J Dogg Z28
Member
I've been working on making the best of my available space and limited free time. My 21 x 21 attached garage is loaded to the gills with two cars, lawn tractor, strollers, a portable generator, etc. Once I cleaned off the mountain of clutter from my workbench, I was able to hang two Gladiator 30" welded wall cabinets. Then I got to work on upgrading my workbench tops. The benches are just made from gorilla shelves, so the tops were flimsy particle board that were getting pretty ratty. Not to mention that I'd never been able to mount my vise to the bench because of the weak tops. I was planning on building tops from doubled 3/4" ply, but then at Lowes I happened upon some pre-sanded ready to stain solid wood tops. They are 1" thick and are the exact size (2' x 4') that I needed - SOLD! I picked up some Minwax Polyshades in classic oak to finish them. Then to mount the vise, I used grade 8 bolts, nuts, & washers (overkill), and made some 16 ga. steel reinforcing plates for the top and underside of the wood, painted with Rustoleum hammertone spray paint. Now I've got a nice solid work surface with a useable vise for once, and lots of storage space to keep the junk off the workbench (for now at least). I'm very happy with the results, and just wanted to share some before, during, and after pictures.
