Time Spent:: 8 hours not including organizing my tools!
I've had dreams of building my own plane for over 40 years. Last summer, I took my youngest son to Oshkosh and we attended some workshops that gave us the bug. This summer, we went back with my youngest daughter and my nephew and a plan started to germinate.
The biggest obstacle holding me back has always been the lack of a spot to build it. After spending some time with the various manufacturers and first off deciding what materials I wanted to build it from, I came to the conclusion that I could do it in half of my two car garage but I'd need a good workbench and a MAJOR cleanup.
It so happened that my wife got her big project done this summer (new kitchen) which left me with a bunch of old (but still very serviceable) cupboards. This helped get rid of a lot of the clutter but I still had more I needed to figure out how to store. Enter the workbench.
After pouring over several dozen blogs, it appeared to me that the ideal workbench would be 4' wide by 12' long and PERFECTLY flat. Not easy to do with wood you buy at Home Depot. I also wanted it to have at least three electrical outlets and a spot to mount my clamps, screwdrivers, and air tools that I know I'll be using on a regular basis. I tripped over a site (sadly, I lost it but not before printing out the materials list) that allowed you to build a perfectly flat surface by constructing laminated beams. I modified it a bit to suit my needs and I believe that I could drive my car on this workbench it is so rock solid. It cost me about $200 all up.
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| Already well in use! |
Materials List:
(3) 3/4" thick Tongue and Groove 4' by 8' Spruce Plywood
(1) 3/8" thick 4' by 8' plywood (lower grade is ok but NOT chipboard)
(11) 2x2's (8' long)
(4) 1x2's (8' long)
(7) 2x4's (8' long)
(4) 2x4's Pressure Treated (8' long)
(24) 5" Stove Bolts (7/16" or larger)
(1) Box of 500 Dry Wall Screws (Coarse Thread)
(1) Box of 100 3" Construction Screws
(1) Box of 50 5" Construction Screws
(2) Drywall Corner Bead (8' long)
(1) Large bottle of Weld Bond Glue
You start out with two of the 3/4" sheets of good tongue and groove spruce plywood. You rip them both lengthwise down the centre line. You then take two of those halves and cut them in half horizontally. Take two of the small sheets and rip them lengthwise into 6 inch by 4 foot strips. You should now have:
- (2) 2' by 8' sheets (this will be used for the top)
- (2) 2' by 4' sheets (this will be used for the top)
- (8) 6" by 4' strips (these will be used to make laminated beams)
Now cut the 3/8" Plywood into a 4' by 6" and a 4' by 2' sheets. Now rip each of those lengthwise so you have 6" wide strips. You should now have:
- (4) 6" by 4' strips
- (8) 6" by 6' strips
Now cut seven of the 2x2's and all of the 1x2's in half. Now it's time to get gluing! First we're going to make the two 12' long side beams. Lay one of the eight foot long 2x2's on the floor and apply glue to the top edge. Take a six foot strip of 3/8" plywood drywall screw it together with the 2x2 every 4-6 inches right so the 2x2 is flush with the top edge of the plywood (make sure it is perfectly flush to the edge of the plywood all the way along). The plywood is straight... you won't be able to say the same thing for the 2x2. You can bend the 2x2 as necessary to follow the plywood edge as you screw it together. Now take another 6' strip of 3/8" plywood and continue along the 2x2. Now take a 4" section of 2x2 and go all the way out to the end of the plywood in the same manner. You should have a 12' long strip of 6" wide plywood with a 2x2 glued and screwed all the way along the edge.
Take another 4" chunk and start at the beginning of the bottom edge of the plywood this time and glue/screw as well. Finish it off with another 8' long 2x2. Now take a three foot, a six foot and another three foot strip of the 3/8" plywood and glue and screw them to the top edge of the back side of the long 2x2's. You should have staggered joints with a 12' long box beam with a roughly 2" by 2" hollow centre channel. You might have problems with one side. Don't sweat that. You only need one good side (label that top). Repeat the whole procedure and build another 12' beam.
