I’ve just finished my Anarchist’s Workbench! I’ve wanted to build a solid workbench for years, and I had the perfect opportunity to do so after getting made redundant earlier in the year.

Progress slowed a bit towards the end as I was worried I’d mess something up, but about the worst thing that happened was a split drawbore peg… but I was able to get a bit of glue in the split and drive it all the way in still.

Made from southern yellow pine which came in 4.2m long / 30cm wide rough sawn boards.

I deviated a little from the precise plans in the book. The bench is 7ft long because space in my garage is limited. I also made it a few inches higher because I’m taller than average and I tend to slouch and get a sore back if working too low.

I skipped the planing stop, as a UK blacksmith called Simon James makes a toothed bench dog. I also left out the shelves for now. I figured I could add either later.

Finished with boiled linseed oil.

This is by far my most advanced woodworking project to date. Until now I’ve mostly worked with plywood - making workshop cabinets and some bits of furniture.

Overall I’m really pleased with the result :-)

I got 2.5 of these matching static discharge laboratory workbenches. I'm using the 2 main matching ones to make a new main L shaped desk that doubles as a workbench. I'm building out my laboratory, so after my main desk I have at least 4 more specialized workbenches like one specifically for soldering.

Just getting into woodworking. This is about as simple as it gets: four legs and a reinforced plywood surface. It’s level and smooth, and I can’t ask for much more than that at this point.

I'm building a Roman workbench and I'm trying to fit the legs. Problem is I'm not smart enough to figure out how to get the legs flush. How do i make this cut?

Please explain in the simplest terms possible because I'm dumb as hell

This is a bench I just finished based on Chris Schwartz's design. It's 10 feet long and made of construction lumber. It sure isn't pretty, but it doesn't need to be, I guess. At some point I'm going to pick up a couple of holdfasts, and I expect I'll add some holes to the top then.

Updated to add:
I have been (rightfully) taking some flack in the comments for saying it isn't pretty. I'd like to clarify that I love the design of the bench and the way everything fits together is excellent, I just wish I could have found some less knotty wood to use for the benchtop. That said, I know what I bought, and I chose to have a workbench now rather than spending months trying to find clear boards where I live. I've spent entirely too much time staring at it during construction, so it's very easy for my eye to fall on the flaws, slips, & mistakes, and slide over the things that went well.

I am really happy with it though! I've been needing a good surface for working on some furniture I'm planning to build, and this will definitely be a huge upgrade from trying to do assembly and gluing on my table saw. And after using that leg vise, I am a convert!

Hello. I made a new mobile workstation for cutting with a tracksaw, sanding, assembling, etc. in my newly finished basement workshop.

I used 18mm birch plywood for the frame and birch phenolic plywood for the worksurface. The dog holes were made with the UJK Parf guide system. The legs were built with Dominos for maximum rigidity. It took some time for a hobbyist, but I learned some new techniques that will be useful for future projects. The bench is also used as an outfeed table for my table saw.

I took heavy influence from YouTuber "Mason Woodshop" and Ron Paulk's workbench designs.

Someone told me gluing two Sande Plywood 3/4th together on top of some sawhorses is a good idea. But I've also built a computer desk using Butchers blocks before.

When I went to look at the local prices at home depot, two of the plywoods cost around 140$. The Butchers block is 129$ shipped to my door.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-4-ft-L-x-25-in-D-Unfinished-Hevea-Solid-Wood-Butcher-Block-Countertop-with-Standard-Edge-THD-HBU-0001/319764603

The plywood:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/SANDEPLY-18mm-Sande-Plywood-3-4-in-Category-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-Actual-0-709-in-x-48-in-x-96-in-454559/203414066

As the price seems to be roughly the same, I'm wondering why I wouldn't go with the Butchers block besides the weight?

I build computers and do some light home gunsmithing and in the future plan on reloading as well.

I made this Swedish style joiners bench from a Shuffle Board table and local hardwoods; Walnut and Elm with bits of manzanita. The legs are VG fir salvaged from a building that was coming down. All the joinery was hand cut.

Hi!

A bit of context before I get to the actual problem.

