Work Table for Bench Saw

[markfitz]

I have a small workshop and often need to work outside. Frequently I find myself wishing that I had a good work bench that could be set-up quickly. There is not a lot of space inside for storage, so I needed something that could be easily be taken apart. Being the cheapskate, I mean frugal person that I am, I limited my budget to $10. This restricted my choice of materials to SLA (stuff laying around). The easiest approach was to build a work top for my Delta Benchtop Saw. I made a couple brackets from 1-1/2 inch aluminum angle from Lowe’s and attached them to the sides of the saw’s table using the existing threaded holes for table extensions. Weird detail - for some reason, Delta uses 1/2 inch holes on the left side and 3/8 on the right. Anyway, the bracket material set me back $8.59, leaving me just enough in the budget for the 4 bolts. After a thorough analysis, the optimal work table dimensions were determined to be 19” x 54”, which happened to be the exact dimensions of a piece of scrap that I had salvaged from an old roll-top desk! This was attached to the brackets with six wood screws. A bit of sanding, followed by some SLA red oak stain and a couple coats of SLA polyurethane and it turned out looking better than some coffee tables I’ve owned. I mounted a small carpenter’s vise that I already laying around around and viola!, a pretty decent workbench for use outside. It comes apart simply by removing the four bolts, about a 2-minute task, allowing for a 30-second beer break.