This is one of my work benches, and I originally built that
actually long before there was YouTube, 15 years ago.
And, I like to film my stuff on a white surface
and I've been using this ever since I started making videos,
but the problem is, this surface has gotten quite beat up.
So, in this video I'll be taking it apart to put a new top
on this workbench.
This top is actually the old back door from my old house.
I actually used a couple of pocket holes to hold the
workbench top on the back. This was before
I decided that pocket holes are evil and must die.
Way back, when I was still working at Blackberry,
our desks didn't have desk drawers, so I made this drawer
and those two rails, and I had that screwed to the bottom
of my desk.
When I built this workbench, I wanted to make one that
had a fair bit of lateral stiffness, but could still be
take apart, so what I did, is the legs have got this thing
kind of bridle-jointed into it
and then the front rail screws to that, so this joint
gives it stiffness, this way, and with it screwed
this far apart, on those two sides,
that transfers onto here quite well
And, then on the back I have these diagonal braces
cause I didn't have to worry about obstructing
the back at all. The drawers came much later,
in 2008, and they are suspended from pieces of wood
that are attached to these rails, here.
And, then in the middle I added a rail that goes front to back,
which has the supports for the drawer slides
coming out the bottom. And, finally underneath
the workbench, is another big drawer
and that just rides on wheels, on the floor.
This whole thing started with me spotting a really big, nice
Melamine-coated piece of particle board by a dumpster.
But, it was too big to haul back in the car,
and even cut in pieces, it was too heavy to load alone,
So, Rachel had to come along, and because Rachel came along,
baby had to come along, too.
So this is my new workbench top, and it weighs about 80 pounds,
or 35 kilograms.
I still have to trim it down to it's final size,
and to avoid getting chip-out on the top,
I start with a scoring cut.
And, after that, I make a full depth cut.
Holy crap, was that dusty, so I ended up running both
my dust collectors, and the air cleaner, to clean the air.
And, then finished the cut with the hose held up to the saw.
But, then the saw started riding up on me,
and I ended up getting, not a very clean cut.
So, I did what I was trying to avoid all along,
which is to put the slab on the table saw.
I wanted some nice trim for the front, so I cut some thin layers
of Melamine off the scraps that I had.
I cut is so that there was a little bit of particle board
left on the Melamine, and that way I could
glue it onto the front, with just wood glue.
Now, some people prefer to spread glue with a roller
I prefer to just use a scrap of wood,
so I don't have to clean it.
This is a first for me, using my laminate trimmer
to actually trim laminate.
So, the really nice thing about a smooth Melamine top is,
if there's glue on it, I could just scrape it off
with a chisel.
Such a pristine, new work surface, even permanent markers
wipe right off. I wonder how long it will
take before this one's all banged up.