Homemade carpentry table workbench. How to make a workbench in the garage: selection of materials

Home craftsmen sawing off wooden blanks on a stool sooner or later come to the need to make their own workbench for carpentry work. When performing simple tasks, you can get by with a universal work table and a couple of good clamps.

If you are serious about carpentry, you need the appropriate equipment. It doesn’t matter whether you make custom-made products or do something for your home. A homemade carpentry workbench will allow you to complete any product at a high technical level and save you a lot of time.

IMPORTANT! When discussing this issue, it is assumed that you have free space for work. Ideally, a separate room in the form of a workshop. As a last resort - a high-quality canopy in the yard.

If you are going to do carpentry in an apartment, or on a spacious loggia, the only option is to purchase a folding metal workbench. Of course, it won’t be possible to process large wooden workpieces on it, but the quality of work and convenience will increase by an order of magnitude.

The main task of such a device is to securely fix a workpiece of any shape on a flat tabletop. Instead of a carpenter's vice, a system of sliding halves of the working plane is used.

The product is fixed using adjustable stops. There are holes in the table for their installation. The thoughtful design allows you to secure even round workpieces.

The presence of a longitudinal groove in the tabletop (also with an adjustable width) allows you to saw flat products without leaning on the edge, which requires the presence of an assistant holding the free side. The cut can be made in the middle using an electric jigsaw, controlling both halves of the workpiece.

Such tables can be supplemented with an electric plane, circular saw or milling machine, which expands the possibilities.

A similar folding workbench can be made from wood. True, the stability will not be the same as that of a stationary product.

And yet, full-fledged carpentry work cannot be performed on such devices. Firstly, the apartment is not very suitable for this. Secondly, the dimensions of folding workbenches limit the dimensions of the processed products.

Therefore, most craftsmen who take a responsible approach to their work will prefer a full-sized homemade carpentry workbench to a store-bought universal table.

In addition, the finished machine does not provide for the individual characteristics of the master:

Height, arm length;
Whether the master is left-handed or right-handed;
Preferences in processed products - the tabletop can be square or rectangular;
Features of the room or area where the workbench is used.

How to make a universal carpentry workbench with your own hands

Before you look for a project or develop a drawing of a workbench of your own design, you need to understand how the system works. I would like to immediately have a platform for cutting large workpieces, a milling cutter, and a drilling machine.

IMPORTANT! Any versatility impairs the specialized capabilities of the product. Some devices are still better used as separate devices.

Construction of a carpentry workbench

There are a great many designs, but the main components must be present:

Durable tabletop (working surface) made of hard wood.
Oak, beech or hornbeam are suitable. The density of the top plane should be higher than that of the wood of potential blanks.

Options like a lattice made of timber covered with 12-20 mm plywood are not suitable. The flat surface will wear out quickly, and during work the workpiece will constantly catch on uneven surfaces. In addition, an ideally flat workbench in itself is a standard for aligning product components, or a coordinate system for marking.

Most home craftsmen, who comprise the bulk of subscribers and visitors to our site, have, to one degree or another, already solved the problem of organizing their workplace by arranging comfortable workbenches in their workshops and on the balcony.

But there are also those who are eyeing home handicrafts and trying out this universal profession, which includes many specialties and is becoming a very useful hobby for the family.

First of all, this article is for them, but perhaps it will also be useful for those who have already found themselves in the role of a DIYer and, having decided on the main types of work, can competently set about arranging a home workbench for the workshop with their own hands.

Types of workbenches for the workshop

A workbench is a table for carrying out various specialized work on processing different materials. Accordingly, depending on what material you have to work with and what operations to carry out, workbenches differ from each other in size, configuration and material of manufacture. Based on the type of materials processed, workbenches are divided into:

carpentry;
metalwork;
combined.

Based on the design features, the following types are added to them:

universal;
folding.

