Jorgen’s Workbench

This project comes by way of Sweden. Let’s check out Jorgen’s workbench:

Hello Marc! First let me say how much I enjoy reading your blog and watching the videos on your site. They are very informative and interesting! I found you by searching for woodworking resources via Google and I am following you from Sweden.

I spent the last month or so building a new workbench for my shop. It’s a pretty straightforward design which has been inspired both by traditional workbenches and also from newer designs, such as the “21 Century Workbench” by Robert W. Lang.

The base is made out of pine with dust covers made of thin MDF boards. The sides are joined using mortise and tenon joints and they are attached to one another using horizontal bars. The bars are attached using bolts that go from the sides into the bars. Small holes are made in the bars where the bolts come out and they are tightened using a locking nut and a square washer. The sides also have height-adjustable feet so that I can level the bench out in relation to my very unlevel floor :-)

The bench top consists of three laminated layers. The bottom and top layers are 22 mm thick MDF board and the middle layer is 11 mm thick OSB board. I then nailed 6 mm MDF to the top and sides of the top for covering up screw heads and such. Since they are only nailed to the bench top they can easily be replaced when they’re worn out. The bench top is also split into two pieces where the back piece can slide back and forth on the base. This creates a gap where, for instance, the blade of my plunge saw can run when I need to cut down large sheets to size. It also gives a larger effective area for the bench top when working with large work pieces in general. I still have to make drawers, I haven’t decided though whether to have two or four drawers… :-)

Note from Marc: If you are interested in seeing more detail of Jorgen’s workbench, check out his blog at MyTinySteps. He has posted the drawings for the workbench in case anyone wants to build it themselves.