After a few weekends of work I've finally got myself an actual, factual workbench.
Here are some pics (warning: these are big-ass images, 1.6 Meg JPEGs): ftp://ftp.depressedpress.com/Workbench/ When we moved into the house there was a badly made of shelving in that spot. When I removed it I discovered that they attempted to redo the garage floor without removing it (the floor on that side is pretty bad, clearly a "home job"). Not only are there ruts in the concrete from the shelving uprights but they just kind of "swept" the wet concrete under the bottom shelf. The floor under there is like cottage cheese (concrete cottage cheese) and simply not useable as a base for any construction. So I hung a framing wall from the cinder block (it's much stronger than I could have hoped - as the pictures of it happily holding up my fat ass can attest to). I did an eight foot bench with two shelves above and storage bins (formed from the support brackets) below. I also did six feet of peg board next to the bench and a small peg board with two shelves in the front of the garage next to the compressor (I keep the compressor on the other side of the garage to take the edge off the noise). The bench is probably over-designed but very strong (my entire family can sit on it, all 600 pounds of us, and it doesn't wiggle). With all the pegs and the shelves I didn't lose any meaningful storage. The only thing I would have done differently is not skimped on the wood - I got the cheapy 2x4s and had some trouble getting things level because the wood wasn't (but the bench is, I'm very proud to say, perfectly level... the shelves are a little off back to front, but not so's you'd notice much). I got one of those little Black and Decker "Workmates" fold-up mini-benches with a wood vise - only cost twenty bucks and made the job SO MUCH easier. Highly recommended. I've still got to run the final wiring and lights (I've wired the bench but not added the outlets or run to the circuit box yet) and decide where I want to permanently put my vice (any advise on that?). But as you can see from the later pictures all the tools are up and it's moved into active service. Total project time once I had the lumber was probably 8-10 hours. I think my first actual project will be an outside toy box for the kids (sports stuff, kickballs, sleds, etc). Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:223388 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
