Building a garage workbench - plans and patterns

Making your own garage workbench is a practical and fun project for anyone who likes working with his hands. Workbenches provide that area where you can happily tinker away, undisturbed by the rest of the household.

In this lair you make, cobble, invent, and build things for the home. Shelves and cabinets, or repair of broken things like clocks and radios - all you need is the space and the knowhow.

Good planning is key to a successful garage workbench. It takes more than just technical skills, craftsmanship and carpentry, though these skills of course, are a must. Before you start gathering the materials and start the actual process of building it, you need to have a good plan.

You can purchase workbench plans and patterns or design your own. It never hurts to take a look at plans and patterns available for purchase. Even the most avid do-it-yourself-er can gain new ideas for form, fit, and function be looking at other peoples designs.

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Start off with a layout of your garage. Know it's dimensions and how much room you'll have to work with. The plan you chose should fit within this space. If you DIY, then design the bench size and dimensions to fit comfortably in the space available. Also think about placement and location of the workbench plain inside the garage - It should meet the following criteria.

1. It should be near the entry of the garage, or near the unloading area of your car's trunk or pickup truck's bed. This way, for larger projects, you can easily move materials from the vehicle to the workbench with a minimum of hassle.
2. Any workbench plan should have convenient access to power outlets. Temporary extension cords are a no-no with a real workbench.
3. Leave yourself plenty of floor space. Don't forget that racing boat you're planning to build in the garage. Make sure you do not crowd out a two car garage - you'll need room to open the doors, and get in and out of the car comfortably.

If you are designing your own workbench plans, you can build a very substantial, permanent workbench right into the exposed joists of the garage walls. If you purchased more portable workbench blueprints, plans or patterns,  then workbench size will have a lot to do with the location within the garage.

The best starting point is the actual table area. A handy design plan for a workbench consists not only of a regular table area with support legs, but will also have hinged fold-down extensions on either side. These extensions allow the main work space to be expanded at any time. Ideally, these folding extensions should also have their own fold-out legs for support when they are opened up. Supporting braces underneath for the extensions without using additional legs may work, but such support braces can't handle heavy loads, so additional legs are a better design option.

After deciding on the main work area, take your tool storage into account. The most effective means to store tools on a workbench is to either have a cabinets, drawers underneath the table area, or a hanging wall rack. Utilizing both methods is almost a must if you're planning on having a large number of miscellaneous tools. Whether making a cabinet or drawer, make your plans according to the size of the tools you'll be working with. Generic boxes and generic wall shelf space also works, but tools are stored with greater protection and are easier to access when the space they're placed in is made for their size and shape.

The last step in the workbench plans, is to make a list of all the parts and tools you'll need to build it. Neglect nothing at this stage, and take every piece of wood, and every screw, nail, or rivet into account. This helps cut down on costs, since you will know up front how much your workbench plan will cost. One tendency people some people have is to buy either too many materials and wind up with excess that they can't use, or too few materials which leads to another trip to a shop to get the missing stuff.

With these guidelines in mind, you're ready to start. Whether you are buying workbench plans, or designing your own plans and patterns, these helpful tips should help lead to a successful build.

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