OT: - Workbench.

Fabricate one. 50mm RHS tube 3mm thick is very cheap for a frame and legs.

Steve

Pop down B&Q or similar and get some 4x4 timber and two large sheets of chipboard, some chipboard screws, nails and spend a few mins bolting one together. You can just about see mine with a coupe of diffs on at the following hurl;

I agree with all that Ian has said and would add, line the top with a sacrificial layer of hardboard over the chipboard, so when it gets disgusting you can peel it off (like table cloths in a Chinese Restaurant!) and replace without structural changes. If you can find a bit of 2" x 2" angle to run across the front edge it saves a lot of graunching putting heavy things a'top and is a useful edge for bashing things on. Mount the vice directly over a leg and far enough forwards that a gripped bar will pass down to the floor. (The top of the vice should be level with your crooked elbow)

AWEM

That's an idea, I used two bits of chipboard on top of each other and if I'm doing something really oily and I need the bench to be clean (e.g. when I was rebuilding a crank) I had a big roll of cheap unpasted lining wallpaper, just unroll a bench's worth.

Sacrificial hardboard works well for woodwork.

I find that a top layer made of 3mm steel is more appropriate for things automotive. It also allows for a very solid mounting for a vice.

I agree with all that except I would use 18mm WBP ply rather than chipboard. Ply will take knocks better, is stiffer and doesn't fail suddenly. Ordinary chipboard doesn't like getting wet or prolonged damp.

Also put two diagonal braces across the back and a single top front to bottom back on each end to stop the thing wobbling.

Alternativly you can do as i did and get a cheap kitchen worktop, which affixes to my frame. But i do have a large garage with a 3metre workbench down one side. The laminate is quite hardwearing and has the added advantage that oil etc wipes off rather than soaks in. Replacement is then a matter of popping down to B&Q for another one and screwing it on.

Alex

My last workbench was laminated kitchen stuff. I found it hardwearing but very slippy and if you dropped anything it bounced. I replaced it with the stuff they sell for loft flooring.

I built my own but got some ideas from looking at this site

I used a sheet of galvanised steel. Wipes clean and takes the punishment. Magnet based parts receptacles stick nicely. My steel has been down for >7 years now.

Cheers

Peter

On or around Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:43:14 -0000, "Lee_D" enlightened us thusly:

make one for yerself, then you get what you want. Or supply dimensions and specs and I'll make it for you...

Ruddy hell Ian you poseur ;-) my bench hasn't looked clean like that since I built it. Can't see it for parts, tool, gaskets and those cans of stuff I need for that job in progress I really should put a sheet of ply on it if only to hide the burns.

Derek

Keep an eye on your local Freecycle, and you'll see kitchen worktops offered quite frequently, used and new. What about using a (free) stainless steel sink as the basis for a parts washer?

The best workbench I've ever seen (as my friend's farm) is made up from old railway sleepers, the 'legs' are just shortened sleepers piled up. It really was very strong, and would take any sort of abuse and would take the weight of an entire Range Rover!. Construction was very simple indeed and the materials cheap.

'The Farmers Guardian' should help with a local supplier.

Julian

That's what it's like now, the only reason I moved all the crap off was so I could drag those diffs around on it, they each weigh 85 kilos, which is what I weight. Also there's not much stuffed under the bench, the reason for that is because I had to move it all out as the engine crane I used to get the diffs onto the bench wouldn't go under it otherwise! Normally there's a pile of assorted oil containers, having a landy, lotus and pinzgauer I need a lot of oil.

So appearances can be deceptive ;-)

Also 2 litres of oil are washing around on the surface of the bench and the floor from one of the diffs, can't see that in the pic either other than some stains on the front.

Have I started some kind of "Reader's Benches" trend here?

Go on you lot, post some pics up somewhere ;-)

puffernutter uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Cheers chaps... lots to think on about there. Now I've put my shed up I can actually swing a cat in the garage with only minor concusion occuring. ;-)

I can feel a trip to the tip coming on, like strechers.... any one need a strecher?

Lee D

I'd like one but you're too far away, can you not use them as an occasional camp bed?

Oh - that type of stretcher :)

William Tasso uttered summat worrerz funny about:

:-)