Garage workbench - island??
Discussion
Hi folks,
My turning-the-garage-back-into-a-garage project is trundling along, helped by my having a week off work
I'm seriously getting stuff laid out now; I did plan to build myself a standard sort of workbench along one wall. I've got a load of chunky decent wood and a couple of sheets of 12mm MDF for the top to work with.
But the garage is big enough that I realised I could have racking down both sides, and a nice big (maybe 1500x1200) table as an island in the middle.
Anyone else got a setup like this?
I thought maybe it would be nice to be able to get around all sides of a piece of work.
Then I also considered power... maybe having a wire coming down from the ceiling to the island would be good, rather than across the floor?
And I also thought it might be nice to be able to push it around sometimes... I wouldn't want it on castors all the time for stability; these things are neat but way too expensive for this project; maybe fitting solid wheels like these sticking out the ends of the legs, so the wheel is more-or-less touching the floor and the mounting plate is sideways onto the leg, would let me lift one end and wheelbarrow it around a bit?
Any thoughts?
My turning-the-garage-back-into-a-garage project is trundling along, helped by my having a week off work
I'm seriously getting stuff laid out now; I did plan to build myself a standard sort of workbench along one wall. I've got a load of chunky decent wood and a couple of sheets of 12mm MDF for the top to work with.
But the garage is big enough that I realised I could have racking down both sides, and a nice big (maybe 1500x1200) table as an island in the middle.
Anyone else got a setup like this?
I thought maybe it would be nice to be able to get around all sides of a piece of work.
Then I also considered power... maybe having a wire coming down from the ceiling to the island would be good, rather than across the floor?
And I also thought it might be nice to be able to push it around sometimes... I wouldn't want it on castors all the time for stability; these things are neat but way too expensive for this project; maybe fitting solid wheels like these sticking out the ends of the legs, so the wheel is more-or-less touching the floor and the mounting plate is sideways onto the leg, would let me lift one end and wheelbarrow it around a bit?
Any thoughts?
See no reason why not, it's common in a woodwork shop to have table saws etc in the middle with a top you can work on.
Presumably it's a large double.
Power from ceiling makes sense. For good casters look at the Blickle website, cracking range, top end.
Else another thought if you have mega spend, what about a lift table? Depends if you could make use out of it, but for the sake of the life and civals to make the pit for it to sit in, flush floor upto 1.5m or so, 1,5T lift capacity.
http://www.edmolift.co.uk
Daniel
Presumably it's a large double.
Power from ceiling makes sense. For good casters look at the Blickle website, cracking range, top end.
Else another thought if you have mega spend, what about a lift table? Depends if you could make use out of it, but for the sake of the life and civals to make the pit for it to sit in, flush floor upto 1.5m or so, 1,5T lift capacity.
http://www.edmolift.co.uk
Daniel
dhutch said:
See no reason why not, it's common in a woodwork shop to have table saws etc in the middle with a top you can work on.
Presumably it's a large double.
Power from ceiling makes sense. For good casters look at the Blickle website, cracking range, top end.
Else another thought if you have mega spend, what about a lift table? Depends if you could make use out of it, but for the sake of the life and civals to make the pit for it to sit in, flush floor upto 1.5m or so, 1,5T lift capacity.
http://www.edmolift.co.uk
Daniel
It's a good sized tandem double. I have to lose one corner to the remains of my wife's on-line company which has had it as an office for the last 10 years, but there's around 5m x 4m available for the workshop end once the car is in. So racking down each side and table in the middle is the thought, otherwise I can have a couple less sets of shelves, the traditional wall-placed bench, and lots of floor space. An island table might also let me store my pushbikes a bit more out of the way on one wall (at the cost of a rack-ish) Presumably it's a large double.
Power from ceiling makes sense. For good casters look at the Blickle website, cracking range, top end.
