With a small arsenal of tools from my estate sale scavenging, I needed a place to work on projects and get the tools off the garage floor. I was originally going to build the “Getting Started in Woodworking” bench from FWW, but I decided that a more typical garage bench would be better suited.
I needed something easy to build, and solid as a rock. I wanted a 2’ deep surface and I wanted to take up 1/2 of the back wall. My wife has given me 1/2 of the garage because she still wants to park in there during the winter. So I found the plans from Art of Manliness . The build looked straight forward and I could build it in 1 day.
Here are some shots of the build:
I used Simpson strong ties to help with speed and strength.
My dad posing while he helped me erect the frame. Notice the back wall and shelving above. All of this was held together with nails. The heavy 4×8 plywood overhead shelves were nailed into the ceiling. Wicked dangerous, so I actually ripped it all down (see later on this post).
In this photo, you can see my finished bench, and all the tools that I need to find a home for.
With the bench built, I needed something to hang my tools for easy access. I bought some pegboard and whipped together a frame out of scrap 1×3 pine I had laying around. Few magnetic strips from HF and I had storage!
You’ll notice the light hanging in this picture too. Another estate sale find … $2.50 for this light with the bulbs. I bought both of the lights he had.
So with a shop bench with drill press and some tool storage, I was able to start some projects. At this time I still didn’t have any woodworking tools. No good saws (powered or hand), no chisels, all I had was some dull planes and rusty old dull hand saws. A quick stop into Rockler on my lunch break, and I came home with this:
Now with some proper tools I was able to start a real woodworking project.