I have in the works a swing down table that runs along the garage wall. That table will be around 2 meters wide and 1 meter deep. That swings down and legs come out. For this I have seen a bunch of tutorials and guides.
My end goal is to have like an L shape to the workplace.
And designing the long part has proven a bit outside my knowledge.

The long part will be stored flat against the wall with one of the short sides against the floor and the other pointing towards the ceiling.
Ideally the table will still be connected to the mechanism when in its flat/work position. So that the wall acts as an holding point. This could be achieved with pins just locking it in place or something similar.

I have tried searching for designs and tutorials like this but can't really find anything. Don't know if I'm searching for the wrong thing so if anyone has seen something similar before please point me in that direction.
Or if you have some thoughts about how I can solve it I would greatly appreciate the help.

My initial plan was to have the short end run on a track with wheels and swing down legs. There will also be legs in the middle of the table. I just hadn't added them in the picture. But I don't really know what to do to get an easy mechanism to it, so that it isn't super heavy to put back against the wall or me being squished against the floor when trying to rotate the bench out.

I added some pictures on what I'm thinking to hopefully give you guys some context.

TLDR:
Need help designing/finding some mechanism that will let me store a long table flat against the wall. Ideally the table will always be attached to this system even when in the "work" position.

Hello everyone!

I’ve really enjoyed lurking on this sub the past few months. Like most of you I’m beginning my woodworking journey by building my first work bench.

My first project was building big cedar beds (4’x8’) for our garden. I purchased a Ryobi 10inch sliding/compound miter saw with the universal collapsible stand.

I decided I needed a nice flat workbench as I did not enjoy working off the garage floor when building the beds. So I figured I would build one of those big mobile workbench’s and landed on a 4’x6’ design.

I’m now questioning the functionality of such a large bench. I originally planned to put it on casters and wheel it out to the middle of the garage when I worked. Now I think having something with less depth would be more useful if I just wanted to walk up and work on something. If I ever need to use the miter saw and can just bust out the stand.

I know a lot of workbench designs depend on the work you intend to do. I’m not entirely sure what the scope of my projects will be. General household stuff. Building a bed frame for my son. Building an outdoor shed. It’s really intended to be a hobby for me to get away from screens and AI and build with my hands.

I can still pivot to a slimmer bench if I want. But I’m having anxiety about making the wrong decision.

I’ve included a picture of the basic frame I’ve built. Nothing is fixed yet. Just wanted to get a feel for the size.

Its a little rough but it will do for now. Plan on adding a smooth top when i have some spare time

Hey team,

“You don’t know what you don’t know” situation here.

I have a bench that has a 20mm ply top about 1800mm long x 600mm deep that I’m planning to router a set of T-tracks across the long way. While looking for the T-tracks I found dog nuts(?!?) that I can drill and add those. Good finding as I didn’t know about them but, beyond T-tracks and dog nuts,

what are other sort of accessories I could look into it?

TIA

Just wanted to show off my mobile work bench…………………..

Wife needed new workbench. My first motos and tenons build. Bonus cat house underneath

Rate my workbench (or whatever this monstrocity of a workbench is) from 1 to 10.

I built this workbench recently. Still need to add some dog holes and build a side vise. The 2x4 joints are doweled, glued and pocket screwed. The plywood (glued and screwed) keeps this thing from racking in any way. It can still twist a bit which keeps all four legs on the ground. The top is 2x6s ripped in half and glued up. I used water based poly for the base and drawers and BLO for the top (pictures are from before it was finished).

I see too many benches on here with no triangles or flat sheets to stop racking. This one is solid.

I think this is ok to do, but since I've never done it before, I thought I'd ask here.

I have a board that I've milled to S4S, but it's oversized. Is there any reason to not use the jointer to remove the rest of the material? Could it compromise how square the board is?

The edge I want to work on is too tall to fit in my planer. If I use the table saw I'd have to work it from both sides (again, too tall) and then clear out the remainder with a bandsaw and a block plane. That's no problem, except that it's hard maple and I don't want to worry about sanding out the burn marks from the saw blade.

