workbenches on Facebook marketplace

[stickshift]

I sometimes see workbenches on FB Marketplace. Who is buying a workbench? Aren't the people who need workbenches the kind who will make their own? Setting aside specialty workbenches like a fabrication table for welding, where the materials can cost significantly more than the price of the used workbench. And I guess the sellers are upgrading (who among us wouldn't build their workbench differently if they had to build another one)?

 

[InsanePyro]

I've had a few workbenches and never once made one. I need it to work on. I don't need to do work so I can do more work

 

[stickshift]

I've had a few workbenches and never once made one. I need it to work on. I don't need to do work so I can do more work

Good point. Exactly my rationale for buying a used small metal cabinet with drawers I'm going to drop into my workbench - I want to add drawers to my workbench, but don't want to make this a project in itself.

 

[MushCreek]

Sometimes you luck out and find one for less than the cost of materials. I paid $25 for a commercial bench with a maple top.

 

[LWB]

I'm always on the prowl for a vintage woodworking bench. I could make my own but it wouldn't have the history and patina.

 

[Bessy]

With the price of materials these days, I have certainly considered buying someone's existing workbench, but I'm holding out and saving for materials myself...

I do regret selling my smaller bench, however. I very much should have kept it around until I had the new cabinets built, but I felt the floor space was more necessary at the time, and that bench was prone to becoming a catch-all.

 

[WillyBoy]

While looking at ads for fancy Scandinavian workbenches, a friend once remarked "Why would you call yourself a woodworker if you have to buy a workbench?"
This is not necessarily a solution for everyone. As mentioned above, sometimes there are great opportunities.

 

[HoosierMark]

I bought my last one on FB. I think it was like $20. Included light and 6 foot power strip plus small vice. Seller had given up her hobby and no longer needed it.

 

[Jackfre]

I’ve built assorted welding/welder workbenches and work tables/benches that I do woodworking on. Today I’m mostly woodwork and have made do with a kinda/sorta good enough bench, but it is a pita. I have a couple projects lined up that I’ve decided I can’t possibly do adequately with the limitations of the current bench, so I’m in the middle of a woodworking bench build. It will have an old Record 52 1/2 end vise and I’m going with a Benchcrafted Hi Vise rather than their leg vise. Top and base are hard maple. It will have a planing stop and all the 20mm dog holes necessary for the layout/workholding. The top is done and I’m building the base on the top. It has been fun, but I wish I had done the base out of steel. I could have knocked it out in a day. Mortise and tenon and dovetails are fun but they burn up the clock. Top is only 21x60 but I’m stuffed into about 80% of a two car garage with a lot of machinery so it has to do. Net/net it has been a good project and will make things a lot easier and likely more pleasant going forward.

 

[rockinacummins]

Most of the workbenches I see on marketplace are being sold as the result of an older gentleman passing away and his wife and/or kids are cleaning out his shop. For what they usually sell them for, I couldn't begin to justify the time and cost to build my own. I have a similar sentiment towards trailers.

 

[RMERR]

I actually just bought a used Grizzly woodworking bench a couple weeks ago off FB marketplace. In great shape, half the price of new. I built at least 6-7 work benches over the years, usually so I could get exactly what I wanted and save money. These days my money's not as tight and I have such a backlog of projects I just don't want to **** up my time building work benches.

 

[zendriver]

Priced wood and fasteners, lately?

 

[NUTTSGT]

For some of those that just want a workbench in the garage because "everybody has a workbench in their garage" it's their go to option.

I want mine built to/into the wall, I'll build my own. However, if I were to find something "cool" or with plenty of good steel drawers, I might be tempted to outlay the cash.

 

[30-30remchester]

Having construction companies in various locations for 50 plus years, I have built probably close to 50 work benches. I build folding benches for family and friends that have small garages. Most of my work benches were made of metal as we worked on heavy machinery outdoors but built quite a few indoors as well. My present workbench in my garage is "well-seasoned" as my grandsons call it. They both lay claim to it as it is where grandpa always is and where we built toys and repaired stuff. They both want it. It is 3'x10' so when I leave this house, I will cut it in half and gift it to the boys. Now they are arguing as to who gets which half.

