my $0.00 workbench restore

Hey all,

I know it's not nearly as great as all the ingenious stuff that goes on here... but I figured I'd share anyway.

My dad made my sister a little workbench (24" x 48") for her when she was young... twenty years later the workbench is now my main bench. It's too small for me, so it normally sits on cinder blocks, which brings it to the perfect height.

It's been needing a repaint for a while, as well as a new vise. I am unemployed and I have yet to make it to a yard sale with a cheap vise. I repainted it and took the old wood working vise off.

I also layed on a new top over the old one.

Plans are pegboard, single upper shelf, and t8 fluorescent light.

Anyway, here are the pics.

It's great you made the effort to fix up something that obviously means something to you. It looks good.

Hey man, it's functional, sturdy looking, and clean as a whistle now. A project done is a project done. Nothing to be ashamed of there.

I see you're new. I hope you stick around.

Looks good to me. I found a workbench out in back of a building where the shop had went out of business and did basically the same thing you did. Replaced some of the wood, sanded, primed and painted it.

Thanks all for the kind words. I really appreciate it. I'm going to build a new workbench soon to go along side this one, but I had to freshen her up and keep her in the family.

I'm hoping pegboard will help solve this problem:

I like pegboard if it's done right. I also believe in using every available nook, cranny, and surface to provide a home for something. Have you seen the front page of this site, with a link to the guy who has a wide array of tool benches and neat organizational ideas in his shop? You might get some good ideas from there.

Those tools you have could easily be stored away on pegboard, magnetized racks that you can hang on the wall or inside the ceiling bays, toolboxes, Akro bins, wall-mounted shelves etc. etc. Not a problem at all!

What does your workspace look like?

i had an under built bench myself.

when you stood on it it would sway about 4 inches each way!!!

one cheap trick is to find some cull or used 2 x 4's and lay them sideways across the first piece of ply wood and nail them down then lay the second piece. you end up with a bout a 3" top and serious strong.

Bull said:

What does your workspace look like?

Click to expand...

I live with my mother and uncle, and she is renting a house from someone who hasn't moved any of their clutter out... so that makes workspace very hard to come by. I currently do most of my work in the garage which is what is getting the rework.

I do so many car/bike projects but I've never done a garage project. Hopefully this will make wrenching more enjoyable and bring more profit to my wheelin' n dealin' business.

You can see it behind the pic of my project bike. Yes, that is my entire workspace... and half the time it is occupied by my car.