/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Is there any good reason to use 2x4s like this as the benchtop rather than just some plywood? Is this sensible or just a meme?

Some of these "professional" plans are so goddamn ridiculous.

checklist:

1. buy workbench kit
2. assemble workbench
3. buy $1000 tools
4. build birbhouse
5. ???
6. profit

>>2766313
Honestly never saw the point of using the 4x4s if you're just going to cut a giant notch in the side of it and stick a 2x4 in it anyway. Might as well just skip the bullshit and use fake 4x4s

make sure you have something set up to where there wont be an issue with the workbench jumping around when you're working on something in a vice, might not be an issue for most people but its crucial for working with wood or metal
i just made this >>2766310
and screwed it to a bare set of 2x4s in my basement storage room to keep it from bouncing around, and i have a cheap vice attached to the corner of it

>>2766316
Assembly is a bit easier because the top is already attached to the bottom with notched 4x4s.

>>2766310
definitely more sturdy but its completely fine as long as the plywood is thick enough
just be prepared to replace it every few years if you're a retard like me who keeps bashing the tabletop with random shit when i get frustrated with something

>>2766322
>keeps bashing the tabletop with random shit when i get frustrated with something

What exactly are you doing that makes you this crazy. And why don't you have a sheetrock wall nearby that you can punch your fist through.

Is the "Carpenter's workbench" still a thing or an outdated design?

>>2766326
I have one, great if you are doing a lot of handwork. I have two benches, built the second one in a more modern style, most shops require more than one.

>>2766324
metal working with cheap tools and no prior experience while already stressed for other reasons
aka a "hobby"

>>2766316
I too am a big fan of faux lap joints. But my design is 2’x4’ to accommodate standard quarter sheets.

>>2766310
If this gets dents or paint or whatever on it you can just plane a bit off, and it’s much sturdier if you put dog holes. I used to put dog holes in 1” MDF or ply and they always wear out. Also if it’s not bolted to the floor, the added weight of 2x4s is pretty useful, but if you’re moving the bench around it’s easier to use ply. I now use plywood tops for stuff like assembly tables and pine for the bench I use with the big tools

>>2766339
that's a lot of cuts on 2x4s just to accommodate a quarter sheet top

>>2766371
You’re right, I looked for something simpler to make but I didn’t find a joint that offers the same strength in all directions. I cut the notches 6 at a time (1 in each beam). The center support beams may be unnecessary but I didn’t test without

>>2766339
If you use very low viscosity cyanoacrylate glue, and put it in the MDF dog holes, the MDF will soak it up like a sponge and make a very tough dog hole when it cures.

>>2766313
It’s 2024, step 4 is wrong.

>3.5. buy self healing cutting mat
>4. make Youtube unboxing and review videos

>>2766310
That shit would be nice and heavy duty if you need to hammer on the top of it. Also if you attach a vise and really need to yank on some shit, a real heavy bench like that will be more stable than plywood assuming neither are secured to the floor or wall.

I bolted this bench to the wall after my last place, I tipped the whole bench a little when doing rough work with the vise.

>>2766308
Mine

>>2766308
I bought a section of 5 foot high wheeled scaffolding. I lowered the wallkboard to 3 feet. I mounted my vise and grinding wheel on it.
It makes a great workbench but also doubles as a way to get to those high places. Yes, it is very sturdy.
Total cost was $250 freedom units.

>>2767366
>>2767399
Thanks I'm looking into this, it seems like a reasonable and practical alternative to "giant chunk of wood"

>>2767479
Seems like you could really get alot of mileage out of something like this.

>>2766574
Nice beaver

>>2767496
Thanks. I just had it stuffed.

>>2767496
Otter*

>>2766310
heavier, thicker, not smooth. I like panels for the top because they'll get stained, burned, beat up, soldered. Just swap the panel if it gets ridiculous. I'm using the cheapest scratch and dent ldf from menards. I've build floating shelf guts, closets, my bench top, and all sorts of crap with this cheap bullcrap. $5-$11 beats the heck out of 30-80 sheets.

>>2766326
The dogs and vices are important. We're doing a lot of planing and chiseling in joinery. These allow pieces to stay in place easily in multiple orientations. You want to tailor your workbench and jigs to the type of work you're performing.

>>2766310
this + plywood sheet on top

>>2768005
If you frame it out and do plywood on top, it’s pretty easy to keep adding braces or struts or whatever under the top until you’re satisfied with the stability without going 100% 2x4s.