Folding universal workbenches are produced by different companies with different lists of functions, and their distinctive feature, first of all, is their mobility. Therefore, if you convert your experience as a home craftsman into banknotes outside your apartment or the yard of your house, you can either choose a universal factory-made folding workbench for yourself, or, after analyzing a number of design features of a particular model, make it yourself.

But for a home workshop, more massive workbenches are suitable and here there are three options:

carpentry workbench with the ability to perform a number of metalwork operations;
a metalworking workbench with the ability to perform a number of carpentry operations;
combined workbench.

Let us immediately note that the last option is not the best solution, since it does not allow for full high-quality performance of both carpentry and plumbing types of work, but is only relatively adapted for their production, therefore the first 2 options, in our opinion, are preferable. It is these options that we will consider in examples for self-production.

Making a simple DIY garage workbench

The simplest workbench for a home workshop will be a fairly powerful table with a small set of additional functions: drawers, shelves, etc. for storing tools and remanent.

It’s good if it is possible to slightly transform it to perform work on metal or wood, but more on that below.

To create such a workbench, we will take 40x80 wooden blocks and cut out 4 legs: 2 pcs. 700 mm long, 2 pcs. 750 mm long and 2 lower jumpers 500 mm long. For the 2 upper jumpers of the same length, we used a 40x100 block available on the farm.

It will also be used for the top trim of the base of our workbench at the front, with a length of 1400 mm at the bottom and 1600 mm at the top. And at the back we use a 40x150x1600 edged board, but we will need all the long pieces later.

If you have a tenoning tool, use it like we did.

If not, make them by hand or you can butt the pieces together using overhead metal fasteners.

Assemble the side posts as shown in the photo below.

After this, you can begin assembling the entire frame.

The central jumper inside the frame, made from the same 40x80 block, mounted on small wooden brackets 40x40x180, in addition to strengthening the structure, serves as a stop for two bedside tables with drawers from old desks, which we decided to use in our workbench.

For the working surface of the workbench, we also used our existing laminated fiberboard surface. We screwed a board to the front edge on metal plates, which will protect its edge from peeling during use. It will also serve as the basis for attaching a small bench vice with a clamp.

We attached the working surface to the bed using metal corners and got a fairly powerful general-purpose workbench for our home workshop.

Manufacturing of a carpentry workbench with modifications for performing metalwork work

If you primarily work with wood, then the logical thing to do would be to build a woodworking bench and make some modifications to the design for metalworking operations.

A traditional carpentry workbench for a workshop has a design that has been proven over centuries, which has undergone virtually no significant changes until the present day. Its basis is a massive frame with tenon joints, using wedges for tightening in case of drying out, a powerful (often stacked) tabletop with a recessed tray for collecting chips and tools, and two vice-clamps for fastening workpieces.

The dimensions of such a workbench are selected depending on the maximum length of the workpieces that will be processed on it. If you are going to make wooden doors yourself, then the length of the workbench must be at least 2.5 m and the width at least 0.8 m, otherwise your work on it will turn into hard labor. The workbench of my grandfather - the best carpenter in the area for at least 50 km in all directions - was 3000x1000 and he said that to make large frames for verandas he was missing 20 centimeters in width.

The dimensions of the school carpentry workbench are 1200 x 500 x 750. If the plan dimensions suit you and you are willing to spend about 13 thousand rubles on it, then the height can be adjusted by screwing bars of appropriate sizes to the legs. But you can also consider alternative options.

Strictly speaking, these are variations on the theme of the same carpentry workbench for the workshop with different materials for the tabletop, the presence or absence of drawers, shelves and different vice mechanisms. Now in order:

1. We make the bed from dry pine lumber 40-50 x 80-100 mm, calculating the height to suit your height. If your workbench will be installed in a room where there are no sudden changes in humidity, then its elements can be connected in any convenient way, albeit end-to-end using fixing metal plates and corners.

