Work Benches

Topics include, Machine Tools & Tooling, Precision Measuring, Materials and their Properties, Electrical discussions related to machine tools, setups, fixtures and jigs and other general discussion related to amateur machining.

Moderators: GlennW, Harold_V

Post Reply
User avatar
H&NERY
Posts: 242
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2011 6:46 am
Location: Hillsboro, Wisconsin

Work Benches

Post by H&NERY »

Since I am moving my machine shop out of my basement to my garage/shop I thought it was time to upgrade my benches that my machines set on. For one they are not high enough for me, always working stooped over, and they are all homemade and odd sizes. I will be mounting my Atlas TH54 lathe on one. I also have an Atlas Milling Machine and I Little Machine Shop 3990, also a Black and Decker valve grinder. I also need one to actually work on. What are your opinions on wood tops vs. steel tops? Wheels or no wheels? Most of the ones I have looked at are adjustable height. I like the thought of them being on wheels so I can move them to clean under and when using a machine I can position it in the shop since space for me is at a premium, but will they stay put? Right now I have looked at a few brands, I do not want imported junk, I have been down that road. I have been looking at Borroughs brand. Just looking for opinions or advice, thanks!
jcfx
Posts: 713
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 1:24 pm
Location: NY

Re: Work Benches

Post by jcfx »

Wheels are definitely a good idea, all my shop tables and machines are on locking casters with the mill stand having castors and leveling feet.
My lathe is still on the castered rickety wood stand the original owner made, some day I'll replace it if I can find a factory base
or make one. All the casters I have are pivoting, I find having a fixed / pivoting caster combo makes moving stuff difficult when you have
space limitations, I replaced two of the fixed casters on my rubbermade utility cart with pivoting ones so I didn't have
to parallel park it every time I moved it.

As to a wood or steel top work bench, I'd say a formica topped plywood which is all my shop table surfaces.
I've thrown everything at the formica surface of my work tables, solvents, oils, resins, even a little torch soldering
and it after 11 years it's time to replace. Butcher block is worth an honorable mention, I worked at a shop where
my bench was butcher, loved it.

Last mention is drawers under the benches, can't never have too much storage.:)
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Work Benches

Post by Glenn Brooks »

I like wood benches with plywood, or 2x6” tops, for general shop work and steel bench’s for welding and grinding. What has really worked well for me are a couple of small 3’ x 4’, light weight, plywood work benches, with 2x4 legs. I drag these around all the time and fit them to my permanent work benches to hold raw materials during layout and prep, various parts, or building sub assemblies for various projects. No casters. They are light enuf to just drag to and fro, as needed. Personally not in favor of castors on a lathe table, but I do like them on heavy tool chests, and various shop carts...

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
User avatar
liveaboard
Posts: 1971
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 1:40 pm
Location: southern Portugal
Contact:

Re: Work Benches

Post by liveaboard »

Different tables for different tasks; but whatever you make, it's worth it.
I spilled some time and money to make several, and I realized that I'd wasted years of my life by not making them sooner.

Like Glenn, I have light ones that move around, but mostly very heavy ones that don't. Fixed heavy table is good for heavy things, and holding a vise.
This one has a 10mm (3/8") steel top.

workbench clear.jpg
Russ Hanscom
Posts: 1955
Joined: Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:10 pm
Location: Farmington, NM

Re: Work Benches

Post by Russ Hanscom »

Most of mine have 1/8" steel tops with front lip (down) and back lip (up). Easy to clean and no damage if a heavy sharp object gets dropped. Full complement of drawers and cupboards underneath. Vise and other difficult objects are on special stands bolted to the floor. For a temporary "soft" spot, I use a scrap of plywood. Since I got a permanent shop 15 years ago, the need for castors has diminished significantly.
pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: Work Benches

Post by pete »

Since everyone's shop and requirements are user specific there's sure no one size fits all answer. But fwiw and what I finally figured out for at least what seems to work well for me. Shop storage should be anyone's real priority imo. And any open bench top space is the most valuable item you can gain. Look at any website of professional race car shops and you'll see what I mean. So that open bench top area is directly related to having that tool storage. Unless you've already got a fully equipped wood working shop, enough experience to do proper cabinet makers level of quality work, have the time and do gain the personal satisfaction of doing so? Even then it's extremely doubtful you'd save a dime over buying verses building. Building and welding your own might cost even more.This is only a general example of what I found to work really well with machine tools. https://www.amazon.com/CMST82769RB-Draw ... 96&sr=8-23 Buying something like those in the sizes you need, removing the castors, and if your buying more than one? Then through bolting from the sides to solidly join them together makes a great start.Even more so since they come in various heights, lengths and even depth. No it's not exactly cheap, but neither is trying to build your own. I also think most of the real steel framed and welded shop benches are too low and I'm only 5'8". Most of those roll away tool chests are higher and more comfortable for me. It made an amazing difference when I bolted my lathe down to two of these tool chests. With all the weight inside and no castors it makes a decent rock solid lathe bench.

