I started with Matthias Wandel’s version of the door and stud workbench and upgraded the legs to 4x4. I found a used and very heavy fire-rated door at the surplus store and trimmed the edges with some hardwood.
My bench top seemed to attract junk so I added a raised shelf to hold some custom storage bin cabinets. I once had a four-bin holder for Plano tackle boxes so I expanded on that idea upwards until I hit the floor beams. Back when Stuart had the organizer discussion last year I meant to post this one but didn’t have a good photo.
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Some sweet ideas, i have been putting together ideas of what i want for my work bench. Havent built one yet. Right now i just have a simple plastic lifetime table that the legs extend on. Being 6-2" i dont like to have to bend over to touch a 30" table
I love the look of that organizer backwall! Did you happen to take any pictures during the construction phase?
It must take forever getting projects done on that thing. Do you schedule an hour at the beginning just to stare at it 
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Apartment living is not very conducive to building a workbench. You run into a catch-22 where you need a workbench to build a workbench. So I cheated and took the easy way out. I ordered the kit from Amazon and had timbers cut at HD. Took me 2 hours to fully assemble by myself. I had a scrap piece of hardboard that I use to protect the structural MDF.
Not pictured, A set of shelves that I added for tool storage, and all the junk that it has since accumulated 
Custom built L-shaped workbench, built with husky 26" w tool chests. Hardboard on top, and edges, backsplash and kickplates finished with diamond tread aluminum that I cut to size on the table saw. Gladiator wall cabinets, wall control steel pegboard, and quantum tip out bins for parts storage. Only thing left to add (for now) is a shelf above the pegboard, a few outlets on the backsplash, and some additional ceiling/ under cabinet lighting.
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Here are a couple pics from assembly on the storage hutch. For the wall I made separate carcasses and stacked them together so I can break down the bench in the future. Each vertical has 2 1/4" wide strips made from 1/2" plywood. They are glued into 1/8" deep dados cut on the table saw at 2 1/4" apart, except the last stack which are wider to hold larger bins. The sides are actually parts cut from an old “solid wood cabinets” piece of furniture that turned out to be actually solid wood with a veneer.
The support shelf is the same depth as the cabinets with middle supports only in the back so no table space is lost. I did the same as many others around the web and used framing 2x8’s that I ran over the jointer and ripped down on the table saw to get straight 3" pieces. Later on I added a plywood back to keep the tools from rolling off the end. The support is attached from under the table with some lag bolts and washers, with the boxes mounted to the top and screwed down to the cross supports.
I think for the third table I will do the same but have an open grid of shelf boxes to store power tools above the bench so they stop congregating in the way of projects.
The workbench was constructed from cedar 4x4" legs and pine laterals. The top is a 2" solid core door that was covered with leftover 5/8" bamboo flooring. Three t-tracks were inset into the bamboo. Cars running in the tracks act as stops for clamping projects between them and the end-vise pegs. I inset a Starrett tape next to one track Not shown are short I-beams that can also be placed across the bench in the tracks and act as “sawhorses” to work above the bench. The holes drilled in one leg hold pegs to help hold long pieces that are in the small front vise.
Beyond the vise is a green metal table equipped with a plywood top for the sliding miter saw. It also has a measuring tape inset along with stops for repetitive cuts.
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6 benches
Back wall: 3 benches, scraps from various projects. The red topped bench is actually 2 benches joined w/ plywood. The ‘fastener’ bench is topped with a solid wood door given to me by a co-worker. A beast of a bench!
Foreground: 3 benches, 2 full 8 footers and a custom designed 4 foot end bench for my sander, drill press, and chop saw.
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Some of these workbenches are straight up arousing. I like the idea of the architect’s lamp in Jeff’s post. They seem pretty expensive but I can see their utility during finishing. I also love Graham’s idea of the paper roll. My workbench is also a work in progress. It started as an “Ultimate Tool Bench” and has recently been modified. I am having fits with the vise, but I’ll figure it out. Not able to upload my image now as it is 3.8 megs. Will try to figure it out.
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Not quite, but I have popped into the garage more than once just to bask in it’s glory. When I see it clean, I can’t help but smile at the potential it has realized, and the potential it will manifest in the future. It’s looking much more workish right now though, as a cubby cabinet that goes under the rear slab is on top, in the midst of being built.
Arae86, love that bench. Diamondplate is a tricky thing to pull off, you’ve done so.
I’m officially jealous. Also, I like your 2x4 Jenga game you’ve got going there.
There are some cool setups here.
My bench is one of the first shop accessories I built… almost 20 years ago in fact. Its a massive heavy trestle base slab with built in vices and tool storage below. The top is a sandwich of hardboard top and bottom over 4 plies of high density particle board edges in hardwood. I’d guess the top alone is over a hundred pounds. The top sits on a trestle base constructed of laminate 2x lumber. There is a 4" space between the top and the tool cabinet below allowing me to pass long clamps under the top to clamp items to the workbench edge. I love the bench. The top is cheap enough that I don’t fret the occasional hole drilled in it or screw driven in it. I simply fill all the holes with bondo every few years, sand the top flush and refinish. Once, about five years ago, I noticed the middle of the top had an 1/8" sag (probably there since the original glue up) and since I wanted to use the bench to build my perfectly flat torsion box design base for my CNC I decided to flatten the workbench. I clamped heavy angle iron to each side and used more angle iron to build a sliding sled which guided a router to flush cut the entire surface dead flat. It worked well and the restored top has remained stable ever since.
For the base, I’ve slowly been replacing the cheap original drawers with nicer full extension smaller drawers. I’ve found that the more shallower drawers are better the fewer deeper drawers on the same principle as a tool chest. Oh, I’ve evolved my bench use to go with a back bench to hold the tools used on the front bench. I’ll post a picture of that too in the future. I hope you like them. Chad
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