A new workbench, sort of

I'm going to make a new workbench tomorrow. I already have everything I need to add a nice work surface to my shop, and the way I figure it should only take about 10 minutes to make.

The thing of it is, is that I already have that workbench – it's just been buried for a couple years. In the photo on the main "Over the Workbench" page (not the clamping picture on this page, but the one on the main blog page) you see me using a bright-yellow DeWalt drill. In the background are cabinets with my rubber chicken and old BEAM-UP license plates. Well, in that photo you can also just see a long, narrow benchtop under the cabinets. You can see a bottle of glue, another DeWalt drill, and a few other odds and ends scattered about. That photo was taken about two years ago, and most of the stuff scattered on that bench is still there.

Buried alive.

That work surface has become my shop catchall for small stuff, mostly hardware and fasteners. In the last two years, I've bought a lot of large-size boxes of hardware – screws, nails, rivets, you name it. Lacking an organized spot for them, they've ended up there. Believe it or not, they're in a logical (to me) order, meaning that if I need a #10 x 1-1/2" slotted screw, I can go right to it, even if it means digging.

I can't stand it any longer. I mentioned here many months ago that I bought several dozen small plastic bins that were destined to become my hardware center. I wasn't lying when I said that; I just never did it. Tomorrow I will.

(A 12-hour pause occurs here.)

Good morning. Creating the worksurface didn't take 10 minutes; it took less than five. All I had to do was scoop all the junk on that bench into a large box: Bingo, bango – new workbench.

Now all I have to do is sort the stuff out of the box and into those bins. Of course, I've already discovered that it's no more difficult digging through that box for the container of #10 x 1-1/2" slotted screws than it was digging through the pile formerly on my "new" workbench. In fact, that big box is working out pretty good.

Another workshop chore cleverly procrastinated.

Till next time,

A.J.