A proper workbench comes in handy in nearly every situation. Unfortunately, most workbenches are big and heavy, which makes it troublesome for people living in apartment buildings to have one. There are some lightweight options out there such as Park Tool PB-1 which is a great solution per se. It is quite expensive though, certainly too expensive to me, so I decided to make my own. Here’s how I made it.

Requirements

Building this workbench is fairly simple but requires some woodworking skills and the basic woodworking tools. The only necessary power tool is a power drill, however, I recommend using a power saw to make cutting the pieces much faster. For materials, I used a 1000 x 400 x 18 mm pine board, 55 x 20 mm and 90 x 30 mm plank. If you use my design then you’ll need 3.5 meters of 55 x 20 mm and 1 meter of 90 x 30 mm plank. Other things you will need are a few hinges, some screws, and paint.

Workbench blueprints

For measurements, you can check out the PDF file. Feel free to customize it any way you want, get creative! I’d love to see your designs too, so don’t hesitate to share them in the comment section down below!

Workbench Blueprint (PDF-file, opens in a new tab)

Building the workbench

The first step is to acquire the materials and cut out the pieces. If you are using regular planks you might need to do some planing and sanding. Eventually, you should have all the pieces ready.

Next step is to make the folding legs. I used screws and glue to attach them together. Definitely not the strongest or the best way to attach two planks together, but fastest for sure. Make sure to have the angle exactly 90 degrees, since even a small error may lead to the table being unstable or uneven.

For the frame, I used the same attaching method. With the pieces ready you can check the fit to make sure you got all the angles straight.

Next step is attaching the hinges and putting it all together.

For attaching the table top part to the frame I used sturdier hinges, although they don’t experience that much stress either since most of the load is on the legs.

The basic design is now finished. The workbench can be opened and closed, but it’s quite flimsy as it is. To help the situation I ended up making stoppers for the legs out of 6 mm dowel.

To help keep the workbench either opened or folded I attached a pair of springs on either side using hook screws.

The table is almost complete now. The only thing left is giving it a paintjob. I was planning on painting mine white, but turned out half of the paint never came out the can so I had to use the leftover olive paint I had available. It looks pretty army now but does the job.

Finished workbench

Cost of the project: >20€

Time spent: Around 5-6 hours including sanding and painting.