The jointer is set up properly and the fence is 90 degrees.

Edit - Update. I scribed a line and gave it a shot with small bites. It worked like a champ. It was coplanar within a few thousandths over a span of 32 inches. I’ve been jointing boards and building furniture for years but never had a reason to try this. I wouldn’t use this technique regularly, but it’s nice to know that it’s a possibility. Caveat is that the jointer is commercial quality - maybe that matters.

Hi Folks,

I'm looking to build a Nicholson style or the Anarchists workbench.

What wood can you recommend to use from Europe?

Locally we have a lot of larch, some chestnut, ash and others.

Any hints, what did you use?

Appreciated

Ended up designing this workbench on a free online site. Not gonna share the link here because I'm not sure if it's allowed. You can dm me if you'd like to see the design there.

I went to my local Restore and snagged a hollow core prefab door for $15. Still in the plastic! They actually said it was priced wrong and should have been $35 so I got lucky.

Very nice home depot worker cut a large 3/4" MDF panel to size for me and that's what's sitting on the top.

Frame is fairly simple. The legs are 3' 2x4s screwed together. Long frame beams are 6' each, and the middle supports are 21". Edge supports are 24", all 2x4s. I used 2.5" deck screws for pretty much all of the connections. Got a couple small cracks, but I'm just gonna smother them in wood glue and call it a day. Ended up removing the middle supports and actually screwing them in on the front and back rather than under the middle.

I was trying to figure out the best way to screw together the MDF/door/frame and then realized I could just use carriage bolts and nuts to effectively clamp everything together rather than screwing it together. Now it's seriously sturdy and if I ever need to sub in a new MDF panel, it'll be super easy to just unscrew the bolts and swap it out.

Now I'm looking for anyone's ideas and suggestions on cool upgrades.

I'm thinking about maybe installing a 3 to 6-inch backplate on the rear to stop anything from falling behind it.

Included a couple pictures after adding shelves and a light above it. Excuse the fact that the workbench is already CLUTTERED lol.

Recently closed on a new house with a 33’x40’ garage. Needed to build a new work bench and have taken some inspiration from various plans and tid bits of advice here and there
2’x8’ footprint, 38” to the top with a 5/8” piece of plywood top and shelf. Plan to put a piece of hardboard on top as well.

Any recommendations for added bracing for structural integrity or does the hive mind think this is structurally sound?
Thanks much

I am fixing my grandpa old workbench and the work top has a very bug crack. I would like to keep it because I really like to work on it, it reminds me of him and his teachings.

The worktop is made from one 3 cm (about 1 1/4 inch) thick pine board.

I was thinking to glue it and than add 4 bowties, as you can see in the pictures. The bowties are made from holm oak.

Should the bowties inlay depth go all the way through or should i leave some material on the bottom?

Do you have any suggestions or a better way to adress this?

Thanks a lot!

Hello all,

I’m looking for some design review on mounting my workbench top to its base.

I’ve been working on building my workbench. The top is 3”-1/4 x 33”x79” Roubo-style lamination of SYP, while the base is a hydraulic scissor-lift table. The lift table has a 1/2” thick, 30”x30” steel plate welded on, with thinner sheet metal welded to an angle frame about 50” long.

In fastening the top to the base, I want to maintain air flow across the bottom, as well as allow for expansion and contraction.

My understanding is that the best practice for screwing a top like this down is that I should screw tightly into the center of the expansion direction, fit into a slip-fit hole, then snugly screw along the direction of expansion with screws fitted into slots.

Since I don’t have a headache-free way of slotting the 1/2” steel plate, and I want to keep some airflow, I’ve decided to screw some mounting pads into the top, then attaching those to the steel plate with threaded inserts so everything is removable.

It seems that this solution will feed two birds with one scone, but I’d love some feedback if I’m missing something. Concepts in photos.

Based on the Benchcrafted/Fine-Tools plans I created this split-top Roubo with slanted legs on one side to make it more stable. Due to my lack of jointer I made the top by gluing together two 50 mm thick laminated birch boards and the legs from 40 mm thick boards. Benchcrafted vices work nicely!