A bench not for sitting

There’s a huge pile of assorted lumber accumulating at the back of our house. Most of these were scavenged from the construction dump of our neighborhood. It’s hard to imagine how I managed to haul them all: an entire doorjamb, some pieces of thick boards that were once the treads of a staircase, a carved door of a kitchen cabinet and even a lazy Susan.

I actually used a small crowbar to disassemble them into smaller pieces so it’s easier for me to just load them on my bicycle. I spare nothing that could still be reused, pulling nails and screws and adding them to my collection of recycled nails and screws stored according to size in plastic juice bottles.

My wife sees a pile of garbage but I see all sorts of potential: a workbench, a table for the electric sewing machine, bookshelves, tool boxes, painting easel, a birdhouse, a shoe polish box similar to what my father used when he used to shine shoes as a boy.

Finally, the recent week-long vacation gave me an opportunity to clean up the mess and start building something out of the odds and ends. But it’s hard to work when you don’t have a workbench. So, I decided to construct one for my first DIY project.

A workbench is a handyman’s companion. Others would say it’s the handyman’s wife. Architects have drafting tables. Painters have their easels. And tailors have sewing machines. Woodworkers and other craftsmen need a good sturdy workbench. A workbench is actually more of a working table or a low tool cabinet than a bench.

Its top should be strong enough to withstand all the pounding and hammering and flat so you can lay down boards for sawing, drilling, smoothening with a plane. One may utilize the space under the table top to make shelves for storage of tools and materials.

Without any design in mind, I started making a basic workbench using sawed-off pieces of the discarded doorjambs and a thick plywood for both top and base. I attached big rubber wheels with brakes to make it easier for me to turn or move them around.

With big wheels at the bottom, my workbench can even function as a cart, great for short hauling trips. But it can also be fixed firmly on the floor with the snap-on brakes. So you can stand on it when you have to change a bulb or hang a picture frame.

I found a used (actually, an abused) bench vise from a junk shop in Colon and bolted it on a corner of my workbench. This works as a good clamp and has a small anvil for working on small metal pieces. With bolts, I can now also easily attach my miter saw making it a more stable rig for cutting wooden sticks and boards from all angles.

It’s still a work in progress as I plan to add a woodworking vise on one side and more compartments for tools. With the patina of recycled wood, my workbench looks very rough. Still, I tried to soften its edges with body filler and did a lot of sandpapering. I added generous layers of clear varnish not so much for sheen but for waterproofing. Using my recycled lazy Susan placed on top of my workbench, I can have rotating base for molding wet clay into sculptures.

I immediately put the workbench to use as I then made a shelf to contain my entire Reader’s Digest collection in the bathroom (they make great toilet reading) and a wall hanger for kitchen knives. All these other projects are done using my scrap wood.

I could have done more DIY projects if the vacation during the IEC week had gone longer. There’s something ironically stress-relieving about woodworking. I can spend the whole day in exhausting work, building something from other people’s garbage. It’s such a delight to be able to do things with your own hands, things that you could otherwise have purchased from the supermarket, like furniture, toolboxes, or some easy-to-make wood décor.

My wife is now convinced and allows me to keep my junk. Meanwhile, the workers nearby just cut a tree and left the log to rot on the ground. Like Michelangelo, I see a sculpture hidden inside that big log. Now if only I can carry that dead tree to our already cluttered living room.