Close

The Build

A project log for Lab Bench III

You guessed it! It's a lab bench & my third. The kicker? It's unlike any other...

grant-giesbrechtGrant Giesbrecht 12/22/2019 at 22:400 Comments

I'm building the actual wooden bench. I'm not going to go into much detail on this part of the build, however the one really important tip I've got for anyone building a bench is to use diagonal beams, especially for the verticals components. It's crazy how much more rigid this will make your bench and how few DIY benches online use them. I swear if you use boards half the size you were planning but add diagonal braces, your bench will be way more rigid than if you try to overbuild your bench with huge beams but no cross-bracing. Pre-drilling your screw holes makes life way better, and ofc don't screw into the end grain! If you want more details on my exact build strategy or diagrams, leave a message in the comments and I'd be happy to help. 

The sizes of boards I used are:

Some other specs:

Here are some photos showing my general strategy. The idea was to use four 1x4s as horizontal beams supporting the table surface, then lay 3 across in the perpendicular direction to keep the middle from sagging and to keep all the boards aligned. Everything screws into either the legs, or the ring of 1x4s (which also screw into the legs) around the top and base of the table.

I installed the legs upside down because it made it easier to keep everything square.
The supports in the middle rest on two 2x2s I screwed to the 1x4s. This is a lot stronger than using some type of bracket.
The bottom shelf uses the same idea as the top surface - surface screws into a 1x4 that rests on a 2x2.
The side shelf uses two 2x2s that drop down from one of the horizontal 1x4s to mount 1x2s. The 1x2s will mount the planks making up the surface of the shelf (not pictured).
The completed bench, before adding shelves etc
The surface shelves are broken into four parts. Here all four are mounted on the bench.

Discussions