2. The tabletop can be made from ready-made laminated wooden panels, sold in most construction supermarkets, or glued together from planed bars with a thickness of at least 50 mm yourself using PVA glue, having built a simple clamping device. It is important to remember that the top side of the future workbench should be as flat as possible. You can also use thick-layer plywood for the tabletop, but it is still advisable to cover its ends with wooden slats made of oak, beech or ash.

3. To fasten the clamping mechanisms, the bottom of the workbench table top is extended with bars of appropriate sizes. The most popular clamping devices are:

— carpentry lead screw with two guides made in Czech Republic Tr 24*5, 390/205 at a price of about 3 thousand rubles.

Spanish Piher carpentry vice, 150 mm, costing approx. 2 thousand rubles;

You can also make something similar yourself, using a pin with a diameter of 14 - 16 mm, which, of course, will not transfer the same forces as a vice, but will make your clamp extremely economical and repairable, due to its low cost;

Or make an even simpler clamping device from the same pins, but due to the lack of guides, put 2 of these clamps on one vice.

4. Make holes for stop pegs in two directions opposite the vice lead screw. It is also useful to make them across the entire surface of the tabletop parallel to each other for secure fastening of large products.

5. Attach the workbench tabletop to the base using strong metal corners and, if you do not plan to move it, use them to secure it to the floor.

And you have successfully completed the first task of the workbench version described in this section of the article.

Now, several options for devices for performing metalwork work on such a workbench.

The simplest of them is to make a plate of steel 3 - 5 mm thick with a frame of steel angle, kept separately from the workbench or attached to it on hinges and lowered onto the tabletop if necessary.
The main attribute of a metalworking workbench is a metalworking vice. In this case, we recommend using a vice with fasteners that do not require going through the workbench top.

You can, of course, adjust the holes for the stops to fit the vice fasteners, but with a thick pad you can do without it. Also interesting is the option of attaching a bench vice directly to the tabletop of a carpenter's workbench using an adapter bar-stand and a powerful clamp.

And the overlay should not cover the entire area of the workbench. There are a lot of options, the choice is yours.

Modification of a metalwork bench for carpentry work

Often, especially if the household has a car and a garage, the main workbench is a metalworker’s.

We will not consider the process of its manufacture in this article, but we will tell you about simple ways to adapt it for carpentry work, especially since it is not at all difficult. To fully use your bench as a carpenter's bench, you will need to dismantle the bench vice and make several simple devices.

Let's take a closer look at them.

1. From the first picture below, when modifying a bench, we will be interested primarily in the side stop (1), which is not difficult to make removable. And together with the holes for the dowels (14) along the front end of the workbench (and this can be a one-piece removable structure) and a suitable wedge, we get a simple and reliable device for attaching the board to the workbench. You can simply make a wooden plate secured with recessed clamps, with the entire set of workpiece fastenings shown, and understand that the level of the working surface will rise by its thickness, which can be compensated for by the corresponding height with a ladder at the workbench.

There is nothing to say about the back stop; it simply performs a supporting function for long workpieces.

2. You can make an overhead planing board with a universal stop, shown in the second picture. By increasing the height of the stop (or changing it depending on the height of the bar being processed) and screwing the bar from the bottom to the right edge of the workbench, we get the simplest device that turns a metalworker's workbench into a carpenter's workbench.

3. A slightly more complex overlay with a fairly powerful option for securing the workpiece also allows you to solve this problem. The only thing we would recommend in this case is to also screw the stop on the right side and choose a thickness of at least 50-70 mm for more reliable fastening of the front pegs and sufficient depth of the lock and clamp.

The method of installing the last two planing devices on the workbench is shown in the diagram:

Dear readers, if you have any questions, please ask them using the form below. We will be glad to communicate with you;)

A comfortable, well-equipped workplace with a good-quality carpentry workbench can greatly facilitate the processing of wooden products. This makes it possible to speed up the production process and improve the quality of the final product.

If you don’t have time for manufacturing, you can purchase a ready-made workbench in a retail chain. Compared to this option, making a desktop yourself has a number of advantages:

the ability to get a carpentry workbench of the required size and functionality;
rational placement of working units and additional equipment;
purchasing a ready-made workbench will cost much more.