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| The end view of the right side beam at the far right. You can see the two 6" sheets of 3/8" plywood and the 2x2's that run down the centre. You can also see the end I-beams made of 3/4" plywood sandwiched between four 1x2's. |
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| A better shot of the 12" long side beams. Note the seam in the plywood between the electrical box and the table clamps ($14 at Princess Auto!). That's a three foot panel joined to a six foot panel joined to another three foot panel (just out of the top of the picture). The other side would have two six foot panels laminated. The inside 2x2's are 8' plus 4' on the top and then 4' plus 8' on the bottom so ALL of the joints are staggered. Note how there is lots of room between the 2x2's to put an electrical box and run the electrical wires. Probably would make sense to put them in conduit but I didn't bother. Someday perhaps I'll go back and retrofit them. |
Now we need to build the seven 4' cross beams. They are done in similar manner except for the end beams. You will make three beams using 3/4" Plywood (don't worry about the tongue or groove... you only need one good side). Those three beams go in the middle (at the 4', 6' and 8' locations). You will make two more 4' cross beams with 3/8" plywood which go at the 2' and 10' locations leaving the two end beams. The end beams are each made with one of the remaining two 3/8" plywood strips with 1x2's laminated on either side of the top and bottom so you end up with two I-beams. Don't mount any of the beams just yet... let's take inventory again... you should now have:
(2) 12' long Box Beams
(3) 4' long Box Beams with 3/4" Plywood
(2) 4' long Box Beams with 3/8" Plywood
(2) 4' long I-Beams with 3/8 Plywood
Now, if you are thinking... you have the makings for a table that is much wider than four feet. We want it to be the same width as two of the 2' wide sheets tongue and grooved together (I suspect you'll find that's 47.5"). Subtract the width of the two 12' long beams and cut all the 4' long beams to that length.
On the 12' long beams, lay them flat on the ground on their sides. Make marks lines along the top edges at the 2', 4', 6', 8' and 10' points. Draw a line down the centre of the top edge of all the 4' box beams. This line will correspond with the marks you made on the 12' beam so the beams on are on 2' centres. Now cut up the drywall corner bead into 5.5" strips. You need 24 of them. You will screw those into the corners made from the intersection of the beams. I found it easiest to fasten them all to the Box beams (and the insides of the two end I-Beams first. Then I just stood them up on the flat 12 Box-Beam making sure that the TOP edges were all perfectly flush. Now mount the remaining 12' side beam to the others (I just put it on top of the vertical 4' beams and screwed up from underneath). You should now have the makings of a table!
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| The end I-Beam and cross beams between the two pressure treated legs. Lots of space to hang stuff and you'll notice that I'm using roughly 4' of one end of the table to store floor mounted stuff like the fertilizer spreader, gas cans and lawn mower. The other 8', I have built a low shelf so I can store stuff in bins. (e.g. one bin for all my electrical supplies, one for my painting supplies, one for my drywall supplies, etc.) |
Now you need to make the legs. Decide how high you want the table and take 3/4" off (for the plywood top). Cut 8 legs from the Pressure Treated 2x4's. The legs get bolted to the sides just inside of the ends with two carriage bolts each (stagger the holes vertically). Make sure that the tops of the legs is perfectly flush with the the top of the beams. You can set it on its feet now (you'll need a helper likely). Now you want to make perfectly sure the table is level and square. First, you'll notice your floor likely isn't perfectly flat. Get out your level and start at the high point and shim up the legs until all eight legs are on the ground and the table is perfectly level. Now we'll need to make it square. The most accurate way is to measure across the two diagonals and shift the table until both measurements are equal. Now take one of the 2' x 8' long sheets, put it so the tongue/groove is in the middle of the table and SCREW IT (don't glue it or the only way you'll take the table apart is with a chain saw) down to the beams every 12" . Take a 2' x 4' sheet and add it to the end. Now join the tongue/groove at the beginning with a 2' x 4' sheet and then finish off the top with the 2' by 8' sheet. The joints should all be staggered.
