DIY Workbench and Storage

Five months ago, my wife and I moved into our first house, but the exciting part is that it has a three car garage!  Today, I was finally able to invest some time (and money) setting up my workspace.  I modeled the workbench and storage in Pro-Engineer, a 3D modeling program (a Professional program like SolidWorks).  Here is the rendering of that layout.

Pro-E Rendering of Workbench and Storage

Pretty sexy, ain't it?  The workbench frame is made from industrial shelving I purchase from Lowes.  I got the idea from Craftsman's Gorilla Garage line (which is pretty expensive).  Here is the cheap version...

Actual Workbench and Storage

The shelving and wood cost about $160 (24"x96").  It will cost about another $150 to have the storage section added (the rack to the right).  That will have to wait another month or two.

But on to the workbench surface.  I did a little shopping around to see the prices of workbench tops.  You can find one online for about $90 to $225 depending on the material (24"x96").  Craftsman actually seemed to be one of the cheapest suppliers, take a look - Craftsman .  But, I know I am going to destroy the surface pretty quickly so I wanted a cheaper solution.  I decided to buy a few sheets of Plywood and Particle board and glue them together.  The cement was used to add weight to press the three layers together (there were still a few gaps around the edges.

Gluing In-Progress

Three layers of the workbench

The cost for this work surface was about $40 after two sheets of wood (3/4 of which was used), and a container of wood glue.  After the glue had dried, I sanded the surface and added a nice rounded edge.  I then sealed the wood with a rub-on seal/polyurethane coat.  It ended up looking pretty nice.

Wood surface protection

Completed workbench