I have finally built my workbench after spending years working on a makeshift ‘bench’ made from some reclaimed construction timber and an old kitchen worktop. I have watched 10s of YouTube videos on how to build a solid workbench. And I know if I’m going to build one, it’s going to be super solid one and it will be with me for years, decades or even for my lifetime. With that in mind, I’m not going to skimp on the materials. However, my design still keep the total materials within 4 sheets of 4x8 Birch plywood, which costs around £220. I also added the Veritas twin screw vise which I bought second-hand from Ebay that costed £180. This brought the total material cost of the workbench to around £400, plus 3 to 4 weekends of my labour, which is still much less than the workbench commercially available with similar calibre.
Having used the bench for some time now, I’m happy to report the difference between working on this and my old bench is like day and night. The Veritas front vise has really expanded my clamping capabilities. Chiselling on the solid 4 inch thick worktop is also a joy. You don’t feel any vibration no matter how hard you hit your chisel. The super flat worktop also gives me reference surface for assembly. I can’t shut up about how I love it!
If you plan to build your workbench, I wholeheartedly suggest you taking the following points into your design and construction.
- Think about how you can clamp your work piece in three different positions for 3 most common tasks: planing the face of the board, planing the edge of the board and sawing the end of the board (e.g. cutting a dovetail)
- Consider using manmade material for the top if you work in your garage which has drastic humidity and temperature changes. Birch plywood is a really good choice for this.
- I really like the Roubo style workbench because the leg is flush with the back jaw of the front vise. So it allows you to clamp a really long work piece, like a door. Also I find the split worktop design is more useful than I thought because the gap allows me to clamp the from the middle of the workbench.
If you want to build something similar to my workbench, you can find free plan here.