Else another thought if you have mega spend, what about a lift table? Depends if you could make use out of it, but for the sake of the life and civals to make the pit for it to sit in, flush floor upto 1.5m or so, 1,5T lift capacity.
http://www.edmolift.co.uk
Daniel
I'm afraid this project is a micro-spend rather than mega- though... car/fun savings budget was severely hit earlier this year when every single normal reasonable age-related problem choose the same month to appear on my car (new coils, new rad, new lower track control bushes ball joints and droplinks, new front shocks, new front tyres) and it hasn't really recovered yet
I've already had to downgrade fitting the best part of £300 of LED tube lighting to simply replacing all the rubbish 40W reflectors with 15W LED daylight bulbs (£30. Looks OK though!)
When things are looking better I may get a scissor lift (although I will have to check headroom carefully) or those long jacks that sit along the sills.
Photos if it helps people work out:
The car will come to just about the end of the black racking on the left in the first photo (right hand edge of frame in the second pic).
Big block of racks at the back (with big laser printer front centre) is the office stuff, has to stay.
Chest freezer going by the back door and the single black rack moving to join its friends.
All that junk in the middle needs to go back on the racks (shed is now almost empty!). Junk (gardening stuff, scaffold tower, chairs, etc) at front end of garage will be going in the shed.
Computer and desk are staying (Youtube now better than Haynes! Also, internet radio).
Looking at the second photo, I was going to put the workbench were the small table is (with pillar drill on) under the window, but I could easily get 2 more racks there and then space for bikes (probably 2 on hooks, 2 on the floor) if I go with an island bench.
I use a couple of sturdy trestles to put up a big table in the middle of my workshop when I need it. And when I need the space, the 8x4 sheets and 4x2s go back "somewhere else". While it's handy having a big island in the middle, sometimes you just need the space! I'd keep flexibility if possible.
biggiles said:
I use a couple of sturdy trestles to put up a big table in the middle of my workshop when I need it. And when I need the space, the 8x4 sheets and 4x2s go back "somewhere else". While it's handy having a big island in the middle, sometimes you just need the space! I'd keep flexibility if possible.
This is why I'm thinking of wheels on it to pack it into a corner. After all, I can leave the car outside on the drive like I have for the last decade when/if I need loads of room... Realistically, I suspect if it wasn't an island, I'd either work as best I could on a bench against the wall, or just work on the floor. I've been used to working on the top of an old chest of drawers with just enough room to shuffle about a bit in my shed for years now... or out on the patio for bigger jobs.My garage is 5m x 5m and I store a small car in it. I've built two cabinets on wheels as workbenches, each 1.2m x 0.6m, and I can move these around or combine them to give the size of workbench I need for different jobs. I park them against the wall when not in use. It also helps to store plenty of heavy stuff in them to give them a bit of dead weight when in use.
Have a look on my renovation thread, there should be some pictures of the island I made about 18 months ago. It's great, miles more useful than the benches I have against the wall. Still needs finishing, I haven't done a proper top for it yet and I designed it to take 4 banks of 5 drawers which are yet to materialise.
Definitely find a way to get a bank of sockets on either end, it's so annoying not having that and always having wires running everywhere. I have a piece of rubber cable protector that I'll eventually use to run a cable across the floor to the bench, though it would be better if the cable ran under the floor.
I looked at wheels and moving it around but couldn't find anything sensible, I have stuff on casters and they're just not solid enough to work on, so you need to be able to lift the bench one way or another. I looked at caravan stabilisers, but couldn't get second hand ones for less than £50 a pop. They would have been great.
The other option is a pool table lift and use a car jack to lift it so you can drop it on casters.
In the end I made up some feet and used 4 x M16 threaded rods in each leg to allow me to level the bench on the floor and I can just about move it with a second pair of hands. But I have enough space that I'd only need to move it if I wanted to rearrange things or spray paint a car.
If I wanted to move it regularly, I'd make a frame on casters then use my car jacks to get the frame underneath.
What I've found really useful is to have the bench set about 1m from one wall, that's about the right working distance for most jobs, so you retain as large as possible working space on the other side. If you need more working room, stand on the other side. If you have room, move it another foot and put a narrow bench behind you, because it's really good to be able to layout for a job away from the main work space and have somewhere to put the tools while you're working.
