Anything as long as you dont have to buy it!, My bench top is 30mm MDF, ex school benchtops that came out of a skip when building works were going on at the college where i worked, i also had 20 Iroko lab bench tops, they cost me a crate of beer to the demolition lads. Those got used for boaty bits.
- Thread starter mangocrazy
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God mode restorations
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Work bench design is really based on what you want to do on it. If your putting bench drills and vices then you want something reasonably strong and ridged. Nothing worse than working on a wobbly bench. Also take in consideration that you might want to add stuff later or do welding. Mine is 8ft x 4ft . All made of 4x4 timbers and topped with 50mm ply. And a huge lump of steel plate.
slim_boy_fat
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My 'general' work area (not welding) is a length of kitchen breakfast bar - wider & thicker than the normal worktops.
Wallace
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My 'general' work area (not welding) is a length of kitchen breakfast bar - wider & thicker than the normal worktops.
Anyone who has a bar in the workshop deserves praise!
I have a fairly solid wooden bench bolted to the wall into a corner with kitchen worktop I can stand at and more worktop I can sit at connected to it in an L shape. The steel welding bench I can stand or sit at with welders beneath. (No bar though.)
Ashley Burton
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I've got a steel sheet on top of some MDF. Nice & solid + easy to keep clean
slim_boy_fat
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bigegg
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Olderisbetter
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I think you should know that your picture will make it onto those trendy sites and some women will want it as a kitchen.
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I built a load of benches for my mancave and decided to go for easily replaceable tops. Welded up frames that take layers of 18mm ply (or whatever I choose) dropped in so when it gets worn I can swap it easy without rebuilding the benches. So far its worked really well, the end of one of the benches has 12mm plate inserted for small welding work or bashing things hard.
addjunkie
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I had a breakfast bar top, nice and deep, easy to clean, but has disadvantages too, this time Ive gone 4x2 legs, 8x2 planked top, kitchen cupboards beneath, then 12mm ply over the 8x2 glued and screwed, to give a smooth working surfsce. I have a separate mobile metal bench for hot stuff.