Requirements for the manufacture of the structure

Depending on the intended work, the carpentry table must have the following characteristics:

The mass and rigidity of the structure must be sufficient to ensure the integrity and stability of the desktop.
Availability of devices for securing and holding workpieces (stops, screw clamps, etc.).
Possibility of ergonomic placement of additional equipment.
The dimensions of the future carpentry workbench depend on the weight and dimensions of the workpieces that are supposed to be processed on it.
The available space in the workshop should be taken into account. There are projects of compact workbenches that allow you to organize a workplace even on the balcony.
The height of the table should be focused on the physiological characteristics of the person who will work at it.
Additional devices should be placed taking into account the owner’s main working hand.
Before you start designing a workbench, you need to decide whether it will be portable or stationary.

The most suitable workbench dimensions for working with wood:

tabletop length – 2 m;
width – 70–100 cm;
table height from the floor – 80–90 cm.

Types of carpentry workbenches

If there are no serious functional requirements for the workbench, for minor work you can use a desk converted for professional needs.

Mobile workbench

This type of carpentry workbench is relevant if there is a lack of free space in the workshop. Its length is no more than a meter, its width is 60–80 cm, and its weight usually does not exceed 30 kg. A portable mobile workbench is convenient to use for processing small workpieces, minor repairs of carpentry, and wood carving. Thanks to its compact size, the mobile machine can be placed in any room: in the garage, in the country house or on the balcony. For even greater compactness, a folding design is often used.

Scheme for manufacturing a mobile workbench

Stationary workbench

A full-fledged working structure tied to a specific location, without the possibility of mobile movement during operation. Designed for processing workpieces of any weight and length (within reasonable limits). This is a powerful, reliable device, made taking into account the characteristics of the workspace and the personal preferences of the master. Stationary machines are necessarily equipped with special clamps for fixing workpieces. They provide space for fixing the tool and installing additional stops.

Composite carpentry workbench

Thanks to the dismountable bolted design, individual machine modules can be easily replaced during operation. The main disadvantage of this device is its complexity in manufacturing (compared to other models), which is largely compensated by its variability during use.

Selecting a project and drawing up a diagram

When drawing up a project, the main parameters that need to be taken into account are height, configuration and functional equipment.

Height. For comfortable long-term work, the height of the workbench should not be more than 90 cm. When determining this parameter, first of all, you should take into account your height (if the workbench is being made for yourself). Also important is the type of carpentry work that is supposed to be performed most often, and those that require the most convenient conditions for their high-quality performance.

Configuration. If there are no workspace restrictions, the optimal width is 80 cm, length is 2 m. When configuring a workbench, you need to take into account the presence of shelves, compartments, doors, drawers, their number and sizes.

Functional equipment. To hold workpieces, the carpentry workbench must be equipped with two clamps. The front clamp is located on the left, the rear clamp is on the right end of the workbench. This clamp arrangement is intended for right-handed people. If the master’s main working hand is left, the clamps are positioned in a mirror manner relative to the option described above.

It is necessary to provide places for fixing electric and manual tools, technological holes for stops and limiters. It is better to place lighting fixtures and sockets on nearby walls and objects.

Necessary materials

When selecting material for each workbench unit, you need to take into account the functional features and loads to which it will be subjected.

To ensure that the workbench does not turn out to be too massive, light softwood is preferred as the material for making the frame:

pine;
alder;
Linden.

Hardwood, as well as plywood of various thicknesses, is used to make countertops.

The frame for the workbench can be welded from a metal square pipe or an angle of a suitable cross-section, but most carpenters prefer wooden structures.

Making a simple table

As an example, we took the manufacture of a carpentry workbench with a tabletop 2 m long, 80 cm wide and 80 cm high. For a more rational use of time, you first need to glue the tabletop. While it is being glued, you can prepare the components of the frame and its subsequent assembly.

