Workbench Expansion - Finished At Last!

  

I'm really happy with the way this came out. No, wait. I'm more than happy. I'm ecstatic. The expansion of my workbench, the first part of a larger garage beautification project, came out just as I planned. Big. Bold. Ridiculous. I love it. And there's much more to be done. 

 

  

Plans began last September when I started thinking about adding a Yankee Stadium inspired "Frieze" (Yankee Stadium cognoscenti pronounce it, "freeze") along the top shelf of my work bench.  Thing is though, before I could do that I would need to expand my original structure first. Why? Business before pleasure. Oh, sweet, sweet pleasure.

 

 

I built my original bench shortly after we moved into our home in Cleveland nearly three years ago. I built it on the small side for several reasons. First, I'm a clutter hog and my thought was that a smaller work area would mean I'd clutter less. Hmmm, no. That did not work out according to plan (see photographic evidence above). Secondly, a smaller bench needed less material. Less material meant I'd spend less to build it. Well, that worked out just fine but since I'm a clutter hog that planned fired on me. Valuable lesson learned; cheapness is the mother of failure. Finally and most importantly, if I bought a large antique automobile, like I originally planned, it would have to fit in here. A large work bench would take up much needed space especially at the back of the garage. The car we did finally buy at my wife's ribald insistence, a 1977 Corvette  (which we store at a facility in the winter) is a fairly small car. Well, relative to say, a early '70's Cadillac.  So, expansion of the bench to the back of the garage was not going to be an issue.

 

 

So, my plan was simple. I wanted to build an addition on the "north side" (or back of the garage) of the bench (to the left) while expanding the original "east" structure. While I was at it, I wanted to add parallel shelving or skids underneath it all. How hard could this be? Well, The expansion of the bench came easy. Construction of the skids drove me nuts.  



 

 

In perfect hindsight, what I should have done was build the frame of the skids first, then put them under the bench. Building them "custom" to the area under the bench meant I had to take into consideration that the house, while not old at 15 years of age, is no longer square. Also, by building them "off line", it would've meant less stooping and bending for me. I'm not a kid anymore and while I am in pretty good shape (if I do say so myself), the constant up/down/up/down exhausted little ole me. An exhausted me is not  a happy me. A unhappy me is someone who makes a lot of mistakes. Waaaa. 

 

Along with a fairly cold winter and limited time, the thing that sucked out most of my carpenter's soul was those mistakes. Constant, spirit smothering mistakes. An inch here. Quarter inch there. Something not anticipated here and there and, well...you get the picture.

 

Also, my innate tendency to rush things also cost me dearly. I don't know why I do that. But I do. And it always costs me dearly. Frankly, I had gotten to a stage with this massive project that I thought I'd never finish it.

I probably built and rebuilt these skids a half dozen times before I finally, unceremoniously got it right. At about 3 hours for each shot you can see how my precious weekend free time went into the proverbial dumpster time and time again. If time flies when you're having fun you should see how fast it flies when you don't have any to spare.

 

 

That I finished them at all was miraculous. I had gotten pretty sick of this project. That it came out better than I think I even originally planned makes it even that much more satisfying. I've got perseverance, by golly. Either that or I'm flat out stupid. Come to think of it I think there's a fine between the two.

 



 

 

 

Like an Amish carpenter who uses power tools for the first time, my discovery of the effectiveness of these brackets was nothing short of a revelation. These brackets made for easy assembly and served as tremendous reinforcement. Yes. That's two shorter 2 X 4s that should be one larger one for the attachment of the northside bench to the east. See above about mistakes.

 

 

Not only did these brackets save gobs of time, it allowed me to assemble different parts of the bench in a solid, professional way that I could never accomplish before. That said, I still managed to be more than two inches off on my measuring of the top of the post holding up the north side of the bench. I left this as is.  One of several birth marks.

 

Another discovery I made was my "manufacturing of time". Instead of plopping myself down in front of the TV or laptop on Saturday and Sunday mornings befor my family got out of bed, I put on my sweats and hoodie and armed with a trusty mug of  Keurig brew, I worked out here instead. I worked slowly and methodologically. I'm a morning person. Totally at piece. Slow and steady. I do my best work in the morning.

 

The results speak for themselves. Onto the "Frieze"!