What's up guys, I'm Brad Rodriguez from fix this build that and today
I'm going to show you how to make the perfect workbench for your garage workshop
It's got a large work surface and a place to sit and do some work
It's got a ton of storage with five drawers on each cabinet and it's got a hutch with built-in pegboard storage and a light
Stay tuned and I'll show you just how I did it.
I modeled this build after the setup that I've been using for over a decade here
It's - 15 inch cabinets on either side with a 60-inch top and a pegboard hutch
I'm gonna leave out the center cabinet down below for now and make this a nice workbench or shop desk
My dad's gonna be getting the old version for his garage
I'm gonna walk through the full bill here. But this is basically a mash up of the garage base cabinets
I just made and my drill press stand that I made last year now
I'm gonna share a lot of tips and insights to make this build or any similar one go smoother
I'm building both cabinets at the same time out of three quarter inch Baltic birch plywood
Each side piece gets a toe kick notch, which I marked for and cut on the bandsaw
If you're cutting these with the jig saw you can stack two sides together
And cut them both at once since you don't have a fence for repeated cuts like I do here
the cabinet sides are joined together by a bottom piece and four stretchers
and you want the width of the bottom and the length of
The stretchers to be exactly the same
so take the extra time and make sure they match up when you're cutting them and
I have a square cabinet here makes everything down the road a lot harder now
With a small cabinet like this
Connecting the sides is a lot easier since you can use smaller clamps
I held the stretchers in place between the sides and attach them with pocket screws
and when putting the bottom on make sure the check that it's 90 degrees to
both the sides and your workbench before attaching it if
the bottom slopes from the front of the back of the cabinet this can follow up your drawer install if you'll be
using spacers like I do
the back stretchers are secured to the top and bottom to firm up the whole assembly
and give an attachment point for anchoring to the wall
I'm using the same homemade adjustable leveling feet for the cabinet's as I did before I
Cut three by three blocks to beef up the base for the t-nuts
They're gonna be installed then I attach the blocks with glue and Brad nails and moved on to the drawer slides while the glue dried
I typically install my slides with the cabinet sitting upright, but this time I tried it with the cabinet on its side
It's a bit easier doing it this way
since you don't have to clamp the spacers in place or worry about the slides
tipping over as you go to grab some screws just
Make sure that the slides remain at a right angle to the front of the cabinet since
you don't have gravity holding everything down firmly to the bottom here.
Have full detailed plans available for this whole build including the exact measurements
for the drawers slides and all the other parts
There's a link in the description. You can go check that out
To close up the cabinets
I cut backs for them out of quarter-inch plywood
And I attach them with glue and staples to finish up the carcass
You can use Brad nails as well. But staples are gonna really hold better in a thin would like quarter-inch plywood
Next up was the drawers. I'm making ten of them here which means 40 parts with four different widths in two lengths
So having a cut list here is clutch
especially if you're trying to use odd size materials and offcuts from other projects like I did I
Printed out the layout on bond parts from Sketchup to get the most from each piece of plywood
Then I label the plywood with exactly what Parts I needed to get from it. I set the table saw fence for each width
I needed and I cut all the parts that were that size and
After I cut the parts
I marked them off the little sticky note and kept that little note on the plywood
Until I've gotten what I needed from each piece of plywood
Now this might seem like overkill but I can't tell you how many times that I've tried to wing it and I end up cutting
The wrong parts out of the wrong piece and I end up having to buy more wood
and like they say an ounce of planning
is worth $48 a Baltic birch or
Something like that
Now cutting the drawer fronts and backs to their final size is always a little bit tricky when using plywood
the total drawer width should be one inch narrower than the opening to account for the slides an
Easy way to check the sizing before you cut your parts is to do a dry fit in the cabinet
Use scraps to represent the sides in the front and see if they're gonna move easily between the slides
Being a little bit under vs. Over is a better side to err on for a good fit and easy sliding drawers. I
Took the stack of parts back to the pocket hole jig and I drilled the Front's in the backs and
putting the drawers to goes pretty quick with a set of clamps to help things along and
If you need a pocket hole jig a set of clamps or even drawer slides check out woodcraft the sponsor today's video
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I'm gonna have links down below in the description to all the items I use today in the build in
Thanks again to woodcraft for sponsoring this video.
