Once again, I gathered some great advice from the online woodworking community on setting up the recycled cabinets we picked up last year. I was tinkering with the idea of making as low a bench as possible for things like assembly and finishing. After putting a top on the cabinets the total height would have landed at around 31 inches. From what quite a few folks have said about their own assembly tables or benches, they like to go a bit lower than that…somewhere in the 22 to 24 inch height. With that, I’ve decided to build a riser on which to place the cabinets. With the added top, the total height will come in at just over 34 inches, about two inches shorter than my main island bench.
I think I was trying to squeeze too much functionality out of these cabinets, so I’ve decided instead to shamelessly steal an idea from Rick Dennington over at www.lumberjocks.com and build a low assembly table just like his. I like the idea of making the table mobile, so I’ll also include casters as Rick did. He calls this one his smaller assembly bench…coming in at 32” X 70” and 22” high.
The big assembly bench is nice too, but I don’t have near enough room for something that sized!
Thanks to everyone (at Lumberjocks and the other woodworking forums) for sharing your advice, and to Rick for posting pics of his benches!
So with a new plan in the works, I whipped up a quick, deck type frame with the last three 2X4’s I had left in the shop…whew, just enough!
I was going to cut into a full sheet of OSB to make a base surface for the frame but ended up using these two pieces I had tucked in the corner, left over from some of the panel work on the walls.
I have a total of eight base cabinets…three with a drawer and a door and five with all drawers. I decided to put the five drawer units here under the window, giving me seven and a half feet of storage and new bench-top space.
I was thinking of going longer, but I’m also looking to build a bench along the back wall with open shelving to house my larger bench-top tools (scroll saw, belt/spindle sander, miter saw, etc…) and I’d rather have that bench extend into that back corner.
So even after all this work and after all these updates, it seems like I have a longer project list than when I started! With the bench along the back wall, the rolling bench (a la Steve over at Woodworking for Mere Mortals) and now a low assembly table…sheesh, I’d better quit working on the shop or I’ll never be done! JUST KIDDING! J
The kicker is explaining to others, and my lovely bride, that I’m building projects FOR the shop so that I can build other projects FOR the shop so that one day I can build projects IN the shop!
Pete
1 comment:
Your not the only one in that situation. I think that's everyone that does woodworking's problem. I have to explain to my wife almost every night that this is the case but most of the time she thinks tuat I'm just out there makeing a bigger mess than before. She keeps telling me that she can't wait for the day that we get to build my new shop so that she can get some of the garage space back. She's the one that keeps adding to the wood collection though. We go around on trash days (again her idea) looking for more good wood for free. So far I'm almost out of room in a two car garage and an outdoor 8X10 storage shed. I do have just enough room to walk through from the garage door inside the house but not much more.
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