Shop and workbench?
 

Hi
WE ordered a 12 X 16 shed kit from home depot, going to insulate, put windows, heat and maybe airconditioning in it for my shop to build planes in.

I fly Giant scale airplanes, and want to know what you use for a large workbench? Does anyone have plan's or pictures they would like to share?

Thanks

Bill

RE: Shop and workbench?
 

I have a 3x8 ft X 2 in thick wood bench with 2 sheets of 3/4inch pressboard and a 1/4in sheet glass sheet on top for 3+ inch's of wood
this is supported at 3 places. the glass is so you can put plans under and build on top or just build on top.
I use a razor to clean/scrap the excess glue or whatever off. just dont drop anything heavy and hard on the glass.
I have been using this for 10+ years so far without breaking the glass.
The glass also works to cut material on, covering, balsa, foam, glass cloth etc.

Hope this helps,

Tony

RE: Shop and workbench?
 

Hi whidbey1

Take a look at my gallery. I have some photos of the garage-to-workshop conversion I am doing.

For my main buildboard, I adopted the method used by cafeenman of working with magnets. The base of the table is made from two Gorilla brand shelving units and the top is a box constructed from two sheets of MDF with a 1 x 2 interior frame, banded with 1x4 and topped with a 4 x 8 sheet of 16 guage cold rolled steel.
The base cabinets and countertops I built from scratch using MDF, poplar, birch ply and formica. I am in the process of building upper cabinets. Just finished the carcases for them today. 6 units that are 38 x 36 x 16 and 1 unit that is 38" x 30 x 16. Not shown in the photos is the AC unit I installed on the third wall.

Good luck on your workshop build!!

Scott

RE: Shop and workbench?
 

i have a box frame made from 2X4's 12' long 4' deep with metal angle brackets at end and 2X4's for legs. 2 layers of HD partical board on top keep it nice and level. if you really need it perfectly flat you could sand it... but partical borad doesent warp much so its basicly as flat as you would ever need. throw some plaster tile (2X4 ceiling tile) on top and you have a pinable surface!

hey... that glass idea is good... ima try that

RE: Shop and workbench?
 

Cancel the order as soon as possible. If already enroute or delivered, return it.

I used one of their 'kits' to build my shop, and am I ever sorry !!

I was out of town over a month, and the 'kit' arrived right after I left. When I got home there were three 6'x6' pallets containing my 10'x10'x18' shed.

For starters, I missed the import of those 6'x6' pallets : no piece of lumber longer than 6' anywhere in this misbegotten shed !

After sorting through the first pallet trying to find the instruction booklet, I found the second major, and I do mean MAJOR, oops . . . the lumber is 2"x3". Not 2"x4", but 2"x3".

Which gives rise to the third major oops : nothing standard will fit the walls. I wanted R30 insulation in the walls. With 2"x3" lumber, R30 is too thick. I found out right away that the panelling I planned to use wasn't stiff enough, and the panelling bulged out between studs (such as they are). I had to use 1/4" ply for panelling, and didn't think much of having to hold that stuff overhead while I finished the ceiling areas.

Electrical boxes won't fit, and worse, the studs can't be drilled for running electrical cables, which means my electrical 'system' is flex plastic conduit on the walls - not inside the walls the way it should be. While that makes for easier changes down the road, it also plays havoc when it comes time to install shelving and cabinetry.

About 10% of the wood was so warped and twisted that I had to replace it. Ever try to buy 2"x3" lumber ? You can't. What you do is rip 2"x4" studs down to size.

I needed to replace one of the exterior (pre-primered T1 siding) panels. Found out that the original panels were non-standard, too. More skill saw action to get the standard panel to fit the odd-ball wall height.

The shed was supposed to be paint-ready in 17 hours' work time. Yeah, right. Try three days, with two rent-a-carpenters helping, to get it framed and covered on the outside, and half of a fourth day to get the thing shingled. Oh, yeah. Shingles are not included. Neither is insulation.

But you do get a gawdawful pile of _three inch_ cheap galvanized nails !!!

The only good thing about this shed is the basic design - the hip roof makes for exposed rafters at the 8' level, great for storage and for hanging models in progress.

I hired a handyman (who does our general house repairs - new roof, etc.) and his helper to get the thing put together in less than a week's work. The handyman (a craftsman in his own right - I watched him fabricate a hollow core door from scratch - allowed as how he could have built the same shed design in two days from the get go, and that my bill would have been about the same as the price of the shed kit itself.

I will NEVER NEVER EVER buy another shed kit from The BORG !!!!

Do yourself a favor and send that thing back or cancel the order as soon as possible. The Home Depot shed kits are a JOKE, and the joke is on the buyer.

C'mon down and I'll show you what I mean.

I repeat : do NOT use that truly lousy shed kit from The BORG. You WILL be sorry !!!!

RE: Shop and workbench?
 

Plumber - hopefully you know that finished lumber is not actually a 2X4 - that is only rough cut lumber .

RE: Shop and workbench?
 

ya, a 2x4 is 1 3/4 x 3 3/8

2x3 would be noticeably less.

RE: Shop and workbench?
 

About half a dozen so-called 'studs' in the BORG shed kit were useless except for making fire stops.

I snagged a bunch of 92 1/2 studs, and had to rip AN INCH off the face to match the original misbegotten "studs".

I know my way around common dimensional lumber, and the things in that shed kit were (are) 2"x3"s.

RE: Shop and workbench?
 

Only if R. Bruce Hoadley got it all wrong, in which case the table on page 210 of his 1980 edition of "Understanding Wood" needs fixing.