Ultimate DIY Garage Workbench

[Lonely Raven]

Originally Posted by Bek

Self-cleaning fleshlight "workbench?"

Customizable "mount" points?

Multiple "mount" points for 2 or more fleshlights?

Bek needs the shorter mounting height for when he invites himself over.

[Lonely Raven]

Seriously though, start first with *what* you plan on using the bench for. Then build around that. Especially if you're really going to build a proper bench. Since I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted when we moved in, I started with the easy stuff...did a nice epoxy floor, added a crapload of fluorescent lights, then picked up some cabinets from the Ikea As-Is department and cobbled this all together.



I don't have photos of the mess it is today, but the top cabinets extend all across the back wall, and I've built a small reloading bench with a vice that has lockable wheels that parks out of the way in the corner of the room, and I'm building a matching one for the other side that's just going to be a clean, flat top bench for glueing up projects or whatever I need space for. Plus I've pretty much tripled my tools.

After figuring what you want to use it for and getting a basic size and design down, storage and organization should be considered and designed in. Add shelving/cabinets as needed.

[Vcook]

I need some inexpensive upper cabinets to hang in my garage. LR, what do you have there? I'll probably either end up trolling craiglist or paying a little more for some unfinished uppers from HD or menards.

[Gamble]

Originally Posted by Vcook

I need some inexpensive upper cabinets to hang in my garage. LR, what do you have there? I'll probably either end up trolling craiglist or paying a little more for some unfinished uppers from HD or menards.

Habitat for humanity. The one in naperville especially. I got a matching 2 door cabinet and a 3 door cabinet. For about $80. They had a ton to choose from.

[OldSkoolMC]

Originally Posted by Vcook

I need some inexpensive upper cabinets to hang in my garage. LR, what do you have there? I'll probably either end up trolling craiglist or paying a little more for some unfinished uppers from HD or menards.

If you can wait, you can get Gladiator 30" cabinets for $99 each on black friday. If not expect to pay about $160 on sale from sears. I bought four of these last year and they are real nice.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...ku=00959036000

[Vcook]

I'd be willing to wait to get those for $99 but I have handiwall slatwall on my walls that uses traditional 3" slat spacing, the gladiator line uses proprietary spacing so their products only fit on their wall products. I'll be using standard generic slatwall hangers to hang cabinets from.


old picture but you get the idea

[Pilotx1]

Originally Posted by muddy

I had someone on another forum suggest attaching a receiver (and no, not a flesh light receiver) to the bench and attaching a vise, grinder, drill press to a hitch like post so you can swap out the tools as necessary. Anyone done this before?

I dont like them, they tend to wobble or get loose while using the grinder or drill press. for a vise sure, as long as i didnt need to vise to hold somethign motionless while using a hacksaw,sawzall,grinder etc

[Kruz]

You can hang any cabinet on Slatwall Chris? Use a pre-existing hole.

[OldSkoolMC]

Originally Posted by Kruz

You can hang any cabinet on Slatwall Chris? Use a pre-existing hole.

True. You don't need to use the Gladiator brackets. I have a friend who has some just mounted directly to his garage walls.

[Lonely Raven]

Originally Posted by Vcook

I need some inexpensive upper cabinets to hang in my garage. LR, what do you have there? I'll probably either end up trolling craiglist or paying a little more for some unfinished uppers from HD or menards.

These are Cheap Ikea cabinets, only $34 each. They are that cheap particleboard crap, so if they get wet or dented they are pretty much trashed. I did also reinforce their mountings to the walls due to my filling them with paint cans, bullets, buckets of brass. They are holding up quite well, even to my clumsy heavy handedness.

That said, I'm not sure they make them anymore. I went to get two more for the right wall above where my reloading bench is going, and I couldn't find them on their web page. I didn't try to hard though as I'm getting tooled up to build my own custom cabinets and workbenches for the all the bench-top tools and my table saw/router table combo.

[Vcook]

Originally Posted by Kruz

You can hang any cabinet on Slatwall Chris? Use a pre-existing hole.

I can't tell what you're saying here.

I assume with slatwall brackets I can hang anything, which is what I hope to do. I'm not going to pay a premium for gladiator stuff though just to rip off their proprietary brackets.

[Lonely Raven]

Originally Posted by muddy

I had someone on another forum suggest attaching a receiver (and no, not a flesh light receiver) to the bench and attaching a vise, grinder, drill press to a hitch like post so you can swap out the tools as necessary. Anyone done this before?

I missed this. I know guys who use aluminum T-track to mount bullet presses and grinders and stuff to their benches. I was considering doing this myself. If you use a good mount, you can easily slide on an off any tool you need.

