Took me all of last week, but I finally finished the workbench, my very first real wood working project.  All said and done, it took me about 12 hours to complete.  Now, armed with the order of a working space, I shall conquer the next project, the beer pong table.

Here’s the bench from start to finish.

This is what my work place looked like before the workbench.

After cutting the wood, I laminated the boards together with wood screws and drilled shank holes for the bolts.  After that, it was a matter of fitting the pieces together.

The joints fit together by bolts.  This 1 inch diameter hole was drilled and then I had to chisel one side flat to make a pocket hole.  This was so the nut would fit flush against the wood… or flushISH anyway

It was a b*tch trying to get those nuts lined up into the hole to screw the bolt into.

And wala!  The finished frame!

After that, I screwed the plywood table top on and cut it to size then cut another piece and laminated them together.  I was so glad to get those huge pieces of wood out of the way of the trash cans.

Then I cut the shelf to the proper size, drilled in some shelf cleats and set it in.  I sanded everything down and began the finish.

Inspecting the first coat, I sanded it down again.  The second sanding seem to rub some of the first coat off for some reason so I ended up with sort of a rustic finish after the second coat.  But as I say with everything I do, “eh, s’good enough.”

Ta da!  the finished bench.  I added 9 inches to the legs that the design didn’t call for cause I like the taller work table and it’s the perfect height for me.  Notice how all my tools are now nicely organized and there’s even a place for scrap wood.

This week, I’m putting the foosball table back together, cleaning it off and making the garage into a mancave!