That's a pretty great table just as is but it's a lot more useful with a bottom shelf over 8' of the length of it so let's take that remaining wood and get busy. (You could make it all 12' but I wanted to be able to roll some tall bins or lawnmowers under there - if you do that you'll need some more 2x4's and another 4x4 sheet of 3/4" plywood). First measure the distance between the legs (crosswise). I think it should be something close to 40". Cut two of those and screw them between the end legs on each end so the 4" dimension is vertical at what ever height off the floor (less 3/4" of an inch) you want the bottom shelf. It should be at least 6" off the floor. Screw it into place with the long construction screws. Now on the back side of the table, run another 2x4 along the back legs at the same height. You'll need a 4' chunk to finish it off. On the front side of the table run an 8' length of 2x4 at the same height along the front legs (deciding which end you want the shelf on). Now cut a beam to go from the end of the 8' front beam to the corresponding back end. Now you need some more cross beams. These should get mounted UNDER the perimeter beam you just laid out so you can run another 8' 2x4 up the centre of the table at the same height as the perimeter beams. Now cut your final sheet of plywood to fit between the legs and screw it down.
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| My low shelf for my "supplies" |
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| The other end of my workbenc... I've mounted some trays to hold safety equipment (glasses and ear protection) and sharpies and drill bits along with tape measures. It also gave me a spot to store that pesky big roll of aluminum flashing I've had rolling around in the garage for years. |
Your table should be rock solid and very useful but we're going to make it even more so. I mounted three electrical plugs (you can get shallow electrical boxes from home depot) along the front edge of the 12' beam. Since the beam is hollow the trick is to cut the 2"x3" hole dead centre of the beam and the top and bottom 2x2's will snuggle it - they also make a great channel for running the electrical cable! I put one box in the back and then wired up them up in parallel and then feed the back box from one half of an old heavy duty extension cord which I could plug into the nearest outlet. I ran the cable from the back box to one end, drilled a hole between the leg and the end beam (on the inside) ran the cable along the inside of the end beam and then did the same thing on the other side down the three outlets.
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| You can see the holes I drilled for the air tools and screw drivers as well as the supply extension cord I use to power each of the electrical plugs on the work bench. I've also mounted my squares and things like cut off disks and files next to the tools so it's all there as I need them. |
Along the back side I also drilled a line of holes through the top of my workbench (you should probably stay 4" from the edge so you miss the electrical cable) for my screw drivers and air tools. I also took a 4" by 4' scrap of 3/8" plywood and mounted it along the back side of the table so that 2" of the plywood was sticking above the table. This allowed me to attach all of my hand clamps (my C-clamps, I attached against one of the table legs). I'm going to find some adjustable (height) locking rollers and put it on wheels so I can roll it out of the way when I need to use more of the garage. I think I might even put in a few compressed air stations so I can just hook up my air tools with a short bit of hose but that's a project for another day.
My shelves are ready for the parts and my workbench is ready to begin. On to the Rudder Workshop to start this project. I plan to come home with the blueprints and some new tools. I have most everything I could ever need but there are a few specific tools you need to build a Zenith, namely:
- Compressed Air Driven Pop Rivet Gun (bought at Princess Auto for $79.95)
- Compressed Air Driven Drill (much faster and lighter than electrical ones) ($21.95 on sale at P.A.)
- An "Accordian Hole Spacer" that you use to get all the holes lined up perfectly ($30 at Aircraft Spruce)
- Hundreds of "Cleco's" (tiny fasteners that temporarily hold two bits of metal together for riveting). Here's a picture of the Cleco and the Cleco Pliers you use to attach/remove them. ($0.50-.60 each at Aircraft Spruce)
I have just about everything else I need (tin snips, files, drill bits, hand riveter, metric tape measure and "Sharpie" markers. I'm anxious to get going!d
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