I finished off the drawers by cutting full-sized quarter-inch bottom panels for the boxes
If your drawer box is a little out of square
There's an easy way to fix it here
line up the bottom and staple the panel to the front edge flush with the front of the box and
If the reveal running down the side isn't consistent and just use the bottom panel and pull the side into square to make that reveal
Consistent and fix it into place with staples. You can finish up with more staples along the side and that thing's not gonna move
After finishing the drawers I moved back to the cabinet base
I drilled holes in the blocks that I installed earlier for the leveling feet
each foot gets a 5/16 of an inch t9 and a 2 inch carriage bolt that allows for leveling on uneven garage floors and
all garages should slope from front to back and so you're gonna need these I
Finished off the base by installing a toe kick on each cabinet with Brad nails
Actually start calling these me nails more often
Yeah, maybe not
The last cabinet parts they make were the false drawer fronts. I cut them to size
I have a large sheet of plywood to get that continuous grain look that I love so much
Then I applied two coats of water-based polyurethane to the Front's in the cabinet sides
Installing the drawers becomes pretty straight forward at this point save for some minor adjustments
I used a quarter inch spacer for the bottom drawer and then I stacked on a
three-quarter inch piece for the next two drawers
Now the plywood that I'm using was even more undersized than normal and
that's gonna add up after several drawers
So if your spacing gets too far off, you can get drawer bottoms and fronts
running into each other and that is no bueno
So an easy way to check where you're at and see if there's any interference is to mock up the Front's
Using an eighth of an inch spacer between them
And then you can see if there's anything going on between the drawers and this one wasn't hitting. I don't want Adam
Anyway, just to be safe since it was a little too close
Before mounting the drawer fronts I went ahead and I drilled the holes for the pools first
Then I started at the bottom and I attached them to the drawer boxes with one in the quarter inch pocket screws from the inside
After getting them all installed
I finished them off by extending the holes for the pulls all the way through the drawer box and attaching the hardware on the front
At the top of the workbench is a plywood panel trimmed in hard wood like my other cabinets I
Cut the panel to size and I used 3/4 inch maple for the trim
to cut the trim to the right width
I used 2 pieces of plywood to set the fence
And this gave me about a one and three-eighths of an inch trim
Which will marry up perfectly with the double stack of plywood that I'll be using on the edge
And I attached the front trim to the top with pocket screws and glue leaving the trim long on each side
Instead of leaving the side pieces long like I've done before I went ahead and trim them to the exact size and join them the
Same way as I did the front
After those were attached. I came back with a flush cut saw and trimmed off the excess length of that front trim
Instead of using two full sized pieces of plywood for the top
I used 3 inch strips along the edges and the front in the back
To build it up and have a place to attach the lower cabinets. I
Glued and screwed the pieces down and I put two more small strips in between the front and the back
where the cabinets would overlap on that inner edge I
Wrapped up the top by sanding all the seams flush and applying two coats of polyurethane
The finishing touch on the work bench is the hutch
I love having that light right above the workbench and all that pegboard is great for easily accessible storage
So I left the design pretty much the same but just made it a little bit sturdier
it's a two piece hutch with a frame for the pegboard held between the sides and top I
Use pocket hole joiner for the whole thing for easy assembly
And it's pretty big
So you might need some extra support like scraps stacked on top the cabinets that you just made
Note to self make that larger assembly table pronto
Considering the size of this hutch putting finish on the parts before assembly also makes this task a lot easier
After making the frame I joined the sides in the top of the hutch together then I moved on to the pegboard
I'm using just a basic white pegboard here and I cut it to size to fit the frame
Now to assemble the hutch
I turn the top upside down and I brought over the frame. I
Clamped it on and I used some offcuts of the pegboard
To set the frame forward a bit so that it would be flush on the back when it was attached
I'm working my way around the hutch. I connected the frame to the top and the sides with pocket screws
At this point I brought over the 4-foot LED light that I'm going to be using and I measured it for placement in the mounting
hardware I
Drilled holes and I installed some screw hooks, which I decided to replace with some screw eyes, which were a little bit smaller
You'll see that in a minute
Before mounting the pegboard. I located a spot to drill a hole for the power cord for the light
I'm probably gonna come back later and drill a similar hole at the bottom to run a power strip so that I can have power
Accessible right there on the top of the work bench as well
The pegboard goes on with 5/8 and an inch screws around the frame and that wraps everything up. I'm ready for final install. I
Couldn't take the old cabinets over to my dad's just yet
So this is a temporary setup over here on this wall, but for final assembly
I'm gonna secure the top to the cabinets and the hutch to the top with hidden screws and
Here are the screw eyes that I replace. They're quite a bit shorter and they give you another usable row of the peg holes
And this workbench is a great low-profile spot to work on projects and go through plans for your builds
I
Think this is gonna be a great addition to a lot of people's garages and I can't wait to get it in its final place
And complete the look of my own shop organization if you want to see some more shop storage videos
There's a link right down there to the playlist. You don't see another video
I've got one for you right there. If you want plants for this build. There's a link down below in the description
Go check that out if you're not subscribed to the channel already
I'd love to have you as part of the team and until next time guys get out there and build something awesome