I don't have that at the moment, though I'm about to add a bank of cheapo kitchen wall cabinets, on feet with a row of drawers above and a worktop on top to sort that out. I'm making a partition in my workshop at the moment and if I remember I'll take a picture of the mess on my bench so you can see why having a complimentary bench within reach is really useful!
Definitely find a way to get a bank of sockets on either end, it's so annoying not having that and always having wires running everywhere. I have a piece of rubber cable protector that I'll eventually use to run a cable across the floor to the bench, though it would be better if the cable ran under the floor.
I looked at wheels and moving it around but couldn't find anything sensible, I have stuff on casters and they're just not solid enough to work on, so you need to be able to lift the bench one way or another. I looked at caravan stabilisers, but couldn't get second hand ones for less than £50 a pop. They would have been great.
The other option is a pool table lift and use a car jack to lift it so you can drop it on casters.
In the end I made up some feet and used 4 x M16 threaded rods in each leg to allow me to level the bench on the floor and I can just about move it with a second pair of hands. But I have enough space that I'd only need to move it if I wanted to rearrange things or spray paint a car.
If I wanted to move it regularly, I'd make a frame on casters then use my car jacks to get the frame underneath.
What I've found really useful is to have the bench set about 1m from one wall, that's about the right working distance for most jobs, so you retain as large as possible working space on the other side. If you need more working room, stand on the other side. If you have room, move it another foot and put a narrow bench behind you, because it's really good to be able to layout for a job away from the main work space and have somewhere to put the tools while you're working.
I don't have that at the moment, though I'm about to add a bank of cheapo kitchen wall cabinets, on feet with a row of drawers above and a worktop on top to sort that out. I'm making a partition in my workshop at the moment and if I remember I'll take a picture of the mess on my bench so you can see why having a complimentary bench within reach is really useful!
paulrockliffe said:
Have a look on my renovation thread, there should be some pictures of the island I made about 18 months ago. It's great, miles more useful than the benches I have against the wall.
Can't find that one on a quick scan through your profile...paulrockliffe said:
I looked at wheels and moving it around but couldn't find anything sensible, I have stuff on casters and they're just not solid enough to work on, so you need to be able to lift the bench one way or another. I looked at caravan stabilisers, but couldn't get second hand ones for less than £50 a pop. They would have been great.
Decided to bite the bullet and get a set of powertec castors, ordered on ebay.com as it's cheaper than ebay.co.uk or amazon - they all come from America anyway AFAICS. They really do look like the only way to do the job at all right. I'll be mounting them on the inside of the legs to avoid a trip hazard and connecting each side's pair with a metal tube across the levers as suggested by some people who have them already, meaning I should just be able to stick my foot under the table, push down, and lift each end. paulrockliffe said:
I don't have that at the moment, though I'm about to add a bank of cheapo kitchen wall cabinets, on feet with a row of drawers above and a worktop on top to sort that out. I'm making a partition in my workshop at the moment and if I remember I'll take a picture of the mess on my bench so you can see why having a complimentary bench within reach is really useful!
I can already see that with the small table that is due to be thrown coming in handy during the move. I was thinking that maybe I would leave an empty self on the racking at hip height to do the same thing. (And clear all the stuff off it back to where it should be every 6 months or so
).There's a renovations WiKi thing at the top of the Homes and Gardens forum, mine is the second one on the list.
Those castor things look good, though I'm 50:50 on whether they're robust enough, would be interesting to see how they end up. What surface will they be operating on? The wheels look a bit small and the metal a bit thin, but it's hard to tell or judge the weight of what yo'll be putting on them.
I have loads of bits of machinery on casters and no budget, so started off with some wheels of a similar diameter to those, though with thicker rubber I think, I had a few tear the rubber off the axles things on a smooth floor moving things like my pillar drill and thicknesser around. I'm now using 100mm wheels that are miles better, but the bench will be a lot heavier when it's all finished.
Tidying every 6 months? An obsessive cleaner I see!
