instructables

A Solid and Cheap 2x4 Workbench

by TheWoodfather

Ok, lets get this straight off the bat, I am cheap! Idon't like spending money!

For me to invest money in a project it needs to besomething I consider worthwhile, and this workbenchis exactly that. It cost me around $200 aud to build,and I fall in love with it more each time I use it.

If you are interested in learning how to make anattractive bench on the cheap, with not all thenormally required tools, then I recommend taking alook at my build videos. I've also broken down mostparts into steps in this instructable with a little write upexplaining why I selected certain methods orprocesses as well.

Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy the build.

You may also want to hit subscribe on my youtubechannel as well, I release new videos every couple ofweeks.

Cheers,

Mario

www.thewoodfather.com

//www.youtube.com/embed/KO74siwiBD8

//www.youtube.com/embed/gf-n88mXeTM

A Solid and Cheap 2x4 Workbench: Page 1

Step 1: Gluing Up the Slab and Legs

I knew the hardest part of the build would be the slab.In fact the main reason I kept putting this build off isbecause I don’t have the generally required tools; aplaner and pipe clamps. Of course there are manyways to skin a cat, and once I thought up this methodI managed to convince myself that it would besuccessful.

It would have turned out perfectly had I had dryerwood I think. The wet wood was very hard to cut,even when I was just trimming a small amount off.The blade would be forced to the side in some cases,resulting in a not exact 90 degree face. The few gapsI have in the slab are because of the wood not being

cut at a perfect 90 degrees.

If I was to do it over:

I would use the same method, but refine it. I woulduse more than 3 screws per length for a start, though5 would certainly be enough. I would just go slower,and really ensure that each length was fully beddeddown against it’s neighbour before screwing. A planerwould be better than using the table saw to flattenone side, but the table saw method did work. I wouldprobably try to find dryer stock, the wood I used wasquite wet and hard to cut.

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Step 2: Chopping the Mortises + Tenons

I really wanted to make my own bench with bigbeautiful tenons popping through the slab. Whenusing standard structural timber like this, that isprobably an unrealistic expectation. The soft pinedoes not ‘work’ nicely like a hard grain would do. Andof course, I am not highly skilled in building like this,

someone of my skill level. While the jigsaw worked, Ifeel it was a poor choice for the job. I really shouldhave spent time sharpening my chisels as well, but Iam learning from my mistakes now.

If I was to do it over:

I would use a different method completely. I wouldprobably create a jig to use a router to cut out a nicesharp, well defined mortise, and only chisel the partsthe router could not reach. This would result in amuch nicer and more repeatable mortise. I did nothave a router at the time of cutting these or I would

many people would be able to do a better job than Idid even with pine.

As I’ve mentioned, the wood was quite wet, and eventhough the faces looked clear, fairly knotty whencutting into them. Hand chopping was a poor idea for

have done so.

Failing that, I would have built the mortises into thebase and slab by cutting them out before gluing themup. I could have used the tablesaw or even a circularsaw to simply cut out dadoes, and then clamp themup and move on. I thought about this method butdecided it would take too much time up, and also Ithought cutting by hand would be a good learningexperience. Wrong on both counts.

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Step 3: Trimming the Slab to Size

My circular saw isn’t big enough to cut right through85mm timber, so I had a problem. I figured I could cutit once on each side and have the cuts meet up in themiddle, but I was pretty certain that one of the cutswould be off slightly which would give me a messyand angled edge to clean up.

So instead I made 2 or 3 cuts with the circ saw until itwas at its full depth of cut, and then finished the cut

pushing the saw to the side ever so slightly. I endedup beating the screw with a hammer to flatten it intothe wood, and then sanded it for a little bit. I wasalways going to have a hardwood cap over one endof the bench, this screw sticking out simply meantthat this would be the side which received the cap.

If I was to do it over:

off with the handsaw. It came out smoother than Iexpected and a bit of light sanding brought both endsup to an acceptable standard. However, when gluingup the slab I wasn’t careful enough with my screwplacement, all the screws should have been within 10cm of the end. Clearly I didn’t do this part properly asyou can see I trim more than 10cm off of the slab andof course, I manage to cut right through one of thescrews. The blade was fine, it really just ended up

It was fine cutting it this way, so I would use thismethod again, however it goes without saying that Iwill ensure I know where my screws are beforecutting in the future.

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Step 4: Gluing Up the Legs

Honestly, and you can see in the video, this was a basic glue up. I smothered the joints with glue, whacked themtogether, and then forced in wedges wherever I could find a gap to do so. The part where the tenon pokes throughdidn’t look too pretty, but seeing as that part is on the ground and can’t be seen, I was cool with it.

I also did clamp the legs before gluing to ensure they were straight and square.

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Step 5: Flattening the Slab

This was the job I was simultaneously excited aboutand also dreading! I knew I would use the routermethod to flatten it, but I was stymied once again bythe lack of long enough clamps to emulate how I’veseen it done elsewhere. The Wood Whisperer has anexcellent video demoing this technique.

