What is this?

Since buying my first house in April of last year, I have felt the need to get better with work with my hands. I am a 25 year old guy who has worked in IT since I got out of high school. I spend 10-15 hours day at a computer and most of my skills rely upon a computer to use them. After closing my house and before I moved in I had to make some general repairs and upgrades, and boy, was I lost. Thankfully my dad and friends helped fill the gap in my knowledge but I have made it my goal in 2014 to learn more, to develop actual knowledge and skills I can use when I am unplugged from the computer. This is my journey.

My winter goal was to make a workbench. I need a place to store tools and actually work, right? With Japanese pull saw in hand, I attacked the pile of 2x4s and learned a ton:

- Finding straight dimension lumber is like finding a needle in a hay stack at big box stores.

- Do not skimp on screws.

- Buy screws with square or star shaped heads, they are nearly impossible to strip

The Results for the frame

It took a few days with my hand saw and my drill, but I finally came up with a work bench frame. Keep in mind, the legs look a bit daft. The bench is in my unfinished basement and the concrete floor is very uneven to direct water to the drains in the basement, this was actually my first hurdle. I attached self-leveling feet to the 2x4 legs to make sure the work surface on top was level. I then surrounded the 2x4 legs with 12" 2x4 feet which helped with stability and kept everything level after removing the feet.

Adding a top

It looks a little wonkier than it is because of the wide angle lens, but it came out nice. I used two sheets of 3/4" sanded plywood. I screwed down the first sheet (cut 76"X31") onto the frame. I then put on wood glue and screwed down the second identically sized sheet of 3/4 " plywood from the bottom so the 1.5" top would look screwless. I then used the left over 3/4" plywood for the bottom shelf

What's next?

I need to add some pegboard to the back wall and then run a new outlet for power tools on the left hand wall and hang a shop light above the work area. My goal for march is to having the bench done so I can start working on wood joinery.