We Built a Workbench

It's funny how we get distracted by projects that zoom right up to the top of the queue. Somehow I decided we needed to build this neat storage workbench from a pile of old timbers sitting in our yard. This is going to be a great place to store salvaged wood and sheets of plywood.

This is our very first woodworking project—without help from someone else.

It's not actually done yet—it's supposed to look like this. (We found the inspiration at the Family Handyman website.)

We've got the rest of the pieces—but we ran out of day. We worked until 9PM this evening, but didn't quite get it finished and I'm too impatient to actually wait until we finish to post about this project.

We're really pleased with ourselves. We built this from old timbers from the torn down garage. It took quite a bit of time to remove the nails, and then we worked around the nails we couldn't get out. (We bought a metal sensor at the recommendation of my woodworking class teacher last year.) Yesterday we worked on de-nailing and cutting the wood.

Then today we got to use our router to make dado joints! Another first for us.

And then we assembled the pieces. We needed to build four of these frames. This wood is really—what do you call it—rustic. There are rot spots, tons of nail holes and splitting throughout the boards. But it feels really good to be able to reuse part of the old garage. And I think those blemishes add character.

For the countertop, I bought a beech slab from IKEA earlier today because it was actually close to the price of a piece of good 3/4-inch plywood and it's definitely much prettier. I'd never been to IKEA before—what a wierd store. I'm not addicted.