>>2767507
Actual woodworkers actually used workbenches like picrel.
The other table-like benches were largely decorative pieces.
It’s hard to believe that FFXIV’s carpentry depiction is entirely accurate.
In fact, this bench was so commonly used, it’s where the term “workhorse” comes from.
Most of the other ones were basically just larping.

Those benches are all nice and shit, but - besides loosing /diy/ cred - is there anything wrong with just not bothering with notches and joints and instead using some angle steel to attach the feet?

>>2768469
If it works then there's nothing wrong with using marshmallows to do the joinery. I realize this is the age of the internet and everything has to be perfect, and agreed upon as perfect by the entire hivemind, but sometimes you just gotta give it a shot and live with the results and realize it's not perfect, but neither is their bullshit, no matter what they say.

>>2768469
Built my first 2 or 3 benches like that. It’s not bad per se but thin wood screws don’t hold very well in cheap pine with hard vibrations in my experience. Benches get pushed and pulled a lot and the screws loosen over time (like a year or two). Re-tightening them only goes so far. Even with carriage bolts you need to re tighten every now and then because the heads slowly dig into the holes

But yes ignore purism and gatekeeping

>>2768480
>sometimes you just gotta give it a shot and live with the results and realize it's not perfect, but neither is their bullshit, no matter what they say.
Generally, that's what I'm doing anyways, I don't put my stuff on 'insta or whatever kids these days are doing, but if there's good reasons like
>>2768506
>but thin wood screws don’t hold very well in cheap pine with hard vibrations in my experience. Benches get pushed and pulled a lot and the screws loosen over time (like a year or two).
I'll gladly put in some more effort. However, since I first gotta figure out how much I'm gonna actually use my bench, that's probably a risk I'm willing to take, but will closely monitor.

>>2766310
No. If you're gonna do it for the extra thickness, just buy some 2x10s for fewer grooves

>>2766308
I got a 1950s wood desk for free, put it up on a riser and used it for 20 years as a workbench. tools in the drawers, vice on top. When I downsized two years ago I used the top as a folding wall table/workbench in my garage.

>>2767366
>>2767479
>be doing literally anything
>everything rolls into cracks, nails, drillbits, screws, bolts, tools
jesus christ what a horrid idea. how do you even fucking wipe it off? this is a meme table for someone who never does real /diy/

>>2767500
I have that meme mobile. I'm not a cretin however, so I don't keep mine in the garage.

The unplugged woodshop nicholson is my favorite easy workbench. Low lumber requirement, easily scalable, very little to mess up, free plans online (sketchup model + cutlist pdf).
Built 2 of them myself, once as my first workbench ever. A year later I built a much better (and smaller -- 4ft) one and put the old one in the garage for rough work. Both are made with leftover construction lumber and they work great even for fine handtool work.
Mine has a leg vise made with a cheap yost screw and I use holdfasts and a quick release wonderdog for workholding on the top.

>>2768866
Anon you keep your stuff in boxes not all around dispersed.
You wipe it off with a rag or kitchen paper.
You can do a million things with a bench like this.

>>2766308
2 rectangles made form 2x4's 2 legs and screwed to the wall.
Couldn't be simpler.
Used some old laminate flooring for w a bottom shelf and a piece of MDF for the top.
Then added a drawer.

>>2768876
Is it the OG 1st round with the actual Twingo logo before Renault threatened to sue anon?

>>2767506
>not smooth
>>2768005
>>2768791
>fewer grooves
Do you retards not know how to make a slab?

>>2769017
I’m surprised you didn’t try and print a workbench with your 3D-Printer.

>>2766308
I just bought my first house after years of wandering and renting.
First thing I did was take my grandpa's workbench from storage. He's in a retirement home, very old and won't live much longer.
He built it in the 60's when my dad was a boy. He used it for the rest of his life, until his health declined.
It's not the best workbench in terms of fancy gadgets like everyone on youtube has. It's a simple tabletop with a shelf underneath.
I know it won't last forever, and I can't take it with my when I die, but it is one of my most treasured possessions, and I am honored to have it at my own home.
I take him out to dinner once a week, and I was telling him about it last night. He said "Is it covered with tools and projects yet?" and I told him it was. He said "Good."
I am a blessed man and richer than all the billionaires on earth could ever dream of.

>>2769255
>3D-Printer.
CNC router.

Quarter sheet workbenches just feel so tiny to me, am I crazy?

