Workbenches for your project

by Bob Collins

  I'm past the halfway point in my project, and most of the heavy construction work is done, so I have no need to start building more workbenches and other things for the shop, right? Wrong. I have a hangar for the RV-7A project now and it's pretty stark in its emptiness. The fuselage is nowhere ready to be moved (actually, I could move it, but I won't work on it as often as I would with it in my garage).

     The hangar needs some storage and working space and so I had to build new workbenches and it reminds me thatfor those of you who are planning your homebuilt airplane project, it's never too early -- or too late -- to start building your systems.

     Fortunately, it's easy to do thanks to the geniuses at EAA Chapter 1000, who -- more than 15 years ago -- issued the best plans available for workbenches. These are fine 2' x 5'  two-level benches. The genius in them is (aside from the fact they're easy to build) that the more you build, the greater flexibility you have in arranging them for the particular task at hand. For your wings, for example, you can slap together two or three. For other tasks, one will do.

     The instructions and narrative for building them are here. But all you really need -- especially since you're used to (aren't you?) building off plans -- are the plans, which you can find here. There's a caution on there to use the best wood etc., but I went pretty minimalist -- using premium stud-grade 2 x 4s and two 8 x 4 sheets of plywood sheathing? Why? Because Ken Scott, at a SportAir RV building workshop a few years ago, suggesting putting pieces of MBF MDF over your workbench. That way you can drill into it, cleco stuff down onto it, without harming the workbench itself. Oh, it also keeps you from getting splinters on your work surface. This saved me a few bucks since I didn't both with sanded exterior plywood.

     Since I'm in the middle of a deck rebuilding project, I also used 3" deck screws from Home Depot (one of the $25 big boxes will do),  and a box of  the #8  1 1/2" wood screws are used to secure the tops and shelves to the underlying 2 x 4s. 

      So my modified bill of materials was:

      BILL OF MATERIALS (to build 2 tables)

1 sheet of 4' x 8' 1/2 inch plywood
1 sheet of 4' x 8' 4/4" plywood
14 2 x4s - 8 foot lengths
1 box of 3" deck screws
1 box of #8 1 1/2" wood (construction) screws
1 good-sized bottle of Elmer's wood glue

The total cost to me to build the two tables was about $80 (the EAA 1000 Web site said the cost was $47 in 1992 and $60 in 1997 so I guess that's about right.)

The key to whipping these things out quickly is just to cut the 2 x 4s according to the really fabulous cutting list:

*Cut to match lower legs 

Make your two shelfs (the top and the shelf) skeletons first. The instruction say to build the tables from the top down. I disagree having done it both ways. To me, the most important thing is for the legs to rest properly on the floor. So I took the 33" legs, added the 8.5" doublers to the bottom, then added the bottom shelf, secured it, added the 17.5" doublers above the  portion of the bottom shelf on the legs, then fit the top infrastructure and  adjusted the 17.5" piece accordingly (actually, take a small piece of 2 x 4 and use that when fitting the 17.5" piece. If the width of the 2 x 4 piece placed on top of the 17.5" doubler  doesn't end up flush with the top of the 33" leg, then trim the 17.5" piece appropriately.

Total time to build once you cut and stack all of your 2 x 4 pieces is a couple of hours; less for the second one, of course.

There are other sources of workbench information. Budd Davisson has some thoughts on his  airbum.com site. You can also find some plans here for a different sort of workbench. This one is 3' x 6' and doesn't seem quite as well supported, however.

Depending on how fancy you want to get, check out workbenchdesign.net. It even has a forum to kick around doodads and other things you might like to add.

One addition I made to the EAA 1000 workbenches is to add lockable, castering wheels to them. Back when I was helping my friend, Warren Starkebaum mate his engine, we found it quite easy to clamp the engine (with the engine mount installed) on the bench and then roll the bench to the front of the airplane where, accompanied by a hoist, it was much easier to mount the contraption on the air frame.

So when I built these workbenches, I was very mindful of making it strong enough to support and protect my engine, whenever I get around to buying one, of course.