Just north of Bellingham in Ferndale, Washington, Ron makes a stop at the home of Melvin and Bertella Hansen, who have requested that Ron help them to build a workbench in their garage. The garage was originally built with extra space to accommodate this long awaited project. Melvin's wish list includes a tool storage area, ample workspace and a recessed area for his new miter box saw. The only concern is if his wife will ever be able to get him to come in from the garage!
Click Here For a list of what
you will need in order to complete this project.
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- To make sure that what Ron had in mind was exactly what Mel wanted, Ron drew a simple sketch. Ron designed the bench in three sections with the "L" in the corner and with a forth section that drops down slightly for the miter saw. Identical braces supported all the sections.
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1. Cut wood:
- Ron made a list of each piece of wood they would need to cut. On the list there were many pieces that needed to be exactly the same length.
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- To save time, Ron made an exact measurement for the first piece of wood and then marked that measurement from the blade and created a stop block. They positioned the wood up against this block so that each piece they cut would be identical.
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- After the stop block was clamped in place, Mel and Bertella took turns with the saw.
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- It only took them a few minutes to cut to length all the 2 x 4s needed to build the bases.
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2. Cut notches:
- To make sturdy legs for these bases, they sandwiched two 2 x 4s together creating, in effect, a 4 x 4.
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- Ron and Mel cut matching notches in each piece of lumber. When the too pieces were placed together, the notches formed a square hole or mortis. The bottom rail or brace would pass through this hole on both leg assemblies.
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- They cut the notches by making repeated passes with the sliding compound miter saw set to cut only halfway through the 2 x 4.
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3. Leg assembly:
- To assemble the legs, they glued the two halves of the legs together by applying a generous amount of wood glue on the 2 x 4s with back and forth motions.
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- They set a 2 x 4 bottom rail into the notches and the matching part of the leg on top trapping the rail within the notches.
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- They further secured the leg halves together with a wood screws.
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- A top rail was attached with both glue and screws across the top of the legs. This assembly, consisting of two legs and a top and bottom rail, formed the end frames for the bases.
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4. Bench Assembly:
- To begin assembling the bench, they connected two of the end frames together with side rails, first by clamping them into position and then by securing them with screws.
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- They placed 2 x 4s across the lower rails and screwed them in on each end. These 2 x 4s laid side by side formed a handy storage shelf.
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- The top of the workbench was cut from a sheet of ¾" medium density fiberboard. Ron used a clamp-on straight edge as a guide for the circular saw to cut a perfectly straight line.
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