By: shbaker79

shbaker79 — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:48:04 +0000

I found dozens of fold-up bench designs on the internet. I selected this one. I finished the project in about 6 hours and I am very pleased with the results. As robmasongeneva above has commented, I suggest a higher bench height of 34-36″. this will alter some of the cuts recommended. I also plan to paint it to match the garage walls. A couple of possible corrections I am suggesting are as follows:
Page 4 Piano Hinge. April recommends using 1 1/4″ screws for installing the hinge. That size obviously should not be used when securing the upper hinge to the 3/4″ plywood top.
Page 5: At the top left corner a dimension of 1 1/4″ is given for the placement of the 1/2″ hole to be drilled. I think she means 1 1/2 as 1 1/2″ would put the hole in the center of the 2×4. If she actually wants 1 1/4″, there is no reason given nor any instructions as to how to orient the board for mounting after drilling. I used the 1 1/2″ dimension and it all worked fine.
The piano hinge I purchased from Home Depot hung over the 2×4 wall brace a bit but the screws still seemed to take hold. Perhaps a specification on the hinge width would be helpful as my plywood was a full 3/4 thick.
Again, I loved the design, flexibility and simplicity of this design and would recommend to it to all!

By: robmasongeneva

robmasongeneva — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 15:23:32 +0000

Wonderful clear and easy to use plans. I used these plans as a starting point and then modified for the space I had for my workbench. This involved increasing the size of the work bench top (75 (length) x 33 (width)) and also increasing the height to 36 inches (countertop height). This meant my legs extended below the ends of the table when it is folded up (not a problem). I also added a third support beam under the middle of the bench and added a third leg given my version is a bit longer than April’s (this also meant I had to cut the piano hinge into two parts to accommodate the middle leg). Then I painted all of the wood that is exposed when the table is folded up to white (just used a Kilz Primer) to make it better blend in to my garage walls. Thanks for the inspiration and idea, April. I am new to woodworking and this project took less than half a day (except for waiting for the paint to dry in between coats!). I would submit a photo, but don’t know how to do it in this reviews section!

Comments on: Folding Workbench Plans

By: shbaker79

By: robmasongeneva