During the manufacturing process you will need:

miter circular saw;
drill;
electric jigsaw;
clamps.

Assembling the tabletop

Stacked (glued) board made of hardwood (ash, oak, beech, hornbeam). Recommended tabletop thickness is 60 mm. It is most rational to use planed timber with a section of 60x40 mm for its manufacture. After preparing the length of the timber, it needs to be glued together into a shield of the required width. To get a shield 80 cm wide you need to prepare 20 bars 60x40 mm.

For high-quality gluing, the following factors must be taken into account:

The beam is strictly rectangular in cross section (not a rhombus or parallelepiped).
The shield must be clamped with special clamps that can provide sufficient compression force.
Gluing is done on a flat plane, and deformation during squeezing must be avoided.

You can do without all of the above and glue the shield together by sequentially compressing the bars together with self-tapping screws or even nails. But in this case, there can be no talk of any flat surface of the tabletop.

Plywood table top. Several sheets of plywood are glued together along a plane. The number of sheets to be glued depends on their thickness and the planned thickness of the countertop. For high-quality gluing of plywood, a flat plane is necessary. The quality of the finished countertop depends on how smooth this plane is.

There are two options for gluing plywood at home:

Using boards and clamps. Glue is applied to the plywood and compressed with clamps. To ensure uniform compression, boards are placed under the clamps.
Using boards and weights. Plywood pre-lubricated with glue is placed on a flat plane, boards are placed on top and pressed with a weight.

Manufacturing of supports

The support legs of the work table are made of timber with a section of 100x100 mm. They look quite massive, but this is necessary to ensure structural rigidity. The transverse parts of the frame are made of the same wood as the legs. For this, a beam with a cross section of 60x60 mm is sufficient.

To avoid deformations to which parts made of large-section solid wood are subject, it is better to use for the manufacture of supports. It can be glued together from two or three pieces of smaller cross-section. For example, to make a beam with a cross-section of 100x100 mm, you need to glue three boards with a cross-section of 105x35 mm together along a plane. After gluing, you will get a workpiece 105x105 mm, where 5 mm is the margin for finishing.

To assemble the frame, tenon joints or dowels are used. This assembly option requires the presence of special equipment. Otherwise, the process will be unreasonably long. A simpler option is to use metal fasteners and fittings (bolts, screws, angles, self-tapping screws).

Frame size:

length – 180 cm;
width – 70 cm;
height – 74 cm.

The height is given taking into account the thickness of the table top (60 mm). The length and width of the frame ensures the presence of tabletop overhangs (10 cm per side at the ends, 5 cm per side at the front and back).

When assembling you should get the following blanks:

Stands (legs) – 100x100 mm, length 74 cm.
Cross bars – 60x60x1600 mm (4 pcs.) and 60x60x500 mm (4 pcs.).

If you use tenon joints, then the length of the tenon (recommended 60 mm) multiplied by 2 must be added to the length of the workpiece.

Assembling the frame and tabletop

Before assembly, transverse boards with a section of 100x60x800 mm and longitudinal boards of 50x60x1800 mm need to be attached to the bottom of the tabletop along the edges. Cross boards are needed to prevent the tabletop from deforming during use. Longitudinal - for subsequent equipping of the carpentry workbench with clamps.

To securely fix the longitudinal and transverse boards, glue should be used. If you are not sure of the quality of the glue, they can be additionally secured with self-tapping screws or other metal fasteners.

If all dimensions are taken into account correctly, then the workbench frame will fit clearly between the transverse and longitudinal boards at the bottom of the table top. The entire structure should be fastened with bolts, through the transverse boards of the table top and support posts (legs). To prevent the bolt heads from interfering, you need to drill countersunk holes for them.

Foldable design

It is advisable to use a folding workbench when the amount of work space is limited and mobility of moving the workbench during operation is required. In most cases, a portable carpentry workbench is equipped with a removable table top and a folding frame.