Those castor things look good, though I'm 50:50 on whether they're robust enough, would be interesting to see how they end up. What surface will they be operating on? The wheels look a bit small and the metal a bit thin, but it's hard to tell or judge the weight of what yo'll be putting on them.
I have loads of bits of machinery on casters and no budget, so started off with some wheels of a similar diameter to those, though with thicker rubber I think, I had a few tear the rubber off the axles things on a smooth floor moving things like my pillar drill and thicknesser around. I'm now using 100mm wheels that are miles better, but the bench will be a lot heavier when it's all finished.
Tidying every 6 months? An obsessive cleaner I see!
At some point this winter I'm going to progress my garage (stopped work 18 months ago ahead of a load of building work at home).
The cabinets I have built so far are made of ply, and I set up a cutting table in the middle of the garage to break down the sheets using my track saw. In fact, the whole table (being 8x4) became incredibly useful (and the occasional dumping ground
).
While my garage is a double, it's smaller than the OPs and has some fixed cabinets already as we use it for general storage and it houses the washing machine/tumble dryer and a large Belfast sink). I've thought a lot about having an island workbench on castors - have a look on YouTube for all sorts of videos on mobile workbenches which use cams and other levers to raise to use the wheels and then drop to become solid.
However, I've decided to have a fixed bench against the end wall, mainly as it will have an old engineers vice at one end and an old woodworking vice at another. That said, I'll get as much as I can on castors (e.g. mitre saw) to make sure it can all be slid out of the way to allow room for a car.
As for wiring over a central area, I haven;t gone for that yet...though a stray mains wire at ceiling level (don't ask
) now has a single socket on it and I may well use that to string a trailing socket along a DIY boom arm attached to the wall. Idea would be that the arm would bring power (and poss a dust extractor hose) out when being used and then folds back against the wall at ceiling height.
OP - make sure you post plenty of photos..!!!
The cabinets I have built so far are made of ply, and I set up a cutting table in the middle of the garage to break down the sheets using my track saw. In fact, the whole table (being 8x4) became incredibly useful (and the occasional dumping ground
). While my garage is a double, it's smaller than the OPs and has some fixed cabinets already as we use it for general storage and it houses the washing machine/tumble dryer and a large Belfast sink). I've thought a lot about having an island workbench on castors - have a look on YouTube for all sorts of videos on mobile workbenches which use cams and other levers to raise to use the wheels and then drop to become solid.
However, I've decided to have a fixed bench against the end wall, mainly as it will have an old engineers vice at one end and an old woodworking vice at another. That said, I'll get as much as I can on castors (e.g. mitre saw) to make sure it can all be slid out of the way to allow room for a car.
As for wiring over a central area, I haven;t gone for that yet...though a stray mains wire at ceiling level (don't ask
) now has a single socket on it and I may well use that to string a trailing socket along a DIY boom arm attached to the wall. Idea would be that the arm would bring power (and poss a dust extractor hose) out when being used and then folds back against the wall at ceiling height. OP - make sure you post plenty of photos..!!!
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I've got enough to double up (so 24mm!) and I will give it some support underneath.At the moment, it's really mainly a case of using what I have to hand... If it turns out to be a problem, it'll be easy enough to swap it for something else in the future.
In other news, I have managed to get all the garden stuff out of the garage and into the shed; there's nearly room to move in the garage now!
paulrockliffe said:
There's a renovations WiKi thing at the top of the Homes and Gardens forum, mine is the second one on the list.
Ah, found it now. Too many of those pics are very familiar, we renovated a lot of our house when we moved in... although your DIY skills are some way beyond mine! I get sent out to work to pay for it instead paulrockliffe said:
Those castor things look good, though I'm 50:50 on whether they're robust enough, would be interesting to see how they end up. What surface will they be operating on? The wheels look a bit small and the metal a bit thin, but it's hard to tell or judge the weight of what yo'll be putting on them.
Hope so, £70 for them just doubled or tripled my budget for this project!They look OK: installed here.
