Introduction: DIY Workbench - Simple, Sturdy, Multifunctional!

By timbertime.uk
About: Woodworking and IT enthusiast

You want to know how to build a workbench yourself? With lots of clamping options? You don’t have a professional workshop and no professional machines at home? No problem! In the following series of posts you will find step-by-step instructions on how to build your own DIY workbench with simple tools!


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Supplies

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Tools


Materials

Step 1: 3D Workbench Plans

The Workbench Plan can be used as a detailed reference whent it comes to measuring the part sizes.

Step 2: The Workbench Base

In PART 1 I show you how to build the strong base for your DIY workbench yourself.

When buying the wood, make sure that you buy the straightest possible square timber - without any major twists. Once you have cut the wood to the desired lengths (square timber is usually available in 4m units at the hardware store - many hardware stores will also cut the wood down to the desired dimensions), you can begin to make cut-outs (lap joints) on the table legs and crossbars. This will make the workbench very stable later on! Have a look at my detailed construction drawings.

If you have a table saw or a large cross-cut saw with a depth stop at hand, you will manage this step very cleanly and quick. I built this DIY workbench only with a hand-held circular saw - this can be done without any problems, but it takes a little longer. Make sure you work with some kind of a rip fence (e.g. a piece of wooden slats) and always measure very accurately. If the joints have too much play later, this will affect the stability of your DIY workbench.

Make several cuts with a depth of 50mm (upper recess of the table legs with a depth of 40mm!) as shown in the picture and then break out the flat plates. You can easily remove the pins/remnants that remain with a sharp chisel.

Follow this procedure to make all the overlays for the table legs and the braces. You can use the 3D CAD construction drawings above one to one.

Once all the overlays on the table legs and struts have been made, you can check that everything fits together and test fit the individual parts together. Ideally, the connections should have little or no play. Any play in the overlaps is eliminated later by the screw connection.

Step 3: Screw or Glue Together?

If you want to transport the workbench at some point, you should not glue the construction together but screw it together. This way, the workbench remains mobile and you retain maximum flexibility. To do this, you can drill through the centre of the overlays with a 10 mm drill bit. If you want, you can use a 30 mm Forstner bit and countersink the holes so that the screws do not protrude. Use 2 M8 washers for the screw and nut. The whole thing can then look like this.

Screw the workbench together piece by piece. First put all the parts together loosely and see how it fits best. Then gradually tighten all the screws evenly. You will see - the construction is super strong!

If you are interested in installing a woodworking vice, instructions can be found here at timbertime.uk: Installing a Vice

If you want to move the workbench regularly and therefore need a mobile workbench, you can attach workbench casters onto the workbench legs. The square timber with a cross-section of 10x10 is more than adequately dimensioned for this purpose and the linked castors have a load capacity of 300 kg.

Step 4: The Worktop

The squared timber sometimes is chamfered at the edges. This means that when you glue the beams together for the worktop, unsightly grooves will appear. If you have access to a jointer, you can save yourself a lot of time here and cleanly joint the beams before gluing them together so that the chamfer disappears. I will show you later how you can do this without a jointer. First you have to cut the squared timber for the worktop.

Note: Two of the eleven beams have to be cut further so that you get the recesses for the table legs. The worktop will later be self-supporting on the table legs – no further screwing or gluing is necessary here. With these dimensions, nothing will wobble. You can use my construction drawings again.

I glued the worktop in several steps because I don’t have clamps large enough. In the following picture you can see the two halves of the worktop. If you have larger clamps, you can also glue the worktop together completely in one step. I used the American Titebond wood glue. Take whatever wood glue brand you like most!

Step 5: What Do I Have to Pay Attention to When Gluing?

When gluing yourself, make sure that you do not just apply lateral pressure to press the beams together. It is also very important that you align the beams as flat as possible. To achieve this, take two roof battens or similar and force them onto the ends of the beams, as in the next picture. I wrapped the battens with baking paper to prevent them from being accidentally glued to the worktop.

The two halves of the worktop can then be glued together using the same principle. Pressure from the sides and pressure from above and below.

Step 6: How to Plane the Worktop Without a Planer?

In order for the surface of the worktop to be completely flat, you still have to flatten the worktop, i.e. remove material. Do this until the grooves between the beams have disappeared and a single flat surface has been created.

To do this, I built a provisional jig for my router based on the following jig: Link to Youtube Video

For the rails I bought cheap plug-in shelf posts. You can get them in any DIY store!

Later on you can integrate this jig into the workbench top and attached it to T-track rails installed in Part 3.

Shim the worktop with small pieces of wood as spacers and check several times that the distance from the worktop to the router is identical at all ends. Otherwise, you will mill off the worktop at an angle and you will have to rework all over it again.

Now mill off the worktop piece by piece. A router bit with a large planing surfce is useful here. I used this one: 22mm router bit

You will end up with a smooth surface with minimal grooves that can be easily sanded away with a sander!

Step 7: Attach Worktop to Base

Before you sand the surface, you should attach the worktop to the workbench base. Easiest way to do this: build it up upside down. At the end, flip the entire construction around and the workbench is standing stable.

By milling the worktop flat, the table legs now stand out a little higher because material from the worktop has been removed. the protruding piece of table leg can be quickly and flush cut off with a japanese saw. I myself have used the a Ryoba. The saw blade is very flexible. With light pressure, the saw blade lies completely flat on the tabletop and you can saw off the table legs so that they are at the same height as the worktop. I really recommend that you use a Japanese ryoba saw. You will achieve much better results and save yourself tedious reworking.


The beams of the worktop have minimal offset at the end?!


