Garage / workbench layout

[B00mb00m]

Ah. Yeah, it's finished. In critical need of cleanup, organization, and relocating a bunch of crap to the attic, but the walls are closed up.

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What I did that I love in my garage is mad French cleats for the walls. It allowed me to get a bunch of stuff off the floors. My work bench is all 2x4 construction. 33” deep 35” tall. I’ve been very happy with this size. For general work. I bought the most massive vise I could find on Craigslist. I like the front corner mount, it has been very useful. The French cleats are the same idea as mentioned above where everything has castors (which I also agree with). I really like to make things easy to rearrange because things change and we get smarter and nothing worst than doing something custom then figuring out a better way after.

 

[freedom_in_4low]

What I did that I love in my garage is mad French cleats for the walls. It allowed me to get a bunch of stuff off the floors. My work bench is all 2x4 construction. 33” deep 35” tall. I’ve been very happy with this size. For general work. I bought the most massive vise I could find on Craigslist. I like the front corner mount, it has been very useful. The French cleats are the same idea as mentioned above where everything has castors (which I also agree with). I really like to make things easy to rearrange because things change and we get smarter and nothing worst than doing something custom then figuring out a better way after.

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That vise is a BEAST. Love the cleats, too. I had thought about just 3/4" oak plywood but having a 3.5" thick top like you have, that thing has got to be sturdy. Did you have to do a bunch of planing to get a flat surface or do you have a source for 2x4s that aren't a complete disaster?

 

[MountaineerTom]

When I made my benches in 2005, I cut a 4x8 sheet of 3/4 inch plywood in half and stacked them on each other making a 2 foot wide, 8 foot long, 1-1/2 inch thick top. Then I cut a 4x8 sheet of hard board (1/8” thick if I remember right) and nailed it on top of the plywood with some small finishing nails. Makes a good smooth surface thats easy replaceable if it gets damaged, I’ve never done than though. I ended up making 2 of them.

Some more info on them in this THREAD.

 

[B00mb00m]

That vise is a BEAST. Love the cleats, too. I had thought about just 3/4" oak plywood but having a 3.5" thick top like you have, that thing has got to be sturdy. Did you have to do a bunch of planing to get a flat surface or do you have a source for 2x4s that aren't a complete disaster?

I did plane them a good bit, they are just Home Depot 2x4s unfortunately. It’s sturdy.

 

[PCO6]

What I did that I love in my garage is mad French cleats for the walls. It allowed me to get a bunch of stuff off the floors. My work bench is all 2x4 construction. 33” deep 35” tall. I’ve been very happy with this size. For general work. I bought the most massive vise I could find on Craigslist. I like the front corner mount, it has been very useful. The French cleats are the same idea as mentioned above where everything has castors (which I also agree with). I really like to make things easy to rearrange because things change and we get smarter and nothing worst than doing something custom then figuring out a better way after.

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I like that vice for its size and design in the that it's impossible to mount it incorrectly. It has a flat bottom (of course) but also a lip that catches the front face of the bench. I've only seen that on a few vices. This properly has the face of the static jaw forward of the face of the bench. I've seen many vices mounted too far back on the bench. That's fine for small items but not for clamping large items vertically.

The easiest way to locate most vices is to clamp something in it vertically (a pipe, 2"x4" ... anything), place the vice on the bench so the piece hits the front of the bench, pull it back to give it a about a 1/4" of space then drill your holes to mount it. it sounds pretty obvious but a lot of guys have drilled holes through a nice metal bench top and then realized they screwed up.

I have a similar sized Record No.8 but it's too tall for my bench. General thinking is that when cutting something in your vice your forearm should be parallel with the bench top. This is basically for comfort and certainly not a hard and fast rule. I set my bench up for a Record No.4. I changed to a Record No.6 and there's quite a difference. The No.8 was very difficult to work with; probably fine for a 6'2" guy but that's not me.

This pic shows the differences - Nos. 8, 6, 4 & 3. For me No. 4 was good and No.6 is my size limit.

 

[freedom_in_4low]

I like that vice for its size and design in the that it's impossible to mount it incorrectly. It has a flat bottom (of course) but also a lip that catches the front face of the bench. I've only seen that on a few vices. This properly has the face of the static jaw forward of the face of the bench. I've seen many vices mounted too far back on the bench. That's fine for small items but not for clamping large items vertically.

The easiest way to locate most vices is to clamp something in it vertically (a pipe, 2"x4" ... anything), place the vice on the bench so the piece hits the front of the bench, pull it back to give it a about a 1/4" of space then drill your holes to mount it. it sounds pretty obvious but a lot of guys have drilled holes through a nice metal bench top and then realized they screwed up.

I have a similar sized Record No.8 but it's too tall for my bench. General thinking is that when cutting something in your vice your forearm should be parallel with the bench top. This is basically for comfort and certainly not a hard and fast rule. I set my bench up for a Record No.4. I changed to a Record No.6 and there's quite a difference. The No.8 was very difficult to work with; probably fine for a 6'2" guy but that's not me.

This pic shows the differences - Nos. 8, 6, 4 & 3. For me No. 4 was good and No.6 is my size limit.

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I'm finding that almost all vises (including mine) are swiveling and have a 3 or 4 bolt pattern with at least 2 that must be placed within a bolt radius of the edge of the table in order to align the fixed jaw with the edge of the table, leaving no choice but to put it back from the edge. The ones you posted can mount that way because they only need 2 bolts without the swivel feature. I'm not sure which is more important to me.

 

[Mike_H]

I’ve gone around and around in my shop bench design. What is working for me right now is three benches. One is 9 feet long and standard kitchen height. It’s built on kitchen base cabinets, so it’s basically a counter top. I have a place to put a stool and a lot of outlets there, so I do my detail work sitting down, and it’s configurable for my bench top drill press, miter saw, sanding, etc.

