Building a Workbench

 After I had decided to use stud wall, it became clear that there would be a large amount of timber involved in the construction. Thus, it became necessary to build a workbench that could be used to hold a mitre saw, to speed up the process of cutting the pieces of timber. The tools that were used in this project are all detailed under the Tools tab, and will be discussed in a subsequent post, but for anyone embarking on a similar project, a Mitre saw is a must have as it allows for fast, precise, repeatable cuts - crucial for stud wall construction.

The bench was constructed out of off-cuts of 2by4 (more on UK wood sizes here) that were readily available and followed the design found here. The end result is shown below: this bench lasted the entire project and proved invaluable at every stage.

Here is a picture of my setup for cutting down long lengths of timber (the standard 4.8m length that most timber merchants will supply). I basically constructed a jig to sit on top of my  orange "Super Jaws" free-standing vice that would come to exactly the same level as the mitre saw bench. I then also constructed another jig for the far end of the workbench (out of scrap wood). In this way, when I cut the timber, it stayed in place nicely: one end supported between the Super Jaws and the mitre saw, and the other end between the mitre saw and the bench jog. This meant I could do all the cutting by myself without the timber falling on the floor each time or splitting at the end of the cut.

Next up - Purchasing Tools