As anyone who has been in my workshop knows, it’s very much a chaotic mashup of impulse purchases and salvaged odds-and-ends. Whether it’s the old pantry door that is now serving as a table or the welded together rack for my tool cases, my shop is full of character (and lots of left-overs). This weekend I decided that I needed a proper place to build and a proper workbench to facilitate the projects.

I started by identifying the one tool that I don’t have and know that I will need in the future: a table saw. Being a poor graduate student, purchasing a saw–even a cheap one– was a bit more that I had in mind, so I built one with my skill saw. From there, I took full advantage of my scraps bin to piece together a full-size workbench. While I’m still not done, I wanted to take a few minutes to share where I’m at.

Let’s take a look at my plans for the table to get a feel for what I’m building (click on any image to bring up a larger version):

Okay. So the plans will not be much use for anyone by me, let’s just take a look at the table itself.

Overview

Looking from left to right, we start with the table saw section with a storage rack below it as well as a built-in dust collection box. Next to that section is a hinged work surface and the dust management system below it. In the final section that will be a router and additional storage, but this section is the furthest from completion.

Table Saw

The benefits of using a versatile skill saw is that the table saw is equally versatile. Can get angles of up to 45 degrees.

And comptlely adjustable depth from 0 to about 3 inches.

Storage Rack

Below the table saw unit is the storage rack I built this morning for the harbor freight cases I store just about everything in.

Here is the completed unit before being installed in the workbench. The rack was a cinch to make with 1/4″ MDF, glue and a pneumatic stapler.

The unit after being installed below the table saw.

Center Section

The center sections consists of both the folding work surface and dust management box (which I’ve discussed before).

The top panel is on hinges to provide for quick access to a tool storage bin (TBA). The front 2×4 will be attached to the top in the future, but I needed a piece there to use my table saw fence at the moment.

With top down, eventually all the top surfaces will lay flush with one another (waiting on a tool).

Once the edges are all routed out (so the top panels will actually drop in), the whole center section will hinge, not just the top.

The essence of my dust management system. Inside a sound-dampened box, I placed an old canister vacuum and a cycloid, dust collector. Eventually I’ll install PVC piping to both the table saw and router to provide constant chip removal.

Final Section

Since I am waiting on my router to arrive, I wont be able to complete the finals section or the table for the time being. Eventually I’m envisioning more storage below the router as well as another dust-collection box (depending on configuration of the router). I should also note here that the entire bench is on lockable casters for easy reorientation in the shop.