Hi all:
I’m looking for advise on workbench construction. I’ve got a 30″x72″x2″ maple slab (butcher block). Instead of building a a heavy base, I was considering the following:
Mount one side to garage wall (studs) with four 6″ inch hinges. Screw two floor flanges into bottom of slab (away from wall). Finally, thread 1″ pipe into flanges to support the outside of the bench.
This plan will allow me to unscrew the legs and fold the table down out of the way. Although, I don’t anticipate doing this much, it would be nice if I could! I was thinking that having it attached to wall studs will eliminate any twisting movement and that the steel legs would be plenty strong enough for the downward force.
If anyone has tried this or has some recommendations, please reply! Thanks, Brendan
Replies
Brendan,
I think your idea would work...relative to the twisting issue but not so sure on the overall approach. The slab is going to get quite heavy as you add vises ....and a 3-4" apron (maybe) for the vises....so set up and breakdown becomes a real task. In my basement shop the floor is not so level and while there is flexibility with your approach it can be an additional pain. Lastly, that is a nice piece of wood that deserves a nice base, however, nothing your doing would prevent switching to a different setup in the future...so try it..good luck
Thanks BG:
In regards to weight, this is not something I expect to break down regularly. More importantly, this seems like an easy, quick, and cheap way to have a solid workbench top to do some work on.
I've been working on a portable bench that requires me to use foot pressure to hold the bench from walking around my shop (while maintaining balance and trying to plane!).
In regards to floor uneveness, I bought flanges for the floor as well. I can attach these to small blocks cut to account for any variance.
I would love to have a workbench in which I could take pride, but I need to produce some furniture or my wife will cut my tool allowance off! I'm thinking function!
Thanks again, Brendan
Have you considered instead of putting legs from the corners of your bench to the floor, have the legs angled back to the base of the wall? It will form a triangle, which is very rigid and give open space under the corners of your bench. You can attach them with the same large hinges at the front corner of the top with the bottoms fitting into a socket in a block. So that when you raise the benchtop to the wall,they fold flat against the bottom of the benchtop. You also don't have the flanges on the concrete floor to trip over when the bench is up. To make it easier to raise and lower your bench with control, use a small block and tackle from the top of the wall to a hook under the front edge of the bench.
I can't see any technical reason why it wouldn't work at a reasonable level of satisfaction. However, I personally wouldn't do it out of other considerations. The advantages of a traditional bench just outweigh what is gained by the fold-away feature. The truth is, it would probably be much easier to just move a bench to a different spot as needed, rather than to fold away and set up this one. And one day when you have the space, a regular bench will always serve you. This one has planned obsolescence built in.
DR
I never finished a project exatly like this before I moved to a different house. The "table I was using was a section of an old bowling alley. The wood was maple and the pieces were screwed to each other and to 2 steel rails. I mention all this because one of the other posts mentioned the weight. The setup I had was quite heavy. I devised a custom block and tackle system to assist with the lowering and lifting.
I can't say how well it worked as we moved just as I was getting ready to do the final install. I'm sure this will work for you.
You'd think a mfgr would build make a product like this. There are so many of us who could use it.
I believe Lee Valley is selling a nice wall mounted bench. Check them out for ideas.
I too built a wall mounted bench. My shop is my 2 car garage so I wanted something I could breakdown if need be. I took a 4' x 8' oak door my office was discarding and cut it down to 3 x 5, mounted 4x4 doug firs on large hinges (the kind that snap out and lock into place) on the inside edge and used the existing hvy duty door hinges to mount it to the studs. I have one of the smaller woodworking vices on the front left side. I've had a lot of weight on it so far. no problems. Though strong and sturdy, this is a temporary bench. It's kinda of a pain not being able to get all around the bench. I'll build a free standing one in a few years. Your width will be perfect. Because mine is wider it has to be higher off the floor (or it will hit the floor when i drop it down).
"It's kinda of a pain not being able to get all around the bench."That's the main reason for a free standing bench. If it can be moved out of the way, then I'd go that route. I just built my first "real" bench after having a wall mounted "temporary" bench. It put in 5 good years, but after working on it for the first real project this week I realized how limiting a wall bench is. Having said that, a wall mounted setup should certainly work well enough for you to produce enough products to justify your tool allowance.
Good luck!
Thanks all for the advice. I have mostly completed the bench in question. I'm very happy with the results. Very stable and functional.
It does look a little silly on the 1.25" pipe legs, but at a cost of less than $200 (excluding vise) I'm happy!
30" x 72" wildwood maple top = $150 including shipping (had to ship 2 pieces to keep cost down) from perfectplank.com
three 6" hinges = ~$8
two 1.25" legs = ~$14
two floor flanges = ~$6
I picked up a nice 10" woodworkers vise from Craigslist for $40. I need another for tail vise, but I'm patient!
As some have pointed out, wall-mounted benches have the drawback of access from only three sides. For me, this was not a big deal. On the plus side, I wall-mounted my router table and miter saw on hinges as well so they can fold down out of the way. I positioned them so that my workbench will server as out/infeed tables for these two tools.
Thanks again for all the advise!
One "thought". If you attach the short edge of the bench to the wall you'd have walk around access to the 2 long sides.Jim
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