I finally got a workbench up and running in the basement this past weekend. Since the design was super complicated*, I started by modeling it in SketchUp (I found some video tutorials at Sketchup For Woodworkers):
I think it turned out pretty well:
It’s basically some 2×4’s screwed together with a solid core door ($45 at Lowe’s) on top, and some hardboard over that. I’ve had that vise for something like ten years now and have never used it until now. But I’m not a hoarder*, really.
On a related note, the space where it’s located is where there used to be some not-very-useful shelves which I spent a good portion of the previous Saturday knocking out with a 4lb hammer and a wrecking bar (and a dusk mask and my inhaler). There is still a lot of old shelving and cabinetry down there that needs to go (don’t worry, the secret train storage compartment is staying)—the shelves that came with the house are about nine inches above one another, which is not enough space to store most of the stuff that’s currently scattered about the basement floor.
Slightly more useful than an inflatable dartboard.
You thought we had actually moved into this house?
I had a nice neighborhood moment last week though… Shortly after we moved in I was walking to work and some folks were banging together a wheelchair ramp outside a house a couple blocks down the hill. A few weeks later, I saw that the ramp had been disassembled (I am assuming that whomever needed the wheelchair got better…) and the lumber was stacked in the driveway. I must have walked by it thirty times on my commute before I finally stuck a note on it a week ago saying that I would haul it away if they didn’t need it. A few days later, I got a call and scored about about a hundred bucks worth of free lumber!
So, soon, the less-than-functional shelves will be gone and a neighbor’s wheelchair ramp will have a second life as our basement shelving. Lots and lots of basement shelving…
*Seriously, not at all…