Here, a quick google pulls up what I was talking about.







Here is the web page I got this from.

http://ultimatereloader.com/tag/reloading/

[OldSkoolMC]

Originally Posted by Vcook

I can't tell what you're saying here.

I assume with slatwall brackets I can hang anything, which is what I hope to do. I'm not going to pay a premium for gladiator stuff though just to rip off their proprietary brackets.

The brackets are not mounted when you buy the cabinets. My friend has them flush mounted to his garage wall. You can probably use your own brackets for the type of wall you have.

[muddy]

Just listed my Craftsman tool box set on CL and in the for sale section and am looking for a new one. Since I need to go bigger, I was thinking one of those double banked bottom roller cabinets with the option to add on the top box at a later time. I saw this set from US General at Harbor Freight and while I’m not super excited about some of the stuff that comes from there, the construction of these boxes felt really great. It has all the same features as the higher end Craftsman versions, good weighted drawers, ball bearing slides, locks if I remember correctly but at around half the price. I know it won’t be top of the line, but I can’t afford the Matco’s and Snap-On stuff for my house – just need something for solid storage.

I was also thinking about disassembling it all when I got it and painting it Lime Green just for the heck of it.

Thoughts on these boxes?

http://www.harborfreight.com/roller-...ity-68784.html



http://www.harborfreight.com/red-rol...est-68787.html

[Lonely Raven]

I checked out some of the boxes are HF, and I found them to be made of thin material. I could take the box at the corners, and *twist* the whole thing, binding the drawers.

I wound up getting a nice small box at Menards on sale, for $225 I think. It's probably not as big as what I could have gotten at HF, but it's a little more sturdy.

[SL954]

Some workbench ideas Stationary, fold up, fold down.

[G2G]

Originally Posted by Lonely Raven

I checked out some of the boxes are HF, and I found them to be made of thin material. I could take the box at the corners, and *twist* the whole thing, binding the drawers.

I wound up getting a nice small box at Menards on sale, for $225 I think. It's probably not as big as what I could have gotten at HF, but it's a little more sturdy.

They are still better than the new craftsman.

[Lonely Raven]

Originally Posted by G2G

They are still better than the new craftsman.

Ouch, I didn't realize their quality had dropped so much!

[G2G]

Yeah. Craftsman is starting to have everything made in China so now its a matter of finding be best chinese crap made lol.

[muddy]

Originally Posted by G2G

Yeah. Craftsman is starting to have everything made in China so now its a matter of finding be best chinese crap made lol.

I knew they were cheaping out on some of these types of products because my dad has a similar setup but probably about 10-15 years old and it feels so much more solid than today's chests you can get.

At this price point, it seems like a pretty sweet deal. Plus HF has 20% off coupons almost every week which helps out even more.

[scout67]

Originally Posted by SL954

Some workbench ideas Stationary, fold up, fold down.

Very nice!

[muddy]

Concept images

[Lonely Raven]

^^^ I like that a lot!

[STANIMAL]

HF boxes get very good reviews . You cant go wrong for a garage box , keep in mind that people use them professionally without any issues. Their top of the line box is well made , I have seen them in person .

[RSVMillenian]

Originally Posted by STANIMAL

I have seen them in person .

Boxes are persons now? F-ing Citizens united!

[muddy]

Well just got the boxes sold - time to narrow down my options for a new one!

[Pilotx1]

if youre gonna repaint them you might want to consider either powder coating them or at least using enamel so it can resist any chemicals and oils that tool boxes typically see

krylon type paints peel pretty easily

[crashomon]

forget about painting; just buy a shitload of kawasaki stickers at the next moto-flea market and be done with it.

and you KNOW old stickers never peel!

(seriously, have you ever tried taking those fuggers off a toolbox? crazy!)

[FiReBReTHa]

Originally Posted by crashomon

and you KNOW old stickers never peel!

(seriously, have you ever tried taking those fuggers off a toolbox? crazy!)

Seriously, what freakin wizardry makes that happen??

[shaugdog]

Originally Posted by G2G

Yeah. Craftsman is starting to have everything made in China so now its a matter of finding be best chinese crap made lol.

I don't know what year roller tool chests you've seen, but my craftsman that is 3 years old is sturdy as fuck. I have no idea when or if they started using chinese materials/labor for mine, but I'm happy. Although, it wasn't cheap. I have the 5 drawer with the 5 drawer top. Shit I watched Bart's get blown down at ACC last year, and he picked it up and put it back in the trailer as if nothing happened.
I don't know, some things I just don't mind spending money on. Stands, gear, tools, shit like that. I'm curious though if the OP gets the HF stuff and likes it. Maybe I need to rethink.