I have two work tables. On is a solid wood one, 6" feet long and around 36" deep. 4x4 legs, 3/4" construction ply and 2x6s between the legs. About 1-1/2" overhang beyond the 2x6s for clamping. Over the ply is a 1/2" finish ply. Vise bolted down to one corner, the drill press free near the other. I care nothing about the finish. Top gets cut into,. all sorts of stuff spilled on it. I just make it a point to keep nothing from sticking up and wipe off stickies. For quality woodwork, I run an orbital sander quickly over the area before the good stuff gets laid on it.

Now, my small bike table is completely different. It is a wheeled mechanics drawers. 4 drawers. Not very big. I covered the top with a sheet of ply, and ply to form a relatively high back and intermediate sides. Back has tools hanging. Hex wrenches on the left side, greases on the right. A small 1/2 dowel lip on the front of the table surface 1/2 dowels running across the front and down the sides for easy bike leaning. All the wood except the dowels is painted with oil based primer. I'd have to go out to the shop and look but it is the most common go-to brand. Good stuff! Nothing seems to bother it. After the worst messes, sponge ans dish soap. Being white, nothing hides.

And a trick I just figures out yesterday. (Why did this take SO LONG?) I was doing an assembly to a part on the bench vise. (Not bike.) I"m in the middle of an entire shop/garage cleanup - long overdue so there were boxes everywhere, including one of those flat Costco display/carrying trays. Moved it to under the bench vise to catch parts. BRILLIANT!!! My mind is already churning about a ply and wood version, just wider than the bike bench and say a foot deep. 1x1 lip around edges except a 2" gap and the back side corners so I could wheel the bench off it without lifting. That would catch the vast majority of bits that fall off the table and ones that fall off the bike either leaning of hung in front for work =wouldn't be above to roll under the cabinet. Needs further thought but it might just be my next project.

And my last project, completely off topic but just finished yesterday. A switch for the shop vac hooked up to the table saw. Challenge - me being a space case and often forgetting to turn the vac on before cuts and sawdust getting totally out of hand. I'd just flipped to saw over and taken it apart (twice) to replace parts. The amount of sawdust and rigid foam insulation dust inside was incredible! So I made a flatbar steel "tower" that bolts to the carriage below the start/stop paddle corner. It has two metal electrical boxed bolted to it. Lower has an outlet for the shop vac cord and a cord that plugs into a hanging extension that runs to the house circuit outlet in the garage. (If i put the vac and saw on the same circuits, blown breaker ever time I start them.) Top of the tower has another box and switch. So both units turn on almost with one motion. (I could have gone truly side-by-side but figured really fast access to "OFF" might someday be important.)

This was fun. But real work. Right angle bends in 3/16x3/4 flatbar don't happen easily, Bench vise and 5# sledge. Repeated minor earthquakes knocking boxes off shelves while I was too focused on the work in front of me. End result is solid! Requires only a longer bolt for the table saw corner and the local Ace had exactly what I wanted.

I’ll just point out that the counter top that I have has never had to be repainted nor refinished. My co-op used to have painted plywood surfaces that had to be refinished about yearly…too many splinters…until we went to counter top material. Their tables see much more abuse than mine ever will and the tops have lasted at least 7 years so far.

Formica is incredibly durable and was a strong candidate but I took it out of the running because A) aesthetics, B) the sound of a bearing bouncing on it annoys me. I don’t like glass table tops because the sound of setting a water glass on it equally annoys me. Kinda dumb but that’s just my sensibility.

Agree on the water glass on the glass table, my spidey senses go off knowing the glass will shatter if it gets dropped, not so on a regular table.

Nevermind the table will break or shatter if not safety glass with minimal trauma, high risk IMO.

Also agree on the Formica clickity annoying click but it is tough and can crack from pounding.

Mine is maple butcher block that was our kitchen counter before we went marble.

I made my sons from nice tight grain Douglas fir 2x4s on edge.

I wouldn’t have a raised lip on the edge because there are too many times you want a piece clamped to the bench top hanging over the edge.

When I’m working with loose bearings (which is almost never with my current fleet), I always put down a rag because I don’t want to go searching around on the floor for the bearing if I drop it.

Steve, I think you need a few more rolls of packing tape!

Right before my wife retired she was working at the CBS broadcast center in NYC, when they closed the scenic construction shop. In the process they were throwing out EVERYTHING. She told me one day that “the truck” was coming to drop off some stuff. Among all of it was packing tape, blue masking, and 30-40 rolls of yellow masking tape. Among a lot of other stuff including somebodies shop vac. that’s the size of a mail box.

I use this stuff......easy to wipe down and can cushion the odd dropped part.

Best, Ben

I prepared materials for printing at drafting tables for years and went through a lot of Vyco. Great stuff, but pricey. Our house in Woodstock had workbenches installed in the garage and basement. My shop is in the garage and the bench is a beast: 12 feet long, 3 feet deep, and the top is 2 x10 dimensional lumber. I caulked the gaps between boards. It's incredibly over built, I can really lean into it. I don't care what spills on it and a quick run with my sander takes away any bad mess. I've thought about covering it with leftover plywood from our rebuild so this thread has me intrigued, but at other times I think I'll leave it. It's got beausage to spare.


The bench has it's own supports so the old base cabinets are freestanding, I can slide them out. My shop vac is behind a door between the yellow cabinets to the right.


Built to last...

A lot to like here and I’m going for a similar thing. There is NEVER too much counter space.

My workbench is overbuilt too, it's small (5' x 2', I hadn't much space at the time) but made with 3/16" x 1 1/2" angle iron with 1 3/4" hardwood top.