New Bench - Machine Bench

Nomad

I seem to be going through a phase of tarting up my workshop in an effort to make it more space efficient. I've been busy with a new machine bench for my lathe and milling machine, and probably a drill press in the not too distant future.

Here's what I came up with...

https://imgur.com/hcPUFrU.jpg

It's 2.5m long and 720mm deep, made from 40mm beech worktop. The four supports are made from 40mm square box section steel, all welded. Overall height is 920mm, which matches the old machine bench (and is the right height for me). Each support is screwed in three places to CLS battens that are screwed to a concrete wall...

https://imgur.com/93gUDiP.jpg

...and there are three screws coming up from the underside of the top spar in each support into the bench top. It doesn't move at all, and should support the machines easily.

The plan is to add shelves at the left and right ends, and leave the middle section open for a trolley/dolly thing that will be used to store the various machines that don't get much use (planer, thicknesser, small router table, other stuff). The dolly will be raised so that there is space underneath it for more storage, and to place the stored machines it holds at a comfortable height for lifting off.

It's taken ages to get it done - I had actually designed it about a year and a half ago, but only got round to arranging for the metal fabrication to be done at a local company about three months ago. Eventually ordered the worktop a week or so ago, and have been busy with prep work since (the space used to house some built-in wardrobes, which had to be emptied of crap and taken apart). Getting the worktop up to, and through, my flat, was surprisingly easy but needed some careful planning due to the size. Don't know what the legs weigh, but the top is about 50kg. (I had a mate help with the worktop.)

Sporky

Very nice. Did you make the legs yourself?

Nomad

No, I got a local fabricator to make them. After costing up the materials, I'd have been saving 50-60 quid to give myself the opportunity to learn to weld (with no welding gear or angle grinder) and to make four legs without buggering any of them up. It would also have taken ages, and I reckoned I'd rather sit in an office drawing pretty 3D pictures to earn the money to pay somebody else to use their welding gear and angle grinder, and not bugger it up. I did wash them down with my plentiful supply of bio ethanol and slap on green Hammerite, though.

I needed to skim a little off the ends of the worktop - it turned out that the side walls taper in slightly towards the back (which I didn't know when I ordered because the built-in wardrobes were still in-situ and full of crap). A test with a length of the CLS cut to what I had specced for the worktop showed me that it would be about 2mm too long. The length was bang on spec, so after chopping the other piece in half, this top was put onto the temporary benches outside, and a tapered slice taken off each end, about 2mm in and 300mm long. In the end, I got a 5-7mm combined gap, which is small enough to not bother with an in-fill. Also lopped a little triangle off the back right corner to drop a power cable down.

Sporky

Coolio - ta.

TTony

That looks pretty solid.

BigMonka

That looks great. I’ve never known anyone with a workshop in an upstairs flat before, wow.

Nomad

Just realised I mentioned "chopping the other piece in half", without referring to what. There were actually two worktops - the one above, and an un-oiled one 3m x 620 deep and 40mm thick. The latter was chopped in half the moment it arrived, and the two halves are destined to become the top of a woodworking bench. Once I get stuff moved around onto the new machine bench, the old one will be used for building the woodworking bench (once the design is finalised).

@TTony, it's impressively solid. Once I realised that the walls aren't square and that packing would be needed, I biased the packing a little towards the top so that the front legs of the supports press down onto the floor. The right-hand one wasn't like that at first - it had about a 1mm gap. Even so, without the top fitted, they were pretty rigid in terms of sideways movement at the front. With the top on, they're constrained at two edges and basically have no movement. The top is also fitted hard against the right-hand wall, which is also concrete. Most of the small gap at the ends is on the left, which keeps it clear of the stud partition wall at that end. It's very unlikely to experience sideways forces, so I have no concerns about movement.

@BigMonka, it's on the first floor, so not too bad, although getting heavier things in can still be a bit of an effort, and there are limits to what sort of machines are feasible. The room is 2.5m wide by 4.7m long, so not far off the size of a typical lockup garage.

Nomad

The machine bench area is just about done...

The main additions are the big shelf at the top, and a machine dolly in the middle at the bottom. The upper shelf is general storage of lighter stuff that I don't use much, and is on a 25mm square box section frame. The dolly at the bottom (made from 40mm square box section) rolls out to get access to stuff more easily than trying to pull it out from under the bench - in particular, the thicknesser, which is pretty heavy. Also got a planer under there, and the white box contains the 1/4" router and general router accessories (with the little router table on top). The dolly is an inverted U-shape, so it rolls past the two boxes underneath (which are full of wood offcuts). The boxes are on skids and slide in and out easily as well.

The shelf units on the bench contain lathe bits and mill bits respectively, as well as providing more general storage. More metalworky stuff in the tool chest.

Still to add some area lighting, and sort through the boxes of crap, but that's the bulk of the work done for this part of the workshop tart-up.

Nomad

Now with mood lighting...

(Main room light off, here.)

I used 900mm LED strip things from Screwfix for the area lighting. Time will tell if I'm no longer working in my own shadow thanks to the main room light being in the middle of the ceiling (with all of the benches against the walls).

Also made a new base board for the mill, which means the shelf behind it can now move into the right-hand corner.