The workbench thread.

For general tin bashing will a normal record etc be ok?
I had a cheap cast iron vice that cracked when I took a heavy swing at something..

Hoping that was just the cheapness and not the cast iron part.

Excellent.
Well, my two workbenches are now built, installed and the undersides filled with camping gear.
Will take some photos and post them here tomorrow once the clamps have come off the wet bench.

Already considering a modification, as I have extra steel, and I'm worried 2 layers of ply won't be enough to cope with keeping the vice in place.
But I need to find a vice first!

Edit*
New benches.


Second one is a stone top I pulled from a job. Nothing like 1k worth of stone to use as a wet bench.




And camping storage underneath.

There's juuuust enough room between for a pillar drill when I can find one on the cheap.

I'm part way through building a new workbench in my shed. I have a few architects plan chests, which are great things, if a little deep. They are strong steel drawers with ball bearing runners, perfect for keeping loads of small parts, gaskets, clips etc. These rather dictated the size, though I may have gone a little overboard...

The bench itself is around fifteen feet long and three and a half feet deep (due to the plan chests). I built an eight legged frame from 4"x4" timber bolted to the wall and to the floor. I topped this with 6"x3" timber laid on it's side with a layer of 3/4" sterling board, then a layer of 3/4" plywood. I came by way of a quantity of catering worktops from a school so the whole bench is finished off with 2.5mm stainless. I have a another sheet of 3/4" plywood which locates on the top with pegs if I need to strip a gearbox or similar, and I also have a sheet of 6mm rubber which can cover the other half if I need something softer. The back wall and the white spaces between the wall cupboards are covered in GRP-faced 6mm ply so wipe easily, reflect light and are virtually indestructible.

There are sockets on the front for grinders etc, and there will be sockets on the back wall as well. I have a huge old Record steel vice which will go on the right hand end. The wall cupboards are from a friend who was fitting a new kitchen, and they will be fitted with a pelmet top and bottom and have LED lighting underneath. I have a pair of big steel ex-MOD cupboards, one on either end and a shorter one under the bench behind the stool. Kickboards under the planchests are a must - I don't want to lose anything that rolls under there. It's obviously still a work in progress, as I have yet to paint it or trim the timber with yet more stainless I've picked up, but it's getting there.

I had another chest and more stainless worktop left over, so I knocked up another bench in the opposite corner. This will take the small pillar drill, linisher, bench grinder and the polisher, along with a vice to hold the bead roller and shrinker/stretcher. The gap on the left will take an old rollcab I keep my bodywork hammers & dollies in. Again, this is a work-in-progress photo, so excuse the mess.

Just to class up the joint ...



This was a temporary arrangement (only lasted 2 years *cough* )

Will find a picture of my current workbench ... but I'm about to start a project to replace that again soon.

Doesn’t he complain? I mean his back must ache after a while.

This picture triggers my OCD for some reason.

If you are looking for work bench and work shop shelving always keep an eye out for roofing timber from building sites and skips, i have made plenty of benches from off cuts and they are still going strong, I had to buy some timber today but that was for the man cave to house the Haynes type manuals which are in storage but i think i have about 100 now.