Workbench Redone : 2022-10

Once again, I neglected to take any before pictures so you'd have to imagine the comparison. Simply put, it was old, the top surface was warped, and the overall support structure was average at best. To the previous builder's credit, I did use his back supports (those against the wall).

I developed these high-end plans prior to beginning. I had it planned out in my head, but these are great for material lists. They're also handy for proving concepts that are in my head but may not work because I'm overlooking something. The sketch on the right was key for that. I haven't done drawers in awhile so I wanted to make sure the clets/runners were going to work.

I was a little late in the picture taking - the frame is already complete. The difference between the pics is the addition of the drawer runners (right picture). You can't really see it, but I had some adjustable feet (from a storage rack) and thought I'd try them on the forward legs. I don't know if I'll ever adjust them but they worked great, and now I have the option.

Here you can see the elevated feet. For the legs without the adjustable feet, I tried an angled cut (blue square). I'm not sure if this is smart or not, but a smaller surface area seems like it would be easier to level. In other words, you're not depending on a perfect cut along the full span of a 2x4. Time will tell, but it probably is negligible.

Drawers and working surfaces installed. The drawers aren't very deep but they worked nicely because there's a concrete step behind the entire bench. The original bench didn't have drawers - it was just empty space. I thought they'd be a nice addition. As you'll see, the drawers were kind of my favorite part.

Three drawers left a little space against the wall which was annoying but easy enough to handle. The white square shows something I wish I would've changed. I meant to cut the particle board around the 2x4s instead of just the notch. I put some squares in there to fill the gap, but that's not how I wanted to do it.

How do you fix a small gap left over from the other drawers? Just make a small drawer. And why was there a gap? Because I repurposed the drawers in the right picture. I got this little dresser for $12 and even though there was some quality wood in it, it proved to be pretty unstable. The handles are shorter because they suffered some damage when I first tore down the dresser. This is why I was pleased to add drawers to the workbench. The existing drawers saved a lot of time and the dresser didn't go to waste.

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