My second bench is an old steel case desk top, 6’ long. I built a very heavy base out of oak for it. It’s on casters and it’s about 38” tall. It moves around to where I need it. It was very handy when I regeared my axles, I can get to all four sides, and that top is dense as hell, so I can really beat on it. It’s a bit tall for that, but sometimes it does get used that way.

My final bench is my metal fab table. It’s a 2 x 5 certifab table (the weld together fixture tables). I built the frame out of 1.25” x 125 wall sq tubing. It’s also on casters and holds my welder, room for two tanks, a tool box for my fab tools, and room for a plasma or tig, if I ever decide I need one of those. That is where my vice is mounted, and I can REALLY hammer on that table.

For smaller stuff and “overflow”. I have a couple fold down work surfaces. They are temporary and get stored away when not being used.

I have a couple shelving units on casters as well and the stuff on my walls is on French cleats.

All my big tools (tablesaw, press, planer, jointer) are on casters as well, so I can roll stuff around and reconfigure as needed. It works for me. I just wish I had more discipline to clean up before heading inside for the night.

 

[PCO6]

I'm finding that almost all vises (including mine) are swiveling and have a 3 or 4 bolt pattern with at least 2 that must be placed within a bolt radius of the edge of the table in order to align the fixed jaw with the edge of the table, leaving no choice but to put it back from the edge. The ones you posted can mount that way because they only need 2 bolts without the swivel feature. I'm not sure which is more important to me.

I've only owned stationary vices and I don't think I've ever even used a swivel vice. I may not know what I'm missing. I can think of many times when what I'm working on has hung down in front of the bench and that's something I would miss being able to do.

 

[PCO6]

I’ve gone around and around in my shop bench design. What is working for me right now is three benches. One is 9 feet long and standard kitchen height. It’s built on kitchen base cabinets, so it’s basically a counter top. I have a place to put a stool and a lot of outlets there, so I do my detail work sitting down, and it’s configurable for my bench top drill press, miter saw, sanding, etc.

My second bench is an old steel case desk top, 6’ long. I built a very heavy base out of oak for it. It’s on casters and it’s about 38” tall. It moves around to where I need it. It was very handy when I regeared my axles, I can get to all four sides, and that top is dense as hell, so I can really beat on it. It’s a bit tall for that, but sometimes it does get used that way.

My final bench is my metal fab table. It’s a 2 x 5 certifab table (the weld together fixture tables). I built the frame out of 1.25” x 125 wall sq tubing. It’s also on casters and holds my welder, room for two tanks, a tool box for my fab tools, and room for a plasma or tig, if I ever decide I need one of those. That is where my vice is mounted, and I can REALLY hammer on that table.

For smaller stuff and “overflow”. I have a couple fold down work surfaces. They are temporary and get stored away when not being used.

I have a couple shelving units on casters as well and the stuff on my walls is on French cleats.

All my big tools (tablesaw, press, planer, jointer) are on casters as well, so I can roll stuff around and reconfigure as needed. It works for me. I just wish I had more discipline to clean up before heading inside for the night.

I also have 3 benches plus a few other smaller work surfaces and table tops. My main bench is based on a pallet rack. It is very strong and fully open at the bottom which allowed me to install 3 tool and 2 file cabinets underneath. The steel top is 1/8" and sits on top of 2"x10" lumber. Over all it's 10' long, 35" high and 30" deep.

I built a welding table based on a heavy duty Lista industrial tool chest with full extension drawers. It's 36" x 50" and also 35" high so I can "bridge" items from one bench to another when needed.

My third one is handy because it rolls around and I can set it at different heights. It's 24" x 36".

 

[freedom_in_4low]

Progress.

The bench has been built about since the last post in this thread, but after that I've been hanging pegboard, running new outlets, including one switched for the workbench lighting, etc.

Pegboard organization is a work in progress, but once I get a feel for what I want up there and how I like it arranged I'll trace around each tool with a sharpie so I can see where a tool goes and what tools aren't put away at a glance.

I've got a cabinet in my parents barn that will sit in front of the Jeep and allow me to unload most of those plastic totes as well as put some stuff on it that's currently sitting under the bench.

For the outlets I added, I used the "on wall" boxes from Legrand, purchased at Lowes. It was convenient being able to run wire on the wall since I don't really like drywall work and none of these are accessible anywhere, but the boxes are so shallow that it becomes really difficult to fit the wire inside a box if you're doing anything more than an outlet on the end of a circuit. The one in my pegboard, with the switch, is piggybacked into the existing single gang box, and the one up in the corner that feeds the light has a retrofit box behind it just to have room for a couple of wire nuts.

 

[B1Toad]

One of the things that can happen when you get serious about your shop/garage, you won't like having ordinary household stuff in there like paint, yard tools etc. Plus there just isn't room for that junk. A shed helps, but the problem with a shed is you can only put stuff on the walls, if you fill a shed you can't get to stuff without unloading it. Outdoor lockers are the answer. The Rubbermaid kind are expensive and they fall apart. About a year ago I started building some and I finally finished them today, they are on the end of the house under a roof, we never use that space except for storing fire wood and propane so it's now the perfect place for all that junk. I have another one 48x32 and 7 feet tall made with corrugated and weatherproof which is for the tall things like shovels and weed wackers etc with a shelf along the back for small yard tools. Lockers just make efficient use of space IMHO. Of course no worries where I live with snow or ice so they're perfect for us. I used material I already had except for the sheet which I had to buy, all told I have about $800 in them. I wanted a rustic look so they will remain unpainted with a layer of Linseed oil/Turpentine for the finish.