You will be similar to me if you don't have a table saw and therefore can't make repeatable cuts - the ends of the worktop have minimal offset among the single beams.

You can easily solve this problem with a hand-held circular saw* or alternatively with a jigsaw. With the circular saw, you will probably have to cut from both sides. If you measure accurately, you will only have a minimal offset, which you can easily sand flat with your orbital sander. Your worktop will lose some length in this step. The 4000 mm long square timber, which you probably cut in half in the middle for the worktop, will lose further length. This means that in the end the worktop will be less than 2000mm wide. That's why I planned the worktop with 1950mm in the construction drawing.

Finally, you can sand down the worktop. To make the surface really smooth, you must of course sand the worktop in several passes from coarse grit to fine grit until the worktop is really smooth. I started with grit 40. Be careful with the coarse grade - it's easy to accidentally sand a bump into the worktop. Then I continued with grit 80, 120, 180 and finally grit 240. I recommend to buy a set of sanding discs which is covering any grits. I can recommend the set by workpro. It's affordable and it gets the job done!

The result is impressive! In principle, the do-it-yourself workbench is already perfectly usable in this condition. But to make the whole effort really worthwhile, one or two details are still missing.

Step 8: Multifunctional Workbench? This Is How It's Done!

In order to be able to clamp various devices into the workbench later on, you should also insert two T-slot rails into the worktop, which are designed for M8 screw heads or nuts. Only then will your workbench really become an all-rounder! A jig for planing, for example, I have now modified the jig user for planing the workbench top so that I can simply clamp it into the t-track rails when I want to plane a workpiece on my workbench.

Where exactly you place the t-track rails is up to you. Of course, you get the most space if you place the rails as far apart as possible. I placed one rail a little further away from the end of the workbench. I use the planing jig mostly for wooden beams. This gives me space in front of the first rail to put down tools etc.

When installing the T-track rails, I first milled a 19mm slot using a levelling board or something similar as a rip fence with 2m length and then inserted the rail. If you are thinking about using a roof batten as a rip fence, please make sure that the roof batten is really straight - otherwise you will run into issues inserting the 19mm wide T-track rail. You can get a 19mm router bit at amazon, for example. Do yourself a favour and don't buy a cheap router bit. I screwed the rail into the wood instead of gluing it in. It is best to countersink the holes for the screws in the rail so that the screw head disappears completely. T-track rails are also available pre-drilled - but they are more expensive.

Make sure that you mill the slot slowly. Do not apply too much force! Especially if you only use a small router like I do. The small Makita router has never let me down so far - I can highly recommend it!

Step 9: Why Not Simply Mill a T-slot Instead of Inserting Rails Into a Normal Slot?

Of course, you can also simply mill a T-slot with a special T-slot cutter*. However, I would only advise you to do this if you have used hardwood for your worktop. If you bought conventional KVH made of spruce or pine, like I did, then it's better to use an aluminium rail - it will last longer.

Further advantages of an aluminium t-track rail:

  • Cleaning (removing sawdust) much easier than with a wooden slot.
  • The screw heads and nuts slide much better over aluminium than over wood.

If the rail protrudes slightly, you can simply shorten the rail after installation with a hacksaw and, if necessary, file the upper edge round with a file.

Step 10: Clamping Possibilities With No Limits!

In order to be able to use common bench dogs or clamps in your workbench, I can highly recommend drilling a hole grid into the worktop. I did not drill the holes all the way through, but drilled blind holes. Why? This way I can build drawers under the worktop later without dust falling in from above.

Step 11: Which Hole Diameter? Which Hole Pattern?

First of all, you have to decide which diameter you want for your hole grid. I decided on 19mm holes because there are relatively many accessories (bench dogs, clamps, etc.) to buy. 19mm is now a common standard and the accessories are comparatively cheap. This is because it corresponds to the American 3/4 inch standard. Whether you choose the same diameter is up to you. If you already have some accessories that fit another dimension, it is better to use this one so that you can use your accessories.

Next you should think about how far apart you want to drill the holes. I decided on 100mm spacing between the holes. If necessary, you can always drill more holes in other positions later.

I drilled the holes as so-called blind holes. This means that the holes are not drilled through the entire worktop, but only about 60mm deep. So every now and then you have to vacuum out the holes. In return, no dirt falls into a drawer, which you can install under the worktop if you want.

Once you have clarified the points for yourself, mark the hole grid on the worktop and drill the holes with a 19mm Forstner drill. I can only advise you to use a drill stand so that you always drill vertical holes. So far, I can unreservedly recommend the inexpensive drill stand from Wolfcraft. It does what it is supposed to do at a reasonable price! Afterwards, you should always round off the edges of the hole with a round over corner bit and your router so that the wood does not splinter when bench dogs are inserted.

Step 12: What About a Workbench Vice?

A workbench usually has at least one front clamp for clamping workpieces. In the following project you will learn how to install a workbench vice. I can recommend the following one:

Instruction on how to install a workbench vice

Step 13: Surface Treatment

You have reached the last step - finishing your DIY workbench! In general, it makes sense to treat the worktop to make it more resistant. Which oil you use is up to you. However, I recommend that you use a special worktop oil. I chose the worktop oil from Osmo. It absorbs well and does not leave a sticky, greasy film. It is best to apply 3 coats. 30 minutes after applying a coat, I wiped off the excess oil-wax mixture with a cloth. I waited a day between coats.

The result is quite good- I am more than satisfied. The effort was definitely worth it!

That's it! The project "how to build a workbench (metric)" is finished! I hope you enjoyed the project and I was able to give you a tip or two! Tell me in the comments about your DIY workbench project and what was the biggest challenge for you when building it yourself!