[Music]
So trees are pretty cool. They take carbon out of the air and turn it into oxygen that
we breathe. Pretty important. Trees take that bad carbon and turn it into wood. Wood literally
grows on trees. We plant good stuff and we get more good stuff in return. You reap what
you sow. Today we're going to talk about different types of wood and how humans can make wood
themselves, while I show how to build this workbench behind me. One of these days I want
to make one of those cool epoxy river tables that you see on Instagram, but I'll save that
for another video.
You might have heard about something on the Internet lately called #TeamTrees. A bunch
of people all over the world are joining together to raise 20 million dollars to plant 20 million
trees. One dollar equals one tree. And we're almost there. Currently we're sitting just
shy of 15 million dollars. I was going to donate $10,000, but then I saw Linus donating
$10,000 and I couldn't let him beat me. So I'm one-upping him with $15,000. $15,000 equals
15,000 trees planted. And the cool thing right now is that YouTube is actually matching the
donations - $ 1 million worth. So that $15,000 that just got donated is now $30,000. And
your YouTube donation can be doubled as well. They're still doing it. Nobody can do it alone
though. It takes a team. So if you enjoy oxygen, find that YouTube donation link somewhere
around this video, or go to TeamTrees.org and donate directly on the website. And by
our example we can show everyone that the planet is important. The link is down in the
description. Now it's time to show you how I built my workbench.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
So I recently moved shop and I don't have a good spot to put my power tools – you
know, my table saw and my miter saw. Right now I just have this white desk and it adjusts
up and down but it's not super convenient. So today I'm going to build something that
fits in this place that works a lot better for the woodworking tools that I'm going to
put there. It is weird in a video about planting trees that I'm using cut down trees for this
project. But a lot of this wood has been salvaged from other projects and was just laying around
and would have been thrown away. I've jotted down some tentative ideas of what I want this
project to turn out like, but since I haven't built it yet and the plans aren't finalized,
it'll be interesting to see how this turns out.
So I'm going to be using these larger posts as the table legs. You might have noticed
that these 4x4's have little notches in them. That's because this particular wooden post
is pressure treated – meaning that it's designed to be used outdoors, like for a deck
or a fence.
[Sawing sounds]
The wood is soaked with preservative chemicals in a pressure chamber, and the wood absorbs
those chemicals to keep the wood from decomposing with time or being eaten by bugs. Little grooves
dug into the sides of the wood help the preservative sink in deeper inside the beam. From the cross
section of the wood you can see how deep the chemicals from the treatment seeped into the
wood. The little grooves in the side help facilitate that. Of course once it's dries
it's totally safe to touch and work with. But you still never want to burn pressure
treated lumber in a campfire.
The most common size board used in construction is a 2x4, which means that the board is 2
inches by 4 inches. Fun fact – the board is not actually 2 inches by 4 inches, it's
1 ½ by 3 ½. You can see from this diagram of how a round tree is cut into different
sized boards. The rough cut dimensions are indeed the exact 2 inches by 4 inches, but
after it's been dried and smoothed out, it shrinks a half inch on either side. But we
still call it a 2x4.
Wood glue is a yellow adhesive designed specifically for wood, and when it's dried it's stronger
than the wood itself. Since I'm screwing everything together, I don't really need the glue, but
my Grandpa Jerry, who this channel is kind of named after, he would slather glue on all
of his woodworking projects. So we might as well throw some on for good luck.
The problem with naturally grown pieces of wood is that as they dry, they warp a bit.
They twist, Especially if they aren't stored flat. So these minor variances have to be
taken into account during construction. Now that the top is framed out, I can flip it
over and frame the bottom shelf. So using salvaged wood scraps like this might mean
that the work bench doesn't look as pretty, but you know, it's a work bench so it's not
meant to be pretty.
Now that the frame of the table is finished, the whole thing will eventually be mounted
on wheels so it'll be off the ground. The bottom shelf is attached to the inside of
the leg pillars so I'll never hit my shins on it when I'm working next to the table.
[Drilling sounds]
For the bottom shelf supports I could use any 2x4, but since I have some scraps laying
around, we'll use this instead. Engineered lumber is where things start to get cool.
A large board like a 2x10 can be used as a beam. But larger and longer wood has a tendency
to be irregular with knots, splits and weak point inconsistencies that you can't trust
to support very heavy loads. This is where engineered lumber comes in. This lower shelf
definitely isn't considered a heavy load of course, but I can still cut this scrap down
to the size I need. These man-made, perfectly straight and true beams can handle consistent
loads every single time. And because of that they're used a lot in residential construction.
Small wood fragments are glued together and steam pressed to make these beams. This particular
fragment was previously headed to the dump, but now it's found a second life supporting
my shelf.
I'm using an MDF sheet to cover the shelf surface. And before I explain how that's made,
this clip shows the reason I'm mounting the table saw flush with the top surface of my
workbench. When ripping or cutting long pieces of wood, it really helps when both the sides
and the end of the board are supported and the worktable I'm building will be able to
do just that once it's finished.
You can see that the sheet I just used is made up of very fine fibers. This is MDF,
or medium density fiberboard. Another engineered piece of wood. It starts off as a tree of
course, but then is ground up, steamed, and fluffed into fibers. Then combined with a
resin or wax and is hot pressed into a long flat board. The nice thing about MDF, particle
board, and plywood, which we'll talk about in a minute, is that they can all be made
from the leftover dust and chips from milling regular boards. None of the tree is wasted.
