Workbench completed!!

It's done!

I finally got all of the hardware together, drilled the holes, and bolted it all up this weekend!

Here it is - all coated with Watco danish oil to kill any bugs that still may survive in the wood!

I was going to "glue and screw" the joints but it was too cold and these carriage bolts seemed to be holding fine!

It took most of the day to drill and attach all the fasteners!  Oak is HARD and this is thick!

I had to lift the new top off the the old workbench - man it was heavy!  I decided to use a 8 ton hoist for the job!

After the top was off I had to move the old bench out!  UGH - tight quarters!

TADA!

I am planning on using it in this position (or close to it) - its nice to have all sides of the bench available for use.

You can see (if you look close) that I added a couple of wedges under the bench top between the tops of the legs.  This was needed because the bottom of the bench is bow shaped!

I lag-screwed the top to the base with 6-5 inch lag screws.  Here you can see that there is some light between the table and the base - this is because of the bowed bottom of the workbench top.  

Ready to add a wood working vise or two!

OK - decided to add it to this side.  I haven't fully decided if I will put the other on the front of the table or if I will put a leg-vise there instead.

I attached the sacrificial wood jaws to the bench vise

The "fog" on the vise is up here - I don't have holes in the workbench yet to hold the pegs though.  I will probably wait until I really need them - seems a shame to drill too many holes into nice top!

The old bench is reused

I didn't want to just trash the old bench - its a nice bench!  But this workshop is too full as it is.  So I decided to move it up to the garage and use it as a chainsaw, mower blade sharpening station!

Just enough room here I think.  I can park the tractor to the right..

Loaded up with some of the sharpening utilities here.  Bench grinder and chainsaw sharpener mounted.  

The bench isn't very thick - I might have to put on another sheet of plywood (or OSB - since I have some of that laying around yet)

Notice that I added a support leg to the middle of the bench to keep the top from sagging.  I might end up moving the big toolbox over to this side as well.  Then I can use the other side for fencing stuff and garden chemicals.

Yes!  The tractor fits in with plenty of room to spare.   Now I just need to get some power out to the garage!  I will need to put up some shop lights too...

I moved a bunch of the crap from the shop into the garage too - this stuff is a problem I haven't decided yet how to handle.  The chemicals will move to the other side of the garage - I have a shelf there all ready for it.

Refrigerator relocated

I got around to moving the old refrigerator from the van to the basement.   I used the tractor to get it close and then the hand truck.  Getting it down the outside "bilco" stairs went easier than i had suspected!

I need to reassemble it yet

It should be cleaned more thoroughly before reassembly

I am hopeful that the mice won't damage the plastic parts before I get it back together

I figure it will be nice to have a 2nd fridge here to store produce and meat before processing.