The garage floor is (mostly) tired old cheap slightly damp laminate; it should roll OK
I notice there's a "new and improved" version for an extra $20 knocking about... AFAICS, the improvement is to add screw holes at each corner of the mounting pate, so guess what I'll be doing when I get them?!
OMITN said:
OP - make sure you post plenty of photos..!!!
OK, you asked for it:All the stuff in the mess above came out of the shed, who knew it was so big empty?
Soon filled it back up with stuff from the garage though
Great, now we can crack on with the garage with only the mess required. Lots of sorting, stacking and a couple of fully-loaded trips to the tip later:
Room to work.
The raw materials for the bench are the remains of the wall that previously cut the end of the home office off from the up-and-over front of the garage (you see where the laminate, white paint, etc ends). The some of the wood has already done other duties, hence the black paint; it all has gripfix remains and screw holes all over. So beauty is not really an aim of this!
Cut to size
Well, I say cut to size. I measured the empty space between the racks and thought a 120cm wide island would be OK. Once I started to lay them out, after filling the racks and moving some stuff about a bit, it was bloody huge and far too wide. Reduced my ambition to 80cm and had to cut some again. Length is 150cm.
Made a quick jig to get the legs square while turning 2x4 into 4x4
Assembled the top, and then shelf supports, with right-angle brackets to hold it all in place-ish and get it squared up
Hit a snag - no wood drill long enough to go all the way through the legs+rails... some very careful measurement followed and it went OK. All bolted together with big bolts
(then right angle brackets removed).
Woodwork vice cut in, recessed and plenty of support provided - these right angle brackets are staying, even though I think it would be OK without, but belt and braces for this bit (mainly braces).
Messed up cutting one sheet of MDF as I assumed the edges were square on one corner (it looked OK compared to the other end), but it became obvious that this was not the case as I cut...
The MDF was slight bowed form storage - I stood on the middle of the shelf to hold it down while screwing in, and knelt on the top to do the same (roof height
) - not a creak or complaint; I weigh a bit under 16 stone, so I'm happy I'd have trouble breaking it in normal use!
And finally, with the car in, too
Quite a difference to the start of the week!
The thing is bloody heavy to drag around, even without kit on it. The castors have been received at ebay's gobal post centre, email told me today, so I'm looking forward to those
Jobs to do:
I've not arranged power to it yet (I have the sockets ready to screw on.
I will varnish the MDF... which is, frankly, a bit rubbish for the top. The fact that it's old and has quite a lot of screw holes in already doesn't help. I looked at it and couldn't be bothered attaching it neatly from underneath, not worth wasting the brackets! Something better will be found eventually, but it will do for now.
Make vice-clampable bases for my bigger tools, then store them underneath.
Fit a PIR LED flood I picked up from Home Bargs today (for the massive price of £12) so that when I open the main door, I can see to park without having to go all the way down to the far end. And I won't be able to forget to switch it off, either!
When the new kitchen arrives, I'm ripping out the old one. Most of it isn't worth hanging onto but there's enough still in decent enough condition to make either a 1000mm long unit or 1600mm long unit for the soon to be built garage.. I was going to fix these to the wall but now considering free standing on casters following this and the brilliant Lanchester house restoration thread. What would you recommend. 1000mm or 1600mm?
Skyedriver said:
When the new kitchen arrives, I'm ripping out the old one. Most of it isn't worth hanging onto but there's enough still in decent enough condition to make either a 1000mm long unit or 1600mm long unit for the soon to be built garage.. I was going to fix these to the wall but now considering free standing on casters following this and the brilliant Lanchester house restoration thread. What would you recommend. 1000mm or 1600mm?
If you make it 1600mm and it turns out to be too long, would you be able to cut it down? That'll probably be easier than trying to extend a 1000mm one!I'd say keep all the bits you can and chose once you can see how much space you have to work with.
I've just binned a load of very old kitchen units - they were manky/greasy/grotty as anything and ripped out long before we actually did the kitchen as my better half basically refused to use them - but they have done good service for storage in both shed and garage, where she never saw them, at zero cost for the last 10 years!
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