYI…none of your images throughout the whole thread are showing up...

I can see them all.

 

[Alexbn921]

Nice work. If your are going to hammer on the bench the craftsman boxes might not be strong enough to take it. Are you going to attach it to the wall?

 

[Labradorian]

This took forever to finish. I had about ten other projects started and finished while I tinkered on this for a few months, spend time using it as a temporary workbench for other things.

I got a vice from a scrap pile at work. It was welded to a metal table, no one claimed it since it was welded, so after a few minutes cutting it off, it was mine.




The bench in a semi-assembled state, had a door sitting across the top to house other projects that distracted me.



And the final product:

Looks good!

 

[PFSard]

Thanks for the update. Nice job on turning all that scrap into beautiful, useful fixtures.

 

[JR 42]

Nice work! You're doing well to fix up cheap/free stuff, your bench will have a lot of character.

Lucky find on the slab doors- nearly all that I come across are veneer over particleboard.

JR

 

[archirelic]

Great build!

 

[leveezengxi]

I'll be watching to see how it turns out.

 

[southalabama]

Well I learned what may be in a solid core door.

Good job on restoring those boxes.

 

[allenb12]

I have been using solid core wood doors for 30 years. Always worked great for me. I do put a 1/8" piece of Masonite on top of mine. After a few years another piece of Masonite and you have a new top.

 

[sayoda]

That came out great!!!

 

[sean Buick 76]

Nice work on the workbench! I am sure you will come up with some more cool projects so I will look forward to seeing them.... I like how you did a lot of work with hand tools...

 

[coldfoot_luke]

Thanks for the kind feedback everyone. To answer the comment about sturdiness, there are four back legs made from 4x6's that run from floor to the underside of the top. There are four front legs from floor to box. The top and bottom surfaces are 1 7/16 thick, the whole bench and vice is around 300 lbs, empty.

This is going to be my clean bench, for assembly, disassembly, etc. Future includes welding/abrasive saw table and combination router/chop saw/downdraft table.

 

[rick carpenter]

You got you a big ol' project going for sure. Be careful with the doors stripped of the veneer though. Like a torsion box's skin, the veneer was part of the strength of the door, so just be sure it's supported adequately.

I grew up in St. Andrews.

 

[dgithens1]

I like what you have done with them, I like to use what you can get than just buying new ones.

Good Job!