The tabletop can be hinged against the wall, and the legs can be folded under it. When using this design, the length of the legs should be calculated in such a way that when folded they do not interfere with each other. That is, their length should be less than half the distance between them.

These types of carpentry workbenches are designed for processing small parts. Therefore, the structural elements of these tables are not made as massive as on stationary ones. For the manufacture of support posts, a beam of 100x40 mm, transverse 60x40, is sufficient.

Any board material (OSB, chipboard, plywood) can be used as a countertop material. If the thickness of the slab material is not enough, the tabletop can be reinforced with a frame made of 30x50 timber (the cross-section of the timber is determined by the planned rigidity of the tabletop).

The folding carpentry workbench is assembled using bolts. In order for the table to be quickly disassembled, it is advisable to use special wing nuts instead of ordinary nuts.

A home handyman who prefers to do all the housework himself needs a comfortable and safe workplace. The best option would be a workbench. Thanks to this simple design, the work will be significantly speeded up, since the master will work in comfortable conditions and all the necessary tools and devices will be at his fingertips.

Figure 1. A carpenter's workbench is a reliable, comfortable table needed for machining parts.

Design features

A carpentry workbench is a durable, comfortable table designed for processing various parts (Fig. 1). Its tabletop must be durable and large enough to accommodate additional devices: a vice, a milling cutter, a circular saw and other devices. To make small tools accessible, there should be drawers or shelves nearby to store them.

Before you build a workbench, you need to decide on its design and dimensions. One of the main parameters is the height of the table. When performing work, the master should be comfortable and should not experience any discomfort. To determine the height, you need to stand up straight and bend your elbows, mentally leaning on an imaginary table. The height between the bent arms and the floor will be the desired value.

In addition, you need to decide on the configuration of the workbench, the width and length of the tabletop. The width should not exceed 80-100 cm. This will allow you to easily reach the opposite edge, where shelves for tools can be organized. The length will depend on the area of the workshop and the number of devices that are planned to be fixed to the surface. It is better to equip the space under the workbench with a cabinet or drawers to store consumables and other items.

It is also important to decide whether the workbench will be a stationary structure or a mobile one that can be disassembled and moved to another location. If a mobile version is being built, then it would be more rational to make the structure lighter, using material of less thickness. Also, the mobile version should have folding legs or a removable tabletop.

The place where the workbench will stand should be bright. To ensure additional lighting and equipment operation, it is necessary to provide electrical sockets and switches. Electrical wires located near the machine must be enclosed in a corrugated pipe or a special box.

Preparing for work

Before starting work, you need to draw up a diagram of the future structure, on which you indicate all the dimensions and indicate the places of fastenings. This will help you correctly calculate the required amount of material and avoid mistakes during assembly. To make the frame of a future workbench, it is best to use a wooden beam. For legs, you should choose blanks measuring at least 100x70 or 100x80 mm; lintels can be made from thinner material, for example, 100x50 mm. For the tabletop, smooth boards are used, the thickness of which is at least 50 mm. It is necessary to choose hardwood: oak, beech, maple. Then the workbench will be strong and stable.

To make your own carpentry workbench, you will need the following materials and tools:

Wooden beam.
Boards.
Bolts, self-tapping screws.
Glue.
Wood saw.
Hammer.
Mallet.
Drill and drill bits.
Sandpaper or sanding machine.
Chisel.
Construction level and square.

Construction stages

The workbench is constructed in two stages. First, the frame is assembled, and then the tabletop is installed.

All work is carried out in strict accordance with the drawing. Each connection is checked with a level and square.

Figure 2. Workbench frame clamp diagram.

The base of the structure is a frame made of beams (Fig. 2). To make it as rigid as possible, a horizontal jumper is installed between the legs at a height of 40-50 cm from the floor, and a drawer along the length. Subsequently, they can become the basis for tool boxes. The upper part of the frame is strengthened with diagonal jumpers. To fasten the parts together, a tongue-and-groove connection with preliminary gluing is used. Where such a connection is not possible, you can use self-tapping screws.

