Century bench on a budget

In getting immersed in this seedy underbelly of personalized workbench construction, I read a lot about how these workbenches built in the old days could last centuries. That had a nice ring to it, so I thought, sure, I will build something that can last 100 years. I figure I am generally handy, but I have never really built any furniture before. Well, that is not exactly true. My cousin Bonny generously paid me far too much to build cabinets with plywood and drywall screws. But this will be my first real "piece." Pretty soon, I will be talking that "portfolio" nonsense and say stuff like "I just really need to focus on my art right now."

But I am trying to do this on a grad school budget. That may conflict with the whole "last a century" bit, but we'll see.

First, find a source of hardwood. It needs to be big. Mass is a key feature of workbenches--you don't want it to wiggle or wobble. Also, if you make something heavy enough, no one will ever want to move it and so it can hide out in a basement for a long time. I found a guy tearing oak beams out of his basement on KSL classifieds. $10 each for the three oak beams and another $5 for the two pine beams.

But as you can see, these beams leave something to be desired.




In fact, some of the wood was basically trash. After I ran it through the thickness planer it showed it's true soul--crooked, rotten, and full of termite holes. I chopped out the worst parts.