Breaking down the job, I figured that it was just a sledrunning across a couple of parallel surfaces. Lookingaround, I came to realise that my outdoor picnic tablewas large and flat. I placed the slab directly on thetable on an angle so it would have as much supportas possible, and then placed two long and straightlengths of pine along each side. I packed thoselengths up a little with mdf offcuts, that meant thatthese outside runners were around 10mm taller thanthe slab. I then built a very simple sled for the routerout of some scrap plywood. It is just a flat bridgewhich can traverse the span between the two runnerswithout losing its shape due to the weight of therouter. It has a channel down the centre so that the bitcan pass through and trim the very top off of my slab.The slab itself was fairly flat when I began, it had aslight tilt in it from one particular length which seemedto be wider than the rest, closer to 94mm high ratherthan 90mm. While I did have to rout the entire top, forthe most part it was removing 2mm or so of material.For the high section though it did have to cut throughover 6mm at times. After the first pass, well, I wasn’treally impressed. There were very obvious lines,grooves and channels in the slab, it was very ugly.Ridges and cliffs were everywhere, and at this pointit’s safe to say that I thought I had ruined the wholebench. But, after looking at the bench closely Irealised what I had done wrong, I’d used far too muchdownward force when cutting through the centre ofthe slab. Because it was on an angle, when I got near

the centre I instinctively leaned forward to reacheasier. This meant I pressed down harder, and cutmore material out which left the ugly channels. To fixthis, all I had to do was not press so hard! I set therouter to cut the entire bench to the depth of the worstchannel, and went over the whole thing again. Thistime I was careful to only ever slide the router backand forth, I never pressed down when moving it. Thishad a huge impact on the slab and cleaned it right up.To finish it off, I grabbed my little hand plane and beltsander, and worked my way over the top, making itas smooth as i thought it should be. It ended uplooking fantastic to my eye, so I’m pretty pleased withhow it turned out.

If I was to do it over:

I would absolutely use the same method again, itworked a treat. I would probably even go so far as tolie the slab down on the floor instead of another table.That would make it easier to reach across it. I wouldbuild a better sled though. My one worked, but I reallydropped the ball here and didn’t make it strongenough. Even being careful to slide the router back nforth, the sled had a little bit of give in it and flexeddownward ever so slightly. All I needed to do wasbrace it a bit more, but for some reason I chose notto. I think it was a safety net for myself, I figured if theslab didn’t come out flat that I could blame the sledinstead of blaming the operator. Luckily it didn’t cometo that, but I would certainly beef up the sled if I wasto do it over. I used a 1/2in flat bit in the router. I thinkI would have had a much easier time had I bought aspecialty bit for this purpose, but I couldn’t bringmyself to spend the money on a bit I would use once.I would use the same 1/2in bit again next time too.

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Step 6: Inlays in the Slab

Well, you gotta hide your mistakes somehow don’tyou?

I figured that hardwood inlays in the pine would lookgreat, and that they would also hide the ugly job I didwith the joints. While structurally the table is verysound, it is super solid, those joints don’t look tooflash at all. So instead of leaving them to be seen, Igrabbed the router and some more scrap wood. Thistime I made a rectangle shape, which let the routercut a roughly 160mm by 10mm inlay over the centreof each joint. I cut down to around 10mm, I didn’t

want to actually weaken the joint, and then trimmedthe corners sharp with a chisel. It was a simple matterto cut and glue some hardwood into those areas afterthat.

If I was to do it over:

I would absolutely do this again. I think these inlaysmake my workbench. I love the look of them, not toomuch embellishment, not too little, they are to myeyes, perfect.

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Step 7: Installing an End Cap

This process was straightforward.

Cut a length of hardwood to size, glue and screw itinto the end grain. Once the glue was dry, I removeda couple of screws, drilled out the holes and insertedsome hardwood dowel in place. When that doweldried, I repeated the process until all the screws hadbeen replaced. Finally a nice sanding to make sure

everything was nice and smooth.

If I was to do it over:

I would make sure the end grain on the dowel aligns!ugh, so obvious now!

Step 8: Applying the Finish

I brushed on two generous coats of Minwax AntiqueOil Finish. I bought this at the now defunct Mastershardware stores chain; it was near the end of days atthe stores and there wasn’t much left on the shelves.I didn’t have high hopes for this finish seeing as I onlypaid a couple dollars for it, but after a test on someoffcuts I was ecstatic.

You know how when you have been waiting forsomething for a long time, you have a picture in yourmind of what it should look like? For me, my mind

pictures a light orange tinge on a workbench withdark contrasting sections. And once this oil wasapplied what did I end up with? Exactly what I hadpictured, I honestly couldn’t be happier with the colourthat the bench turned out, I think it looks beautiful.

If I was to do it over:

I would buy 3 cans of this oil!

A Solid and Cheap 2x4 Workbench: Page 9

Step 9: Complete!

I couldn’t be happier with this bench, to me it is amazing. There are always improvements to be made but they willcome in time. Dogholes one day, maybe an end vice, definitely shelving underneath it. It will evolve over time and Ibet it lasts me 10+ years.

For now I’ll stop talking about my bench now and start using it to build things, but if you have any thoughts pleaseleave a comment here, on my site, or on my youtube channel.

Step 10:

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