Classic Fundamentals...a tutorial...post your building techniques HERE!

How to make 90 degree/perpendicular edges...FAST!

I love to build and prefer to build fast. One corner of my laminated workbench top has a maple guide screwed to the end. The maple piece is above the workbench by about 1/8 of an inch. Place material to be sanded against guide...run sanding block along edge of bench with the material sticking out a little... a few swipes and your have a 90 degree edge!

The workbench is constructed from a 1 1/8" x 39 1/2" x 63" laminated wood table top from IKEA (about $120?). The top is mounted on (2) kitchen counter base cabinets that have (2) drawers and doors with (3) shelves. The base cabinets (IKEA) are floating on (8) adjustable legs (IKEA) and connected together using 1" x 3" along the outside edge and another couple of 1" x 3" diagonal cross braces on the cabinet backs. There is a space between the cabinet bases for my stool and industrial cardboard barrel/trash can. The top is screwed from the bottom and top...carefully aligning and leveling.

The top is sanded with long sanding blocks, electric sander and (5) or (6) coats of Minwax clear applied. Finally, old school paste wax is hand rubbed to further protect the top. I periodically drag a sanding block across the top to remove CA drops...a little more wax and even another coat of clear if I feel like it.

Rusty Dose
Team Futaba