My Bench
How to Build the Base
The base is built from standard home center 2x6 lumber and 3/4" birch plywood.
Tip:Dimensional lumber from home centers like Lowe's or Home Depot tends to be very wet when you buy it. Before you start working with it, bring it indoors, stack and sticker it with some weight on top and let it sit for at least a month to let it dry out. It will twist and cup as it dries. It's better to let it do that first and get dry before working with it. Then you can flatten and joint it.
After the lumber is dry, rip just enough off of each edge to get a square edge. Or you could run both sides over the jointer a few times (or use a jointer plane; whichever does it for you). If the lumber has cupped or twisted, you might have to face and plane it as well to get it flatter and square. A jointer and planer are definitely useful, but I built this one before I owner either one, and just used hand planes.
The first step is to make the four legs. Each leg is simply two lengths of the prepared stock, glued and screwed together along one edge, to make "L"-shaped pieces:
You'll need to determine the height for yourself, based on how high you want your finished bench to be and what kind of top you'll put on it.
The "joinery," such as it may be, is simply 3/8" lag screws and yellow carpenter's glue. You could, if you wanted, snazz it up with fancier joinery, but I see this as one of the beneficial features of this bench - it can be built quickly, with very basic, simple tools, without a high degree of joinery skill, and is seriously strong and sturdy when done. And then you've got a woodworking bench to develop your joinery skills on. Then, if you have a burning desire to someday build a furniture-grade bench with through mortise and tenon joinery or dovetails or whatever, you can use this bench to build your masterpiece bench.
Next, cut the front-to-back stretchers to length. These will go inside the "L" and connect the front leg to the rear leg, at top and bottom. Each one also has a rabbet to receive the 3/4" plywood end panel. Again, 3/8" lag screws and glue hold the stretchers in, and I also used some decking screws and glue from the inside to hold the plywood panel to the inside of the legs.
I installed the bottom stretchers so that they're just slightly off the floor. This way, the bench will sit only on the ends of the legs. If there are any slight irregularities in the floor (and there always are), the bench won't rock because of the stretchers sitting on a bump or something.
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You'll then have two completed end assemblies:
Next, cut the long front and back stretchers to length, which will depend again on what kind of bench you're ultimately building, how long the top will be, how much clearance you need for the vises you're using, etc.
The back side stretchers and panel pretty much go in the same way as the end ones did. The front ones don't get a rabbet, as there's no panel in front, leaving the front open.
Tip:Install the bottom front stretcher, then install the bottom panel, then install the top front stretcher. It's a bit awkward to get the bottom panel in anyway, and it is much more difficult, if not impossible, to do it with the top front stretcher in the way.
Once the bottom panel and front stretchers are installed, here's the finished base:
The top
The original top I made consisted of four layers of 3/4" sheet goods, laminated together with yellow glue. Bottom and top layers were pine plywood; the middle two layers were particleboard. I laminated the layers by laying down the first layer on the basement floor, spreading yellow glue all over it, then laying the next layer on top, and so forth. I then drove 2-3/4" decking screws about every foot to hold it all in place. Once the glue was dry, I pulled the screws back out. It makes for an extremely stable, heavy and massive top, which is very utilitarian and very quick and easy to make, but it's not the prettiest thing. I originally covered it with a layer of 1/4" tempered Masonite harboard, and a few years later, replaced the Masonite with some old solid oak tongue and groove flooring.
You also could build a more traditional solid hardwood bench top. In fact, that is what I am doing for "Version 3.0" of my bench.
Variations
One modification would be to raise the stretchers up a little higher, but I opted to but them low to create more storage space underneath. You also could install cabinet doors, interior dividers and shelving, or drawers.
I have received e-mail from at least three people who found my bench online and built their own versions.