Radio Control Flying Club of Toronto

The Perfect Workbench

A construction article by Guy O’Reilly and Richard Staron.

 

The Perfect Workbench grew out of a need for a flat surface to set and construct wings and fuselages.  The criteria and construction features incorporated in the design are:

• It must be perfectly flat and resist warping over time.
• Be free standing, accessible from all sides.
• There should be shelves to hold frequently used tools such as straight edges and clamps.
• Should be high enough to work comfortably while standing.
• The surface should be large enough to hold both right and left wings and a fuselage of an average .40-size airplane.

The design features established, I enlisted the assistance of Richard Staron, who in a few clicks of the mouse drew-up the Perfect Workbench using AutoCAD.  The design is available to anyone for the asking, just drop me a note at guyoreilley@sympatico.ca.The list of material required is shown at the end of this article.

I assume if you read this article, you have a reasonable knowledge of building stuff and therefore do not need a blow-by-blow description.  I do not own a table saw, so all pieces were cut to the specified dimensions by Home Depot (all those cuts for free!)  This also ensured to the extent possible that the cuts would be straight.  The table was assembled in one afternoon (approximately four hours, two guys).

We followed a strict assembly sequence to guarantee that any warp of the table top would be brought flat to the cut edges of the 6 inch by ¾ inch thick pieces of melamine (referred to as the vertical members). We placed one of the long vertical members to the table top, followed by the centre short vertical members, then the two other end pieces vertical members, and then the other 48-inch vertical member.  The legs, strapping and the shelves were added in that order to finish the product.

We opted for this sequence as this allows the vertical members to pull the top board flat from the centre of one side to the outside.  Holes were drilled and countersunk one at a time and at every step we verified that all remained square and tight.  Screws were inserted tight every five or so inches.  No screws were placed less than 1 ½ inches from an end.  They were inserted alternating from side to side of the centre. Two screws were inserted in the end to fix the 24-inch pieces to the 48-inch pieces.

The strapping serves dual purpose: first to maintain the legs square and second as a support for the shelves.You may opt to place only one shelf.The middle shelf could be omitted altogether but it’s sure nice to have somewhere to put the second model you are working on. The shelves can be screwed or nailed or glued to the strapping, as you desire. When finished, have a beer with your helper.

List of Material

Plywood or Melamine, all ¾ inch thick:

• Top piece:        35.5 X 55 inches
• Shelves (2):        35.5 X 25.5
• Vertical Members:
  • 2 pieces 48 X 6
  • 3 pieces 24 X 6

Legs:

Pine or cedar: four pieces of 2 X 4 - 39 inches long.  To measure your own ergonomically perfect height, while standing, measure the distance from the floor to your elbow held at 90 degrees.  This should be a comfortable table height for you to work while standing.

Strapping:

• Select pine or cedar:
• Four pieces 42.5 X 2.5, ¾ inch thick
• Four pieces 24 X 2.5, ¾ inch thick

Screws:

• One box of 100 #8 – 2-inch long particle board screws.

 

Miscellaneous:

• A soft surface added to the top to facilitate pinning and holding of parts (such as cork or particle board, etc.)
• One helper willing to hold heavy wood in awkward positions.
• Beer, quantity to be determined by temperature and humidity and thirst of helper.
• Plastic wood, to fill countersink holes for perfect finish.
• Sand and paint if you like.
• Start building a wing.

Table, solid view, from the bottom:

 

 

Table important dimensions:

 

 

Table showing construction lines, top view