 

[MushCreek]

I have four benches. Two are Formica counter tops that were given to me, sitting on top of base cabinets that came out of a shop I once owned. One bench is the one I mentioned that I got for $25. Lastly, I have an 8' steel bench that the shop I worked at was throwing out, complete with a Wilton vise on it! Nothing wrong with the bench or the vise; it was just 'in the way'. I have built benches, including one that was made out of a solid core door, some 2X4's, and scraps of plywood. It was very rigid, and easily held a 2000 injection mold. I'd kinda like to build a fancy wood working bench, more for the fun of building it rather than to have one, but I'm out of room.

 

[csp]

I bought one for the bead roller that was attached to it. Never used it as a workbench, but we do store supplies and feeders/waterers for our chickens on it in our barn.

 

[ZRX61]

Most of the wood mine is made from came from a WW2 Hamilton Standard prop stand that I was asked to "chop up & throw in the dumpster" 32 years ago at Burbank airport. Instead I dismantled it, took it home & reassembled it as a bench

 

[PugetDude]

Most of the wood mine is made from came from a WW2 Hamilton Standard prop stand that I was asked to "chop up & throw in the dumpster" 32 years ago at Burbank airport. Instead I dismantled it, took it home & reassembled it as a bench

Pictures required.

 

[Mike65]

I built a miter saw bench, an outfeed/assembly table & a workbench for my woodshop. I would rather build one.

 

[ZRX61]

Pictures required.

It's currently buried under "stuff", but a garage clean up is imminent. The two vises on it also have an aviation connection, the static Morgan 40 came from Lockheed Skunkworks in Palmdale & the swivel Morgan 140 came from Lockheed Burbank

 

[jd_1138]

Most of the workbenches I see on marketplace are being sold as the result of an older gentleman passing away and his wife and/or kids are cleaning out his shop. For what they usually sell them for, I couldn't begin to justify the time and cost to build my own. I have a similar sentiment towards trailers.

Yeah a lot of people like 50 and under have zero interest in workshops or repairing anything or tool/shop organization. Kinda sad.

A friend of mine who's in his late 40s bought a house recently. It has a new shed that the previous owner put up as part of flipping the house, I suspect. Zero shelving or benches. All my friend's stuff is in one pile on the floor, and you can't get to anything. I said hey I can help you put up some free standing shelving that will swallow all that up. Nope he said. Didn't want to "waste the space" of the shed. Even though it would've made way more space.

He doesn't have a garage, so a shed would be a great spot to fart around with machinery even if it's just winding the line on a weedwhacker.

My mother moved into a house a decade ago without a garage or shed. I put up a new shed on concrete foundation. And I put shelves along one side wall and on the back that swallowed up all the garage/outside stuff. And on one wall, I built a workbench with pegboard on the wall atop the bench. I put a stool in there. It became my place to hang out and drink a coffee and listen to podcasts on my Ryobi jobsite speaker I had out there. My BIL loves using it when he goes over there to do odds and ends for her.

 

[MovingAlong]

I sometimes see workbenches on FB Marketplace. Who is buying a workbench? Aren't the people who need workbenches the kind who will make their own? Setting aside specialty workbenches like a fabrication table for welding, where the materials can cost significantly more than the price of the used workbench. And I guess the sellers are upgrading (who among us wouldn't build their workbench differently if they had to build another one)?

Some view the older ones as art. They end up as entry tables, get cut down for coffee tables, etc...

 

[PugetDude]

Some view the older ones as art. They end up as entry tables, get cut down for coffee tables, etc...

Paging @Bob Heine ...

 

[CoogarXR]

House flippers want those old benches out of the way, so they can paint everything gray, put down gray laminate floors, and hang "live, laugh, love" signs.

PS- I also hate "KITCHEN" signs in the kitchen. Yeah, it's obviously a kitchen folks. I don't need a sign.

PPS- I guess I hate all of those words-only signs. My new neighbor just put a big one on his porch that says "BLESSED!". I kinda wanna make one that says "CURSED!" now...

 

[PugetDude]

House flippers want those old benches out of the way, so they can paint everything gray, put down gray laminate floors, and hang "live, laugh, love" signs.

PS- I also hate "KITCHEN" signs in the kitchen. Yeah, it's obviously a kitchen folks. I don't need a sign.

PPS- I guess I hate all of those words-only signs. My new neighbor just put a big one on his porch that says "BLESSED!". I kinda wanna make one that says "CURSED!" now...

You can hang it over your "Man Cave" sign.

 

[NUTTSGT]

PPS- I guess I hate all of those words-only signs. My new neighbor just put a big one on his porch that says "BLESSED!". I kinda wanna make one that says "CURSED!" now...

