I completed a couple of saw horses a few days ago and am now using them to commence work on a workbench. Like the saw horses its being constructed from recycled timber, mostly material that came from doing up an old property.

The stock is a mix of 100+yr old door and window lintels – these are the biggest section lumps and will be used for the top – and some more recent rough timber including some 8″x2″C24 offcuts that will be ripped and laminated and used for the legs, and rails. I’m still deciding on the aprons as I have a choice between laminating and slicing up a couple of old veneered wardrobe doors or using some more old 3×2.5″ roof timbers. I also have some less old mahogany fireplace mantles, one of wich I may use for the top of the front apron as it will make a great resilient edge.

The work bench will be a single sided 1.5m long unit (available space and stock length determines this) with a narrow rear section of top (from a 4×3 plus apron width). The main front section of top formed from the two main 3″ thick old boards in the photo below plus an apron. Total width will be about 750 to 800mm (32″ max) wide – decided once I have the top timbers cleaned up and apron width determined – with a well of at least 8″ towards the rear. Height will be nearly a metre (39″) before any trimming of the legs. I’m 6ft so will see how it feels before I commit to shortening.

I’ll have to work hard at getting the old stock square and true as they are too heavy to pull in when glueing. First off lots of planing to do to get back to a clean surfaces and remove some twist. I’m also using old Hard Disk Drive magnets to hunt for old nails!

• This topic was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by blackadder.
• This topic was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by blackadder.