Moving, Part 1 - Workbench

Before moving into our current home, I wanted to have a workbench.  I made do with a variety of surfaces through the years, but when we finally moved someplace that we were planning to stay at awhile, I made one.  It got used for a variety of things and proved itself to be a valuable piece of furniture/equipment.  After many years, in preparation for our upcoming move, the bench had to be taken down.

In middle school, with the help of my dad, I made a train table.  My intention was to set a modest but detailed N-scale model train layout in my bedroom.  While the train did get built and a few models were added to it, the entire layout never really progressed.  Over the years, the table became more of a workbench.  I built other models on it, made a simple movie on it with my video camera, and used it for drawing.  I found that after moving to college that the need for a work surface never went away.  I used the workbenches in the school shop.  In one apartment, I used a simple floor layout similar to what I read the Japanese woodworkers might use.  Eventually I bought a small portable bench from Sears and used that until a move made it impossible to keep.

When we bought our condo, the shape and size of the garage made it perfect to build a bench.  After looking up ideas online, I designed a simple but sturdy workbench.  I made it out of 2x4's and one sheet of 3/4" plywood.  It was 2' deep and 8' long.  I mounted an upright 1/4" sheet of plywood to the back as a tool rack/holder.  Even though it was a simple set up, there were things about it that I grew to love.  The 2' x 8' size was easy to cut from one sheet of plywood and have enough for the top surface and a shelf underneath.  The depth allowed me to have some workspace and still be able to put organizers toward the back.  Even though it was 8' long, it didn't noticeably sag due to the use of full 2"x4"s to support the top and shelves and the weight kept it steady.  Using the plywood instead of pegboard allowed me to arrange my tools in anyway I wanted.  I just used wood dowels or custom shaped racks to hold my tools.  As a side benefit, as time went on, if you used a tool, you could still see the silhouette of it because of the darkening of the plywood around it.  On the other side of the coin, I never sealed it so when I would spill something on it or the cat would hack a hairball on it, the surface would stain.  Because the cats spend most of their time out there, the front legs became impromptu scratching posts.  I would have liked to have a set of drawers on it.  I'm this thorough only because I would like to remember how it was made.  I didn't get any photos of it.

I can't say I used it to make lots of wonderful things. It mainly got used as a surface to put things. Small objects that needed to be fixed, things that needed to be put away, and parts of projects I wanted to do all ended up there. This isn't to say that it didn't get used for for making or repairing things, it just wasn't often that I could spend time out there the last few years.

We are moving to a house that has a garage. Because it is my mother-in-law's house, there are still some things there. The garage was used primarily for storage of yard tools and other outdoor things like bikes, etc. My brother-in-law built a workbench in the basement and that is where most of the tools have been stored up until now. Having grown up in an area where we did not have basements, I can understand working down there because of the winter cold but otherwise I don't really want to have that as my shop. It's inconvenient to move things up and down the stairs. The dust control would be impossible as it is now because there is no door from the main area to the basement. Dust could go everywhere. 

I plan on doing more projects, many of which will likely need a sturdy surface to be built on.  If nothing else, I always need a surface to put odd things.  So, after we move, the workbench will probably be the first thing I build.