Build It | That's How Grandpa Did It

I can't do it all on the floor Our new house has a nice big pole barn, which is great. It's a great big space I can use to build or fix things. Problem is, it's a great big empty space. As we moved in our stuff, we logically put the "outdoor" belongings in there - at least all my tools and parts are in one place. To try to protect my sanity a little bit, I separated the pile into "tools" on the left and "parts" on the right. Everything is pretty much still in boxes, though, which is FRUSTRATING. While I figure out what to do about tool storage, I need somewhere I can get stuff done. That's a workbench. My new workbench had to meet a few needs: Had to double as an infeed or outfeed table for my radial arm saw Needed to be strong enough for anything I might throw on it Had to be pretty quick to build Couldn't cost a whole lot I went searching the web and found this article, which had a number of good ideas: https://www.thebalance.com/free-workbench-plans-1357147 turns out the first one on the list looked like it met all my criteria. The plans are on Curbly: http://www.curbly.com/m/18093-how-to-make-the-ultimate-garage-workbench I followed the instructions almost to the letter. I made a couple of minor modifications: The legs are long enough to put the top even with the table on my radial arm saw. If I ever take the saw off its cart, I will shorten the legs on the bench to match so everything is at a more workable height. I didn't square off the ends of all of the "bed bolt" mortises. It was taking a long time due to tools that need to be sharpened and I couldn't search the boxes one more time to try to find what I needed to do that. Might have been a mistake...I'll let you know. I couldn't find the right length of bolts at my local hardware store, so I got bolts 1/2 inch longer. I had to adjust the bed bolt mortises accordingly. It took me just two partial days to build, and I'm happy with the results. Just a few leftover lumber offcuts and extra nuts, bolts and washers from the packages. I think I have 12 hours of work into it and about $75. I need to put a woodworking vise on next. After I play with it some, I might have to make another one to fit on the other side of the radial arm saw. Feeding out onto the spare freezer just doesn't work.