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New Work bench advice


landyawd

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Hi all

Need a new work bench for the new workshop/garage

i want to keep it as small as possible but will need vice and bench grinder mounted on. Maybe 600mm deep by 1200mm or 1600mm wide

i would make one like I have before however time is lacking and I have to many projects on so a shop bought one will have to suffice for now.

Any recommendations? Or are they all weak and useless 😂

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Yep, go second hand workshop cast offs, going to be better than anything you can buy at reasonable money from the likes of Machine mart.

I have an old DIY made wooden bench (made from old roofing beams), but covered it with 3mm steel, it is excellent....

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I used a couple of old 4x4 fence posts which had rotted at the bottom and an 18mm sheet of ply over the top. Took less than a morning to build - but did have the advantage I attached it to the wall of the shed so nice and rigid. As I do more and more welding been meaning to put a sheet of steel over the top to protect it a bit more (well don't care about the surface but I have set fire to it a couple of times).

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If you have more time to look around then the table off an industrial milling machine is great if a bit heavy. T slots for bolting things down, flatter than most other surfaces even when old and you would need to work hard to break it!.

The one I got was 50” by 12” and free as a friends work was scrapping the machine, not sure what it weighs but I had to use the engine crane to move it😁.

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An old mill table is a very useful thing to have for fab. work - we have a 3.5m x 1.4m one at work and smaller ones built into the benches around 1200mm x 500mm all sourced at s/h equipment auctions , out of calibration cast iron surface tables  are good too for a  work surface .

cheers

Steve b

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23 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

Yep, go second hand workshop cast offs, going to be better than anything you can buy at reasonable money from the likes of Machine mart.

I have an old DIY made wooden bench (made from old roofing beams), but covered it with 3mm steel, it is excellent....

Likewise, I used cold rolled steel, looks better, and better earth. Mines on castors, so I can clear the area completely.

The lip at the back stops stuff rolling off.

IMG_20170930_150305.jpg

IMG_20170930_121125.jpg

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Bench master do wonderful benches and will make to your size and spec. Spendy though.

Alternatively keep an eye out on bid spotter / lot surf as there's usually something going through. Just remember fees and vat go on too of the hammer price 

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I’d go for building one personally. Yes it’s a bit of time but shouldn’t be more than a morning if it’s only small. You can then build it to as beefy as needed and build it to fit the space. Certainly for me, I found it to make much better use of the space and cheaper than anything that was 1/2 as sturdy. I just need to get round to making a metal top for it!

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My local engineering shop put the return on the steel for me, cost £10 over the cost of the 3mm mild steel, and saved loads of time.

 

Building something is very cheap, and as above, fixed to a wall makes it even cheaper, and easier to make.

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I agree with the posters above that a metal top, although not essential, is highly desirable.  It's easy to keep clean and good for fabbing on.  A wooden top tends to absorb any spilled fluids, and metal particles, from grinding for example, tend to get embedded and generate later contamination and grief.  My bench top is 24" wide 3/4" plywood with a 16ga. mild steel cover, and I love it!  (Sorry, that's getting a bit OT!)

Mike

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Mine is an old (very sturdy) wooden workbench that was going in the skip at work, I skinned the top with 4mm steel with a front edge that hooks under the front of the wooden top and an upstand along the back. Vice bolts to two studs welded directly to it, and as others have said, you can earth the welder to it.

From scratch I'd probably just order a load of 50x50 box for legs etc. and another sheet of 4mm plate for the top, although I might get the lip & return folded by the supplier rather than cut + weld myself as it didn't half knacker the Rage saw blade! :ph34r:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks as always. Looks like I’m going down the diy route again. I have had a good look on second hand benches  but nothing is quite right 🤔 

just a quick thought as a preference would you build out of timber or metal? My last one was metal 50mm box as the frame but but it sued to bounce around a little when beating the hell of something.

was thinking timber frame and metal top to take out some of the vibration.....

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