If the workbench is built in a mobile version, then the support frame is assembled using metal corners. If you do not plan to move the structure, the frame can be screwed to the wall and to the floor. This will make it stronger and more stable.

Figure 3. Assembling the workbench.

For the tabletop, a solid canvas or separate boards can be used. If you use boards, you need to carefully adjust them to each other. There should be no cracks or irregularities on the surface. The dimensions of the tabletop should exceed the base by 10-15 cm.

To connect the boards together and attach them to the base, you will need 3 bars, the length of which is equal to the width of the tabletop. They are located across the boards (Fig. 3). Grooves should be made on the base into which these bars will fit. Metal corners are used to secure the tabletop to the base.

The surface must be thoroughly sanded using sandpaper or a sanding machine. Then it should be covered with drying oil.

Second life of an old table

You can make a comfortable workbench with your own hands from any material, for example, from an old table. Any design is suitable for this, the main condition is that it is not too old. Before the old table begins a new life, it must be prepared. All fasteners must be inspected and tightened. If cracks or chips are found on the supporting frame, it is necessary to install metal plates in these places. This technique will add more strength to the table parts. In addition, the wood must be treated with special antiseptic agents to prevent its damage.

When assembling the workbench, you need to take into account that its surface should be thick enough so that it does not break when struck.

After the preparatory work, you can assemble the workbench. The surface of the countertop must be durable to withstand the severity of any work. To construct it, you need to choose boards that are at least 3 cm thick. They need to be installed sequentially on the table surface and secured with self-tapping screws. The boards must be fitted tightly to each other so that there are no gaps on the surface.

The dimensions of the new tabletop should exceed the old base by 15-20 cm. This allowance is necessary for convenient and reliable installation of additional equipment.

To store tools and other necessary materials, you need to make boxes. They should be made strong, with convenient systems and reliable fittings. The number of boxes and their sizes depend on the desire of the master and the size of the workbench. They need to be installed so that they do not interfere with work.

Arrangement of the workplace

You can attach the necessary devices for work to the finished workbench. To install the vice, you need to prepare recesses on the table top, and provide a plywood spacer on the bottom side. Their vertical plate should be in the same plane with the surface of the table. The vice must be applied to the surface and the fastening points must be marked. When using bolts, the holes for their heads must be pre-processed with a milling cutter. This will cause the bolt heads to sink into the surface.

In addition to the vice, stops can be installed on the workbench. It is best to use rectangular ones that can be adjusted in height. They will allow you to process various parts, securely fixing them. To install stops, holes must be provided on the tabletop. Any turning equipment can be installed on the workbench, but it is mainly used as a regular flat surface on which it is convenient to work.

A carpentry workbench is usually called a table of a special design with a hard and durable surface that allows various devices and mechanisms to be mounted on it. In addition, the surface of such a table must be adapted to rigidly attach additional stationary equipment (a circular saw, for example, or a small router) used for processing common materials such as wood or metal.

Before making a carpentry workbench with your own hands, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the basic requirements for this device, as well as some of the design options that are especially popular.

Design requirements

The operating characteristics of the workbench table are:

Its height, adjusted to the user’s height, allows you to work in comfortable conditions without slouching, maintaining a fairly comfortable position. For people of average height, this value can range from 70 to 90 cm.
The dimensions of the tabletop are selected based on the possibility of placing all the necessary tools on it, as well as taking into account the size of the workpieces being processed.
A set of devices mounted on a workbench, determined by the need to perform certain operations and providing for the presence of several stops and a clamp (screw vice).
Adaptation “to the hand” of its owner, who may also be left-handed.

The most suitable option for self-production is the option of a prefabricated workbench, consisting of a frame base with a tabletop installed on it. The length of such a structure usually does not exceed 2 meters (with a tabletop width of about 80–100 cm).

Before starting work, you should decide whether your workbench will be a stationary device, or whether it should be folding (collapsible).

