I have not had a good work surface to conduct soldering and other project construction yet. Buying one is a little ridiculous after shopping around, so I began Googling away at DIY projects. I have a lot of garage space, so I aimed at a 8'x3' work surface at a 36" height.

The previous owner of the house left his old wood bench and it has not been practical as the top is made of 2x6s that are not flush to each other. I found some good ideas on the Internet and modified a couple designs to suit my needs. Picked up some heavy 350+ lb. casters from McMaster. Top surface is 3/4" MDF and only screwed to the frame studs, so that it is easily replaceable. The rest of the design incorporates 2x4s and 2x3s assembled with 3" deck screws and PL Premium adhesive. I took my time, measured twice, drilled pilot holes and countersunk the holes for a nice fit and finish.

For my first real project, it came out nice and square, and incredible stout. Casters cost around $45, and lumber was about $100. Plenty of room to mount a serious vice and grinder, with plenty of room to work!

Nice job, and I agree youtube has alot of good diy work bench builds.

I too havent had a good place to solder also. After my xmas shopping is done I'm buying the harbor freight workbench with lighting and oulets built in.

YouTube.com

I'll using this inside though, its perfect size and pretty portable due to assembly required,it can broken down take with you when moving.
I do guitar electronic stuff, like restringing, remove install of pickups volume tone pots and inputs, replacements of bridges. Havent dambled with tube amps dont own any but I do know the in's outs of them, my current amp is a 20year old amp randall rg100es same one Dimebag got his signature tone from but there's other bands used it also like SoilentGreen Goathwore eyehate Superjoint Ritual Down Crowbar Pennywise and Kingdom of Sorrow to name a few.

One thing I'm concern with is adding a vise to this harbor frieght workbanch, because the top is metal.

Code4, have you checked this bench out

YouTube.com

Looks good! I wish I had the kind of garage space you have. I would have a couple of these built by now. Wonder if there are any good plans for a collapsible version?

I love DIY, I hope next year to build my dream home garage, compact everything, space utilization to the celing, testing, cleaning, wiring assembly stations, the works!

Anyway, sweet table! and nice choice on the 3ft measurment, it makes reaching much easier.

if you wanna get super into it like me, here is some cool stuff!:

collapsing table 1 mobile:
http://www.woodworkcity.com/wordpress/2008/01/10/folding-work-bench-plans/

Wall mount drop leaf table 2 stationary:
http://syqhlxjz.livejournal.com/10452.html

I don't have actual pics of mine yet, but you get the idea..

Wish I had that space in my new garage. Currently designing a fold-away bench.

Yeah, Dave's garage is pretty worthy of being jealous of.