The Complete Guide to Building Your Workbench

The Complete Guide to Building Your Woodworking Workbench

Workbench Plans for your Woodshop or Garage

From The Complete Book of Woodworking

Your workbench sets the tone for your workshop. From a discarded kitchen table or an old door laid across a pair of rickety sawhorses to a gleaming oak masterpiece that looks too fancy to dine on, much less work on, there are just about as many styles of benches as there are woodworkers. The maple workbench built in this chapter is stylish enough for showing off, but it’s designed to be used — and used hard. The design is simple enough that you can easily modify it to meet your special needs or tastes.

1. Build the Laminate Benchtop

Face-joint 6⁄4 hard maple stock to create smooth surfaces on both faces. This will result in boards not quite 11⁄2 in. thick, but it’s far more economical (and less time-consuming) than reducing 8⁄4 stock to 11⁄2 in. thick. Prepare enough stock for 16, 62-in.-long x 21⁄2-in.-wide boards. Joint one edge of each board, then rip-cut them into 21⁄2-in.-wide strips. Cross-cut the boards to 62 in. long. Lay out the wood strips side-by-side, 21⁄2 in. high, on a flat worksurface. Clamp the strips together with a bar or pipe clamp, making sure the edges are all flush on the top surface of the benchtop. Draw reference lines 8 to 10 in. apart across the top, perpendicular to the joints, and number the boards in sequence. Unclamp the boards and divide them into groups of four or five boards. Apply glue to the mating wood faces and glue up each section. Use bar or pipe clamps to draw the boards together, and keep the edges of the boards flush. Glue the sections together to create the benchtop. Alternate bar or pipe clamps above and below the glue-up to equalize clamping pressure.  Leave the clamps on until the glue cures. 

3. Build the Base.

Rip four 11⁄2-in.-thick boards to 3 in. wide, then cross-cut them to 281⁄2 in. to make the legs. Rip the two 11⁄2-in.-thick leg cross braces to 31⁄2 in. wide, then cut them to a length of 8 in. Draw square lines across the inside edges of the legs for the placement of the cross braces. The lower lines should be 73⁄4 in. up from the bottoms of the legs, and the upper lines should be 31⁄2 in. above the lower lines. Lay out holes for two 1⁄2 x 2-in. fluted dowels per joint and drill holes with a dowel drilling guide. Glue the dowels and joints and clamp up two legs to a cross support, adding the clamps to protect the wood. Check the squareness by measuring to make sure the distance between the tops of the legs and the bottoms is the same. Make both side assemblies.

Cut the feet to 4 x 22 in. Lay out the angled cutting lines by marking out the measurements. Use a straightedge to draw lines connecting these marks. Cut out the shape of the feet with a band saw or jig saw. Sand the sawn edges smooth. 

5. Drill the Counterbone Holes

Continue the cross support layout lines already on the legs, squaring them across the faces of the legs to serve as placement lines for the leg stretchers. Mark lines for the thickness of the stretchers, centered on the legs. Mark centerpoints for two lag-screw pilot holes at each joint. Drill 3⁄4-in.-dia. x 3⁄8-in.-deep counterbores for each hole, then drill 1⁄4-in. pilots through the center of each counterbored hole. Position the stretchers between the side assemblies and assemble the base temporarily by clamping across the leg cross supports. Line the stretchers up with their marks and drill pilot holes through the lag holes into the ends of the stretchers. Drill counterbored holes in the top supports, then center the top supports on the legs and drill pilot holes into the tops of the legs. Also drill guide holes for the lag screws that attach the top supports to the underside of the benchtop.

7. Install the Shelf.

Plane 4⁄4 maple down to 3⁄4 in. thick to make the shelf slats. Rip-cut and cross-cut the inner and outer slats to size. Lay the outside shelf slats onto the stretchers, with their edges flush with the sides of the legs. Drill a countersunk pilot hole for a #10 x 11⁄2-in. flathead wood screw near each end of each outer slat, centered over the stretcher below. 18 Place the inside shelf slats on the leg cross braces with their ends flush with the braces. Use 1⁄2-in. spacer blocks between slats to ensure even gaps. Drill a pair of countersunk pilot holes at the end of each inner slat, centered over the cross brace below. Drive two #10 x 11⁄2-in. flathead wood screws at each end.

9. Apply the Finishing Touches.

Read the manufacturer’s instructions for installing your bench vises. Cut hardwood jaw plates and screw them to the metal jaws through the jaw holes on the vise. Make up the appropriate filler blocks to shim each vise so the top edges of the jaws are flush with the benchtop. The vises we selected or our bench are installed with 3⁄8 x 2-in. lag screws driven up through the underside of the vise and into the benchtop. Apply a protective finish to the workbench. We used a single coat of Danish oil. Do not apply more than one coat of finishing material, since multiple layers make the surface more slippery. Every other year or so, depending on wear, remove the oil finish with mineral spirits, sand the surface, and apply a fresh finish.