thanks, man
yo, Karma, I want to build myself a basic workbench with a shelf on the bottom and maybe some drawers. Also, I'm planning to put some casters on it. I have miter saw, a circular saw and a few drills.
Any tips?
I'll stick my nose in this one. Some thoughts for you. Putting a work bench on wheels worries me. Why the wheels? Do you need to move it frequently? It may move when you don't want it to, with potentially bad consequences. Whatever caster you put under it, make sure they are locking. Nothing worse than your work bench moving when you don't want it to. Make sure they are very heavy duty. They should be capable of carrying the weight of the workbench, plus the weight of the tools you plan to put on it plus the weight of the projects you plan to work on plus your weight (someday you will get up on top of it) plus . Don't want your wheels to break because they aren't up to the task.
Don't forget to figure in the height of the casters and the thickness of your top when measuring the legs to get the right height.
Figure out what big bench top tools you need/want to put on it, either permanently mounted or mounted for use, and how much they weigh.
Include space to permanently mount a vice to the side or front of the bench.
Also, mount a power strip along the back or one of the sides so that you always have plenty of outlets. And ideally have it located next to a 220 outlet with proper amp fuses so that you don't blow the circuit depending on what tools you are running.
Let me second the motion for a permanently mounted vise, or maybe even two or three. Depending on what you want to do, having a woodworkers vise mounted at on end in front. If you do a lot of wood working, you may want a second one mounted on the adjacent side at 90 degrees to the first one. May also want an anvil vise mounted up on top.
Unless you are really into heavy duty power tools, everything should run on standard 120 volt current. However, the advice to have an adequate amperage circuit is good advice. Properly wired 20 amp (instead of the more common 15 amp) circuit available will save a lot of annoyances of popped breakers/blown fuses.
Some years back the New York Times published plans for a very simple, but sturdy workbench. I built this a long time ago, and it is still serviceable and not wobbly. Two pieces of 3/4 inch thick oriented strand board OSB)or plywood glued and screwed together. Four 4x4 legs 2x6 under the top and outside the legs all four sides. 2x4 around the legs about 8 inches from the ground. Another piece of OSB on top of the 2x4 for a shelf. Approx dimensions: top 96x32 inches. That is an eight foot long bench. Most lumber yards will cut sheet goods for you. Have them cut the 48 inch side to 32. That also gives you a slightly less than 16 inch wide piece to use for the shelf.
Simplest construction is to cut the legs, cut the 2x6 and 2x4 to length, lag bolt them to the legs, glue and crew the two pieces of the top together, drill and lag bolt it to the legs and screw through it into the 2x6. This leaves some holes and exposed screw heads on your top.
Somewhat more elegant is to lag bolt and screw one layer of the top to the legs and 2x6 frame, making sure everything is set below the surface of this layer, then gluing the second layer of the top onto this and screwing the two layers together from underneath. This gives a completely clean wood top. However, you will also never be able to take the top off the legs.
I'll look around, maybe I can find the plans.