While considering my options for hacking an IKEA (or generally, any <$50) table (inspired from
My Glowforge Table)… I came across some DIY table plans I thought might make it easy for those still eyeing solutions.
So here’s simple, easy enough plans to make 15 Free Workbenches!
i like cheap workbenches. most recently i had an 8 foot sheet of ply cut into two 2’x6’ sections (plus a 2’x4’) to fit in the car. got home, stacked them on top of each other, and gorilla glue taped them to two filing cabinets. rock. steady. way better than i expected (it’s a temporary solution but honestly it works so well for being cheap as chips).
Kind of fall into the same category. A lot of folks want, or truly need, to have a table that looks nice in a clean suburban home. Not necessary here. My Glowforge was always going to be installed in a working art space. Lots of paint splatters, easels, drafting tables, glass fragments, storage racks, etc. in an unfinished basement. Don’t care what it looks like. As soon as I got the email that a pre-Release was on it’s way, went down to the local junk store picked up a $10 shaky desk, re-screwed and glued it back together for rigidness. Later, I slapped together $15 worth of lumber to create under desk material storage. Functional and completely unshakable. Could have used paint to make it prettier but why bother?
I want to give you all the likes today for the link to the workbench website. There looks to be a lot of great plans in addition to the work benches.
I’ve got the site bookmarked for when I have plenty of time to dig through. Thank you!
We’ve built #3 to hold all of our machining tools - hefty but worked well. I also recommend the several plans on wood gears’s site: https://woodgears.ca/workbench/build.html
Nice! Any plans that I don’t have to draw up my own cut diagrams is a good plan for sure.
“Maybe its just me, but I think your desk looks awesome, @rpegg!”
Only because it has a Glowforge on top.
preach
One quick note as input for those of us who still have time to anticipate delivery of our special little one. (And still Jonesing! Ha) Spring auction time is upon us and usually very few folks are looking to drag home something as large as a workbench. Also they sometimes go pretty cheap due to that fact. My latest one I got for the huge sum of $15, and that was with a bench vise. So keep an eye open for opportunities, heck ewe already think outside the usual box! Ha