>>2769337
Very wholesome story. Hope you enjoy “your” bench and get some good stuff done with it.
I too just started renovating my first own place. Unfortunately I do t have a family heirloom workbench but I guess I’m gonna jury rig something from some leftover furniture from the previous owner.

>>2770110
>I’m gonna jury rig something from some leftover furniture
A few years ago I bought a shitty little house, with the intention to fix it up. And I quickly realized how few tools I actually had--didn't even have a vise at the time.

Immediately I needed a workbench, so I made several pairs of those Matthias Wandel sawhorses, and bought an solid commercial door from the local ReStore. That was a lot of door for $15.

Very basic, but incredibly useful. I didn't bother to make anything else for several years, because it was good enough.

>>2769337
Very nice

>>2770150
> Doors
Good recommendation, gramps also used old doors for bench tops. There was no MDF or honeycomb in his time so all doors were solid core, and they used to make them feel some tropical hardwood you can’t legally import into Europe anymore. How do you like them saw horses?

>>2768908
why do they put a skirt on a bench

>>2769337
>grandpa still alive
>years of wandering and renting
like where to college and your first job?

>>2770171
There are supposed to be a series of holes along the side, for clamping stuff w/ holdfasts.
In that other pic, it mostly looks like knots & where they bolted the legs on. Who knows.

>>2770202
>>2770171
It provides the racking resistance on the bench in this design. The older examples frequently also have diagonal braces to further reinforce this. There are pros and cons with this approach. A pro is that you only need relatively thin boards to achieve a very high level of stiffness. But a con is that it is in the way for clamps and dogs.

What sites are good for getting prints?

>>2766310
Plywood tends to tear out and chip with wear. If you spill a little water it might delaminate. You will need more understructure or several layers of 3/4" plywood to get rid of all warping and waviness.

A 2x3 or 2x4 top, you can screw from bottom. If you damage it, you can replace just one board. When the top gets ugly, you can shave 1/8" off with a block plane and put a few coats of Varathane to keep silky smooth. You cannot plane plywood.

>>2766316
4x4 is heart wood. It will bow less and typically not rot as quick.

>>2768058
A shave horse and workbench are for different things. Workbenches appear in the historical record as the primary woodworking apparatus for casework going back to the 1400s (see Moxon text and the Roubou plate 11, and picrel a 1580s plate by Hieronymus Wierix). Shave horses are for chair making and wheelwrights. The earliest forms of workbenches in the west were roman benches, covered in dog holes, vices, and planing stops. They were about knee high (so actual benches, where the term workbench comes from) and the user would sit on them to stabilize it. There are photos out there of a roman workbench recovered from a well that shows the form. These evolved in to both the shave horse and modern workbench by the Renaissance.

>>2766326
That specific danish design is pretty wonky because you have the vise handle protruding 6" directly at cock and ball height when something is in the vise. English jointer benches, French style benches, Moravian workbenches, danish workbenches, and pretty much anything that was in use in the 1700s are all ultra refined forms for hand tool work that have had almost everything unnecessary cut away. Leg vise, planing stop, and dog holes+holdfasts are not negotiable, Moxon vise and tail vise are very nice to have. Bench hooks and shooting board also mandatory.

They make no sense whatsoever if you use a table saw and router table for everything. They are the perfect tool if you want to do traditional joinery and dovetails, a good bench with good clamping can easily cut project time in half.

>>2768469
Remember that wood expands and contracts radially by about 5% seasonally with the humidity. Wood movement will happily waller out screws, and that combined with the intense racking forces a workbench experience means that eventually your screws will shred their holes, particularly in softwoods. Anything built to be used hard for more than a few years will use more traditional joints, though there are a billion ways to lazily emulate half laps and mortise and tenons by being clever at laminating lumber, and you get the same level of strength. I'm in the camp where if you give enough of a shit to make it yourself, you should probably give enough of a shit to build it to last, especially since it's only like $10 more in lumber and an hour of extra work to quadruple the strength and longevity.

>>2769083
it is and I also have a maroon one.

>>2771531
Kek if it was really from the first batch, I may have mailed it to you.

>tfw your mom sees this big box of stuffed animals from Yurop show up
>she’s legit worried I’m having drugs shipped to her doorstep
>tell her not to worry about it because drugs sounds better than explaining an internet meme from 4chan

>>2766310
I used a 8 foot laminate countertop from Menards for my work bench.
Perhaps not ideal for some projects, but so far it has been fine.

Honestly my only complaint so far is that the pattern camouflages small parts like screws.

>>2768866
Sour grapes, faggot