And I completely agree with Jcfx, that Formica top gives a pretty good and durable surface other than for hot work like welding and cutting. That Formica is fairly oil resistant and easy to keep clean. But it's one failing is it isn't that impact resistant.What I do is bond two 3/4" thick sheets of high grade ply or MDF together to gain better rigidity, split those down the middle and then sheet it on all edges and tops with that Formica. A wood working router is still needed with the proper ball bearing bit used for that Formica to bevel the edges to exact size. I also built what are known in wood working circles as bench hooks. I leave those as bare wood. They can be built to the full depth of your bench top and whatever width you want, they have a screwed on front and bottom mounted piece of ply or 1"x2" lumber that goes up against the bench tops edge face and helps stabilize the bench hooks top surface your working on. I used those for anything rough enough or that I think might damage the Formica. When not in use there just stored behind the benches. Having a set up like this at the correct height that's comfortable for you really can't be beat. And with machine tools I doubt anything built using wooden shop made cabinets would stand up as well due to the weight of the items being stored. Anything with castors under it is just not going to be as stable as those without. My shops fairly small, 10'6" x 11'6", so I arranged my benches in a large U shape around 3 of the perimeter walls. It takes some accurate measuring and playing around to find the right tool chest combination to fit what ever shop area you have, but the effort I think is well worth it. I'm also extremely selective about exactly what gets permanently mounted to any bench top. If it weighs less than about 70 lbs it doesn't get bolted down.It's way too easy to use up what you first start out thinking is lots of open bench top. And surprisingly an under mount wood working vise is a really good addition. For lighter work, part disassembly etc they generally open much wider than most mechanics type bench top mounted vises will unless you've got a very large one. Soft jaws to fit odd part shapes are easy and cheap to make if needed.

I add 2"x4" or 2"x6" wooden cleats to some of my smaller portable tools like a router table, bench grinders etc and use that WW vise to rigidly hold them in place while I'm using them. Plus those WW vises don't extend above the bench top so there's almost zero room lost. Figuring out how to maximize and efficiently use that finite amount of bench top is the real trick. And with all that storage it's not hard to start to remember where everything is, so that's a massive time saver right there. For anything where having a steel or aluminum top makes sense, then bonding that sheet metal to a built up ply top can be done just as well as the Formica using the same contact cement that Formica uses. A wood router will machine that aluminum almost as well as the Formica. With steel, then having a sheet metal shop shear it to size might be best, and it would take some real careful work to get it contact cemented down in the exact position. You really only have one shot at getting that right. Probably with steel I think i might use counter sunk screws instead.

If I had to make a ball park estimate, I'd guess I have very close to or maybe even over a ton of weight in and on my benches. And my equipment is fairly small. Most of us with machine tools probably have much more weight than we think. And those mechanics roll away tool chests are already built for exactly that. Now if I did have more room than I do? Having one bench on castors for when your working on anything large enough where walking around the bench to gain access would also be something I would include. I size my bench tops to be 2' wide, that way I can get two bench tops 8' long out of the two layers. And unless you special order, most Formica sheets are over sized just enough that two 2' wide pieces can be gotten out of them.I'll admit that not having all your smaller equipment permanently mounted does slow things a bit. For my shop size then that's the minor trade off I have to make or I wouldn't have any room to use what I do have.

With all that said, I have seen steel topped plywood constructed benches used even in heavy duty mining repair shops. They were all lag bolted to the floor and the wall behind each bench. They were pretty rigid that way, but cheaply constructed without decent drawer slides so no one really liked them. Sort of a different situation than a home machine shop since every mechanic was working out of there own tool box anyway.
User avatar
BadDog
Posts: 5131
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 8:21 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: Work Benches

Post by BadDog »

Depends on what I'm doing. I do some relatively heavy fab work, so my welding table is 1/2" plate on a support structure built from 4x2 the hard way. One of the nicest features is I can tack weld fixtures and/or parts right to the table. And it's stiff enough to clamp/fix weldments to in order to discourage warpage. But it tends to accumulate blackish smut all over it, so not good for clean projects without cleaning (other than spot cleaning for welds as needed).

I also have a mobile work bench with top constructed of 2x6s sealed with urethane. It gets a LOT of use for things that don't need the welding fab table. Used to have a bigger one with 2x4 top oriented the hard way, but it got chewed up putting v8 short blocks and full dressed steering axles on it for work. Both were hand planed flat. And a small table acquired for free with 3/4" steel top at seat height I use for small projects, including small fiddly TIG projects while seated. And a super heavy steel cart on 8" steel casters with 1/2" steel top that I have all but my biggest belt grinder mounted on, so I can take it outside for heavy use to keep the debris out of my shop. And...
Russ
Master Floor Sweeper
User avatar
Greg_Lewis
Posts: 3014
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:44 pm
Location: Fresno, CA

Re: Work Benches

Post by Greg_Lewis »

If you build, buy top-quality locking casters. Don't scrimp here. I've got some work stands that came from somewhere else with cheap rubber wheeled casters, no bearings other than the rubber on the steel axle. They are a pain to move even when empty. Pay the price and get good ball-bearing locking casters.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
Post Reply