Does everybody know what time it is? (Nick)

If you just said "Tool Time!" in your head, you might like this post.

This year I used the Pinewood Derby and my work schedule as excuses to purchase a band saw. I've wanted one for a long time. Shortly after that, I realized I had three benchtop tools and really no good bench top on which to use them. I began to formulate plans for a workbench on which I could mount my new saw, my miter saw and the drill press. I had previously built a workbench on a smaller scale and thought I would use the same general plan with some adjustments to the dimensions. Here's the old one:
It's fairly simple construction. Two by four lumber with lap joints. It doesn't sound very sturdy, but trust me when I say it is. Each lap joint is held together by eight 3-inch-long deck screws. Plus it has a shelf at the bottom to store the essentials. You can find the plan for this on hammerzone.com.

I decided to make the top with 3/4" plywood rather than the 1/2" I'd used the first time. This was mostly due to my tendency to over-engineer things. I figured there would be significant weight from the tools, so why not beef up the top? Also, it had to be mobile so I could move it around the garage as needed. Finally, and most importantly, it needed to be large enough that I could mount all three of these tools on it without having them interfere with one another. I took some measurements of the tools and planned the arrangement carefully. I also decided to lower the height by about four inches to accomodate the height of the worktables on the drill press and band saw.

The initial result is at left. I put the shelf under the lower framework rather than over it because I didn't want tools falling off the bench while I was moving it. Of course this means I am relying on the 14 screws holding it in rather than on gravity, but I'm fairly confident that it will hold over time.

One real problem I ran into with this bench is that I had to cut 4x8 foot sheets of ply with no table saw. Sure, one can use the circular saw with a guide, but it really wants to come away from that guide as the saw gets further and further away. It makes for ugly cuts. I saw someone's suggestion (on instructables.com) on how to make a guide out of hardboard and some aluminum channel, but I didn't have those handy. Then I realized my straightedge had two pieces, each 4' long. So I set them on either side of my cut line, the exact with of the saw base apart. It still got a little dicey at the far end as I was nearing the end of the cut, but it was a lot better. (I did support the right side of that sheet, in case you're wondering. And also in case you're wondering, this picture is not of a full 4x8 foot sheet.

I'm not quite done with this yet. I need some more 3/8" bolts to finish mounting the tools. Just tonight I bored a hole through the top and ran the power cords through it. I will be obtaining a heavy-gauge extension cord and using it to power a 4-way outlet on the cart so that all the tools can be plugged in at all times and I only need to plug in the bench when I need to use a tool. I plan to install a work light in the center that will be able to reach all the tools. I hope to install probably some dust collection as well.

As with most things in my life, it'll probably never really be 'finished'. There will always be something else I want to do to 'finish' it, more 'tweaks' to apply until the day I die.