Material selection

The most suitable material for constructing a stationary workbench is considered to be wood, from which the load-bearing base with support frames, as well as the tabletop itself, are made. For the manufacture of frames, standard planed timber with a cross section of 100×70 mm is best suited. The same timber, but with a slightly smaller cross-section (100×50 mm, for example), can be used as auxiliary jumpers that increase the rigidity of the frame base.

The workbench tabletop can be made from well-planed and tightly fitted boards, at least 5 cm thick. In addition, a ready-made solid sheet (an old solid door, for example) or a piece of laminated chipboard cut to the size of the table with a reliable and durable material can be used for its manufacture. coating.

When choosing a material, preference should be given to hard wood, such as beech, oak or maple.

Assembly of the structure

Making a workbench begins with assembling a frame base, onto which a tabletop of the type you have chosen is subsequently installed. The order of operations performed is as follows:

First of all, the supporting sidewalls are assembled, arranged in the form of two frame structures made of timber with a cross-section of 100×70 mm.
Then these frames are connected at the top by two longitudinal beams, which, together with the upper lintels of the frames, serve as supports for the tabletop. (Note that in order to reliably fasten individual elements together in the design we are describing, it is best to use a classic “tenon-to-groove” connection with mandatory gluing of the joining areas).
The lower parts of the support frames are fastened with longitudinal jumpers made of 100x50 mm timber, which are mounted at a level of 15–20 cm from the floor. (To fasten them, it is best to use a bolted connection recessed from the body of the beam).
In the process of manufacturing frame supports, grooves and tenons are first prepared in the workpieces, after which the entire structure is assembled in one step (after applying glue to the joint areas).

During the assembly process, special attention must be paid to the following working point, which determines the quality of all subsequent installation. When preparing the base of the workbench, at each stage of the work performed, it is necessary to ensure that the dimensions of individual elements correspond to the design data, and also to control the horizontalness of their installation using a building level.

If the tabletop is made from planed boards, the latter must be tightly fitted to one another, so that there are no cracks in which debris usually accumulates. Its dimensions should be slightly larger (1.5–2 cm) than the dimensions of the supporting base formed by frames and longitudinal bars, which guarantees the convenience of placing auxiliary equipment on the table.

When assembling the tabletop, the boards are nailed or screwed with self-tapping screws to transverse bars located on its reverse plane. At the very base, special grooves must be prepared for these bars. The surface of the finished countertop is first carefully sanded and then treated with a protective solution (drying oil is usually used for these purposes). To secure it to the base, special metal corners can be additionally used.

Regarding the installation of working devices and mechanisms (vises, stops, etc.) on the workbench, the following can be said:

It is most convenient to place the working vice at the end of the tabletop, having previously prepared a small recess for fasteners at the installation site. On the back side of the table in the fastening area, it is necessary to provide a plywood pad to protect the surface from damage.
In addition, special stops should be located on the surface of the tabletop to fix the workpiece in the work area and make working with it easier. On a wooden tabletop, it is most convenient to mount rectangular stops (pegs), which are adjusted in height to the workpiece being processed and securely fix it.
Sometimes stops are made by simply extending the tabletop using bars of suitable thickness, fixed at its edge and covered on the reverse side with a limiting strip.

When there is not enough space in the garage or workshop, you can make a folding workbench consisting of a table top that folds against the wall and a special folding frame.

This design is very easy to disassemble and when folded takes up very little space. When making it, you should pay attention to the fact that the width of the support posts of the folding workbench does not exceed half the length of the tabletop (so that they do not interfere with each other when folding).

It is also necessary to ensure that the upper cross member on the supports is located below the board with the hinge of the folding tabletop. The material for making a folding workbench table can be any monolithic piece of chipboard.

The supporting frames of the structure are made of 100x40 millimeter bars, the articulation of which is made using pre-prepared metal plates, secured to the posts and lintels using bolts of the appropriate size.