The top of the table is rather complicated since I want to mount my miter saw into the
table so that the surface of the saw is flush with the surface of the table, making it easier
for me to cut long boards. To do that, I'm going to take a 2x6, which is a slightly wider
version of a 2x4, and rip it to the same depth as my miter saw. In my case, about 4 ½ inches.
That way when I frame the top of the table I can make a little square cut out in the
center for the saw to sit in. You'll see what I'm talking about in a second.
[Drilling sounds]
All the support boards I have here in the center are going to keep the top of the table
sturdy and steady. The top of the table is another thicker piece of MDF. The same engineered
fiber type board we used for the bottom shelf. Since I don't have my table top saw mounted
yet I'm just using a circular saw to cut the large sheet the right way. It's a bit slower
and not quite as exact, but still gets the job done. All of these saws accomplish different
things.
Alright the table saw cut is done. Now we just need to cut out this little portion here
for the miter saw.
[Sawing sounds]
The saw I'm using now to cut the 2x4 frame off the
table opening is called a reciprocating saw. And this saw I'm using here to cut the top
of the MDF is a jigsaw. Measure twice – cut once. Now that the top is cut, nice, I can
save the top piece and add it to the base of the miter saw opening.
So in order for me to mount the miter saw inside of the table, I'm going to use these
metal brackets right here. These are slightly modified construction framing brackets. I
just drilled a couple extra holes in them and mount it to the underside of the 2x6 that
we, you know, shortened up a little bit. That way they'll be able to handle the weight of
the puzzle piece chunk we cut out of the top board earlier, which is going to sit down
inside of this hole we framed out.
I have a feeling that we're going to add supports here in a minute, but I'm going to see if
the miter saw fits. Not too shabby. So I'll definitely need supports right here, but it
looks like everything is good. Once we get the top piece on it should be flush with the
bed of the miter saw. Now we just need to add the table saw portion after we get those
supports. So now I'm going to put the supporting pillars underneath the platform for the miter
saw.
And yeah, even though I'll be screwing the top board into place, I'm still going to be
adding glue everywhere because 1) that's what Jerry would do, and 2) it will help the table
structurally and keep it from twisting or bending because it will be totally secured.
I'm going to countersink the screw holes so that when I do screw in the top boards to
the table and they won't catch on anything sliding over the top. It turns out that my
metal strap idea wasn't strong enough for my miter saw so I added some 2x4's underneath
the miter saw cutout to help support the saw and give me a place to screw the saw into
the table to help hold it in place.
And there we go. The miter saw is in position, flush with the surface of the work table.
Now we just have to build the side rack for the table saw. This is also going to sit flush
with the table top so it can simultaneously use the surface of the table and also be the
surface of the table if needed, since the surface of the saw is flat and it can retract
the blade into itself. For the table saw rack we're going to use particle board. This is
a much lower quality version of the MDF – also cheaper. And is actually made from hot pressing
sawdust into a sheet instead of using fibers. The particles are much bigger than fibers
and it's not quite as strong. But I had some saved from some old shelves I tore out, so
here we are, giving it a second life. It'll be supporting the same saw that cut it in
half.
Luckily, now that the miter saw is positioned in the table, I can use it to cut the boards
for the table saw rack. Getting off the floor is a welcome change. The trickiest part of
this side rack is to get it to the right height. If the saw sits too low, it'll defeat the
whole purpose. Using some clamps, math, and measuring, I was able to get things pretty
well figured out. Once the saw's framed to where I want it, I can quickly cut the OSB
for the lower shelf. OSB or oriented strand board is also engineered and man-made. Except
this time, instead of using fiber or sawdust, it's using larger yet still super thin strands
of wood. These thin chunks of wood are all then heat pressed into one massive sheet.
The cool part about all these different wood products I've used in this table is that nothing
goes to waste from the tree when they were being made since every part of the tree can
be used. Trees also grow pretty quick and they are renewable. And sustainably managed
forests are a net positive for the environment. Even though the trees get cut down to make
this lumber, the forests all get planted again right away so they can repeat the process.
And, of course, as the trees are growing, they pull carbon out of the air and give us
oxygen. It's a win-win.
I'll get the supports for the particle board screwed in. Then I can start screwing down
the particle board itself. This stuff is pretty flimsy when it comes to screwing. I'm pre-drilling
my holes so that the pressure of the screw going through the wood doesn't blow out the
edges. It doesn't hold together as well as normal wood, or even OSB or MDF. I'll also
be countersinking the holes, just like we did on the table top so that the screws sit
flush with the surface. The nice thing about adding wheels is that if I want to raise or
lower the table an inch or two later on, I can just change the size of the casters.
And there we have it. The workbench is complete except for the casters on the bottom. It is
flat along the table saw and flat along the miter saw. Plenty of room for activities.
Now I'm going to flip it over and add 6 wheels on the bottom. The wheels can hold 1500 pounds
so no worries there about them being fragile. They'll be able to handle the workload just
fine.
[Drilling sounds]
Yeah maybe I went a bit overboard on the wheels, but they come in packs of 4. And there you
have it. A fully functional work station that fits my miter saw and my table saw with plenty
of room for storage. I'll probably add a power strip in the future to organize the cords
a bit better, but either way, it's way better than my previous table.
I'm pretty excited with how well it turned out, and it should last me for forever. Don't
forget about Team Trees. Even a few dollars goes a long way, especially when everyone
chips in. So do it now before you forget and let me know down in the comments if you donated.
Also let me know if you enjoyed this video. It's a bit different than my normal content
but I feel like it was pretty important. It's for a good cause. Come hang out with me on
Instagram and Twitter. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.