Building a SIMPLE Workbench with Router Lift
hey guys I'm Adam and today I'm going to show you how to build the world's finest workbench with integrated router table station you don't want to miss this so here's kind of the basic layout for the workbench it's going to be four by eight it's gonna have a router in this corner and then a shop-vac based dust collection system and a downdraft sanding table so my casters are 4 and 1/8 inches tall I'm gonna do a 3/4 inch top and below the legs I want to do a 3/4 inch piece of plywood to help screw the casters too so I'm gonna cut four two by fours and four two by sixes at 30 and 3/8 inch long [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so now that I've got my two befores in two-by-sixes cut I'm just going to take and cut one side on each of them and take that that little round over off so when I do the butt joint it'll be a nicer edge there yes I know that I'm putting my hand too close to the saw blade and this is a rickety old saw but don't worry sauce sauce is on the way [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay now that I've got my two by fours and two by sixes cut I'm going to drill some pocket holes in my two by fours to attach them to complete my legs I just arbitrarily marked out where I wanted to put my pocket holes because it's not really that important what is important though is using words like arbitrarily because they make you sound smarter [Music] I used this quick clamp to make sure that my edges stayed flush [Music] with the legs screwed together I started measuring out and cutting out the two by fours for my frame those are going to be four that are 45 inches and four that are 90 inches [Music] because I'm just getting my garage shop set up all I could find was my regular bit or a really long bit so yeah here we go [Music] [Music] how since I would throw storms ball for her again she decided to take matters into Rome play with it under the camera now I just have to repeat all that and make the top frame good evenly spaced and attached 342 inch long supports [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this piece of plywood is for the bottom and it's cut 93 by 45 [Music] oh yeah Oh adorable yeah when you have three little girls inside won't chop these things happen [Music] if you can't tell I am loving me some pocket screws on this project project if you're in Canada sorry I added these plywood pieces to the bottom of each leg just to give the screws for the Castros a little something extra to hold on to up to this point I've tried to hide all my screws but when I got to the point of adding the legs to the bottom I just couldn't do it by myself I couldn't hold everything up so it's just easier to go in from the front all right so finally got the legs on and the bottom on I just got to get the top frame put on here and then I can put the top on that and then we get started with the router table and the sanding station and everything but it has been a serious pain trying to build something without having a workbench to build on so I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel now [Music] a batter just went right after I call up underneath there Oh now I know what you're asking yourself why didn't Adam attach the top to the frame before he did all this they would have to lay up underneath here and the reason I did that was because I wanted to make sure that everything kind of lined up with the legs and a hindsight I probably could have done that but also I didn't have a table to set everything on so it had to have done it on the floor so it's kind of 6 1/2 and does another and half and a half and a dozen six and one half and I dozen six one half a dozen okay so this is the part where if my microphone have been working I would be telling you about how I just ordered this brand-new Jess amassed our lifts massed our lifts master master lived master lifts it's the master lifts to everybody oh and then this this was like my favorite part ever ah oh man this was so funny I crack myself up just watching it and I mean of course I guess it doesn't really matter mic wasn't working because the camera also wasn't in focus right now I'm telling you how I ordered this router table top from woodpeckers and how I was gonna build one myself but by the time I priced out all the T track and the microdot laminate that's on top of this it actually came out cheaper to just order it from woodpeckers and the thing is made really nice and now if you didn't think things were weird enough they're about to get really weird yeah even though I already have a table top I'm going to drop a router table top into my workbench top and then drop a router lift into the router table top I know it's like router inception right building it this way though allows me the most options if I want to make changes later on down the road here's a quick tip clean the bottom of your tracks all track with duct tape before you use it that way it won't slide around did I mention I'm cutting this out with my track salt because I kinda am yeah it's just the best option for me it's gonna give me nice clean cuts and I'll just have to finish the corners out I used a jig saw to finish cutting this out but I didn't cut right on the line because I left room because I wanted to make this template template if you're fancy which I know seems like overkill but I really want these corners to be nice I just sent this 3/4 inch piece of MDF underneath the router table top traced it and took it to the bandsaw after the bandsaw I took it to the spindle sander to just clean up the edges and take it right to the line [Music] if you don't have carpet 8 get some carpet tape because carpet tape is your best friend when using a template once I take down my template I just used a flush trim router bit to clean up my corners [Music] [Applause] after the first pass I removed my template and then I went down and did a second pass that was the depth of the router table that's gonna pop in here I did that on all four corners and then I don't show it in the video but I actually had to trim down the 2×4 that's running across there and I did that with the router also time to go in for a test fit and it's pretty tight I mean like really tight so close though I ended up just sanding these sides with a block of wood and some sandpaper and it got fine it's still tight but it drops in I added this 2×4 for extra support to keep it from sagging and then I cut several pieces to use as cleats to help hold the top in see I told you it fit okay so after I got this in here it was actually tied enough that I just dropped it where it was just slightly below flush and then I put those 2×4 cleats up underneath it to hold it and then I put a couple screws in each cleat so that I could raise and lower them to level the top out I just used a speed square tomorrow the edges where the T track would have to slide through the top so that I could route that out [Music] [Music] installing the router and lift was a breeze and took about three minutes 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