I bei you could make money off those "Cursed" signs.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Who is buying a workbench? Aren't the people who need workbenches the kind who will make their own?

Many times it's just a matter of practicality and/or frugality. If I'll need $100 worth of lumber to build one, but I see an ad for one that's already built selling or $50, I know which way I'm going to go.

 

[ZRX61]

House flippers want those old benches out of the way, so they can paint everything gray, put down gray laminate floors, and hang "live, laugh, love" signs.

PS- I also hate "KITCHEN" signs in the kitchen. Yeah, it's obviously a kitchen folks. I don't need a sign.

PPS- I guess I hate all of those words-only signs. My new neighbor just put a big one on his porch that says "BLESSED!". I kinda wanna make one that says "CURSED!" now...

I want to put one above the front door that says "LEAVE"

 

[ZRX61]

Pictures required.

Nothing special to look at...

 

[ZRX61]

Found an old pic before it was *improved*

 

[Ultradog MN]

Buying 1600 lbs of steel and cast iron to build a bench is too expensive.
Cheaper to buy one at a giant machine shop auction that's already made.

 

[racecougar]

Bingo. It's cheaper to buy nice steel workbenches than it is to make them.

 

[CoogarXR]

I want to put one above the front door that says "LEAVE"

Remember those hologram/changing-image things that were all the rage in the 80s? Like a cereal box, you tilt it one way and it's one picture, tilt it the other way and it's another picture? I'd like a sign that says "Welcome" until you get up the front steps, then it changes to "SCRAM!". It could totally be done, since you'd be seeing it at a different angle from the ground vs up on the stoop/porch.

 

[4x4Pete]

I'll build a bench that suits the purpose. If it really isn't important, I'll use a buffet table. Probably wouldn't buy one unless it's like Ultradog's

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

I scored 4 nice workbenches a couple decades ago, 2 went to my fathers shop, 1 to my brothers and 1 is tucked away for when I build mine. Hopefully next year.

All I had to do is move them out of the building my employer was emptying. 20+ years of storage = free right?

 

[MOS3522]

All 3 of my maple butcher block workbenches came from Facebook or Craigslist. No regerts here, they are all quite nice.

 

[jives]

I have three work tables/benches, none of which I made, but all of which I modified. Steel top bench bought at action for $35.00, which also included a vise. Removed the legs and placed on a steel laboratory cabinet ($5.00 at auction). Picked up for free a metal legged pedestal table with large Formica top that serves as table saw outfeed table and primary glue up table. Picked up at auction ($5.00) a large all steel General Fireproofing tanker table that I replaced the rotting vinyl top with sheet of 1/4" steel plate ($30), now serves as a generic work surface and welding table.

My countertops are maple veneered solid core doors that were once sliding closet doors. The countertops sit on low rise lateral file cabinets. Total cost for about 16' of countertop and cabinets was, I believe, $18.

I did make a "table" out of scrap lumber for the miter saw.








I find it just as fun to repurpose and reuse than build new. Takes some innovation.

 

[firebirdparts]

I bought 12 of them when the squareD factory closed and sold 11. It’s not like you’d turn one down. I also built my own, but the industrial ones are nice. These were edge glued maple. That is a flawed idea but they’re ok.

 

[mikedodge]

I bought a bench when I was buying a load of other tools. I think i paid $70 for it, it's home made, topnlooks like it's made out of 2x3 glued together and planed flat. It takes at least two people to move it. It also has vices for wood work on 3 sides.

I'd imagine most are for sale because itsca new house purchase or someone is changing their space around or upgrading.

 

[pb014]

I have three work tables/benches, none of which I made, but all of which I modified. Steel top bench bought at action for $35.00, which also included a vise. Removed the legs and placed on a steel laboratory cabinet ($5.00 at auction). Picked up for free a metal legged pedestal table with large Formica top that serves as table saw outfeed table and primary glue up table. Picked up at auction ($5.00) a large all steel General Fireproofing tanker table that I replaced the rotting vinyl top with sheet of 1/4" steel plate ($30), now serves as a generic work surface and welding table.

My countertops are maple veneered solid core doors that were once sliding closet doors. The countertops sit on low rise lateral file cabinets. Total cost for about 16' of countertop and cabinets was, I believe, $18.

I did make a "table" out of scrap lumber for the miter saw.








I find it just as fun to repurpose and reuse than build new. Takes some innovation.

Nice score.
I have the same Craftsman table saw. What is your fence upgrade?