Thursday 9 April 2009

My pallet wood workbench.

Last week my dad kindly gave me a number of wooden pallets so that I could use the wood from them. I have several projects which I need wood for including the edging for my veggie patch, a chicken coop and I also need to fix my gate which the wood will be useful for. The first thing I have built though is a workbench. I should really have sanded down each plank before I started but I'm too lazy!! I quickly sanded down the edges only and then got the box of screws out!

First I made the legs and screwed the sides onto them. I reused the blocks from the pallets as well to give the legs some strength.

I then selected planks of the same thickness to use for the top. I screwed them on using four screws for each plank - two at each end. Rather than drilling pilot holes I gently tapped the screw into the wood with a hammer before screwing it in the rest of the way. I also added at this stage a plank at each end between the legs for added support.
Once all of the top planks were secure I simply measured the width and marked a line down each side leaving a 5 inch overhang on either side. I then cut along the lines removing the ends to leave me with nice straight edges.
Next, I screwed three planks on the leg supports going the length of the table. This adds more rigidity at the same time as providing a ledge for my toolbox!
And that's it, my free workbench all finished. It took me a few hours but you could do it quicker if you have a cordless screwdriver.. I don't own one so had to do it the old fashioned way screwing each screw into the wood by hand.

10 comments:

  1. You've made a bloody good job of that mate, well done. We're impressed!!! When are you gunna do the chairs lol xx

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  2. Thank you Anonymous, glad you approve! I hadn't planned on making chairs but now you mention it........ haha!

    I'm guessing you're Parsie & Joy?

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  3. Thank You!
    On the back of this blog, we made this today and it works a treat.
    Somebody walked past whilst we were making it and liked it so much that we made another one, right there on the spot. Two tables in a few hours.

    Thanks again,

    Claire & Daniel (Hackney)

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  4. Hello Claire and Daniel, thank you for you kind comment. I haven'nt posted to my blog for some time and it's nice to know that it is still being read. It's even nicer to know that other people are benifitting from it! The one I made is now my dads potting bench and when his neighbour saw it he too made one the same!

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  5. Jimmy, I hope to use your idea and design to build a Work bench myself tomorrow, Jan 29 2011, So 21 months or so later people are still using your plans, Hope the bench is still going strong.

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  6. Hello Mack, its great to hear that people are still visiting my blog - even if I'd forgotten about it myself! Its even better to hear that you are making yourself a Pallet Wood Workbench! Mine is still as strong as ever and is now in my dads garden used as a cuttings/potting table.

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  7. ingenius !! great.

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  8. nice bench, iv started making furniture in my house, built a shelving unit in my bathroom and started a bigger shelving unit in my downstairs bathroom, later a window seat in the master bedroom in the bay window, and than our couch is very run down but not willing to buy another 1 yet. but now will probably build that myself, my wife sews, so the cushions r her job, my goal is to fill my house with furniture iv built instead of spending money, o ya a bedframe too was built, so as long as u dont mind the rustic look go 4 it, all it takes is a little imagination and very little tools, if u want to get fancy go buy yourself a router and special saws and what not and your off, pallets r all over the place making mostly a mess of everything in parking lots alley ways etc, so go clean up the nieghborhood and get building, i did.
    take care people

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  9. its 2015 and its still one of the easiest and fastest workbench tutorial that I had stumbled! Great job mate.

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  10. Wow, amazing to see people are still finding this blog even though I forgot all about! Thank you all!

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