All language subtitles for Modular Workbench for Beginners FREE PLANS

hey guys welcome back to bear mountain

builds now have you been planning on

building a workbench for your shop well

have you thought about building a

modular workbench that can be long like

this

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and break apart like this

and wide like this

plus

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it's super sturdy now let's get started

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so a lot of you have tighter workshops

where you can't really fit a miter saw

table or a big old assembly table in

there but that's where the design for a

modular workbench really shines it can

be put together to be as long as a miter

saw table or be as wide as assembly

table and you can split it up into two

different parts it's really great it's

super simple it's really sturdy and it

just uses a single piece of plywood and

some two by fours let's get started

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i'm cutting a piece of three-quarter

inch sanded plywood into four equal

sections with the grain running

lengthwise with each cut i'm making sure

to cut the overall length in half so

that each piece is approximately two

feet by four feet but this will vary

depending on the original size of the

sheet

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all right so i got my top and bottoms

all cut out so i'm moving on to building

my frame so i have a bunch of two by

fours right here that i'm gonna send

through the planer just to crisp them up

you don't really need the plane two by

fours i mean they're fine as is so if

you don't have a planer don't worry

about it but i like doing it because it

really turns an inexpensive board into

something that looks

pretty nice so let's keep going

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so before i start cutting up those two

by fours to be the legs of my workbench

i thought it would take a second and

just talk about workbench height

so this is my assembly table that i

built several months ago and i want my

new workbenches to be the same height as

this assembly table so i can use them

all kind of in conjunction with each

other

now this table is 41 inches tall which

is a pretty tall table but it's a great

height for me when i'm six foot four

however if you're five foot two

it's probably a little bit too tall for

you

thanks

so my plans will have this table at 41

inches but if you're a little bit

shorter or you want just a shorter bench

in general you'll have to take that into

account so let's go cut up some legs

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the legs are made up of a long and a

short piece to form a lap joint on both

ends i'm starting with my short piece

and covering it with glue using my glue

roller which makes applying glue over

large surfaces much faster and then

positioning my long piece over it while

using some offcuts as a spacer to make

sure the lap joints are even

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i'm dragging my screws through the long

piece since this will be the inside of

the workbench

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all right so i have my leg pieces all

assembled together and i went ahead and

cut out the stretchers so it's time to

start putting together the side frames

but first

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i would think the world of you now let's

keep going all right so i got my frame

all set up and now i want to talk about

lap joints really quick because lap

joints are super easy to make they're

really strong because all that weight

going from wood to wood and they're

really simple to assemble so for this

first joint i know a lot of you guys

don't have a bunch of tools on hand so

i'm going to show you how i put it

together with a carpenter square and a

single clamp let's keep going

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first i'm just snugging up the clamp so

i can still adjust everything until the

outside edges are perfectly flush

then i ensure that i'm square with my

carpenter square and fully tighten the

clamp i'm pre-drilling my holes to avoid

splitting and finally i recommend

putting these screws where i do since

this will avoid interference with the

pocket screws coming later in the build

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for a tight fit i'm using these

construction wood screws that are

designed to pull the boards together

for the rest of this build i'll be using

my 90 degree positioning clamps i use

them for everything they are especially

great for assembling joints and frames

they make the entire process much faster

and easier if you're into woodworking at

all i highly recommend picking up a set

or two of these i'll have them linked

down below in the description

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all right so i have my side frames all

assembled and i've gone ahead and cut

out my cross pieces so i have two

lengths

one is shorter that's going to go on the

ends like this and then i have a longer

length that's going to go in the middle

and that's going to brace the center of

my top and my bottom

now moving forward it's time to drill

some pocket holes so i'm going to put

two pocket holes on the ends of all my

cross pieces and then i'm also going to

go along and put some into the top of my

cross piece and those are going to go up

into my tops and my bottom and i'm going

to do it along the side frame as well

now let's get drilling

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when you're doing pocket holes over a

longer distance i recommend making a

measuring stick that marks the position

of these holes that way you'll be able

to get the same holes positions

everywhere without having to use a tape

measure

so i'm almost done drilling all my

pocket holes and i want to just take a

second to talk about my jigs that i'm

using so this is my usual craig pocket

hole jig that i use it's great i love it

and it works perfectly for me

now for some guys that probably don't do

as much woodworking this might be a

little bit overkill

so

i'm going to be using this budget

version that's going to be great for you

guys that are beginners that it's really

affordable and it's super easy to use so

let's give this a shot

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when assembling the cross pieces i'm

using my 90 degree clamps to hold each

piece square it isn't required but like

i said earlier it makes the whole

process a heck of a lot easier and keeps

everything perfectly square

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for the internal cross pieces i'm using

two clamps just to hold everything flush

to the frame

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alright we're almost done i've got the

frames all put together and they are

rock solid and super sturdy so now we're

moving on to attaching some casters so

this is my four inch caster i use the

same thing on my assembly table over

there and they are rock solid i really

love these things i'll have them linked

down below and what's going to happen is

i'm going to be using this 5 16 by one

and a half lag screw and i'm going to be

using only three of the holes for

mounting up and i'm going to position my

caster three quarters of an inch away

from this outside edge because i have

some pocket screws coming through here

so that will dodge those and let's get

these assembled

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all right the wheels are on it's time to

notch out the plywood for the bottom

platform and then i'll mount everything

with pocket screws for the top and the

bottom let's keep going

before i put my tops on i usually

measure the diagonals and that will tell

me if something is square so if

my measurements between the two

diagonals are the same or very close

that means my frame square which this

one is rock solid so it's good to go and

i always like to start with putting the

top piece on first because that will

force everything into fully square

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so with everything clamped down i can

start loading in pocket screws

i'm using pocket screws to mount the

tops up because i think it gives it a

super clean look

but if you don't want to do that you can

just as easily drive construction screws

straight through the top and into the

frame

so for this one i'll measure diagonally

again

this diagonal is about half inch

longer than the other one which means i

got to squeeze this diagonal in

so an easy way to do that

is use a ratchet strap

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we're good to go

so now with that intention it's square

and then once i put my top on and anchor

it with my pocket screws it'll hold

everything all square

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now another thing to note is i'm not

gluing these tops to the frame that's

because i want to be able to abuse these

things and then be able to replace them

later without destroying the frame

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i'm cutting notches into the bottom of

the piece that are an eighth inch larger

than the legs as long as the frame is

square it should drop right in if not it

might take a little extra persuasion

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i sanded the tops to 220 and rounded all

the edges

all right so i got my two workbenches

all complete and they're ready to go

now i can use these separately totally

fine right now but the reason i built

two is so i could use them in

conjunction so i can put them together

like this and use it as like a miter saw

table or put them the long ways together

and use it as like an assembly table

now i don't have to do that with clamps

all the time so instead i got these

black latch clamps that i'm going to

mount to the insides of my legs so that

way i can latch these two tables

together like this

and it's going to be super easy and

they'll be rocks all together now let's

get these attached

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it's super fast and easy to connect and

disconnect these workbenches plus these

latches clamped a lot stronger than i

thought they would i had originally

planned to use two sets on each side but

found that only one set was all that i

needed for it to be rock solid

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this modular workbench is a great

project for if you're just a beginner or

if you have a small shop so i highly

recommend putting this in your shop now

as always hit the subscribe button so

you can stay up to date on all my future

videos if you enjoyed this video hit the

like button for me and leave a comment i

love reading your guys's comments

they're awesome so keep it coming thanks

for watching and i'll see you next time