Designs for 1000mm Bench

I have placed my order! Now, it’s time to build the work area. I’d love to see what everyone else has for their work benches and if anyone has plans they’d like to share, I’d love to see them!

Might want to check out this thread, lots of workbenches there.

Another option: GitHub - akaziuna/cnc-standing-height-workbench: The CNC Maker Bench is a standing height workbench emblazoned with "Makey", MAKE's robot mascot. It is fully customizable through the use of AtFab parametric table app and a little CAD manipulation. Full tutorial available at:

(from: Shapeoko CNC Router, Rigid, Accurate, Reliable, and Affordable )

There’s a few threads with workbench designs out there. Here’s what I did for mine:

I made a video on the basic cart itself (https://youtu.be/n9qI6K7Spj8), and am working on a second video with more information on the drawers and laptop wing. After I make doors to go under the drawers, I will post the second video.

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Very nice!

Did you use the waste table file from this site to run on the X-Carve, or is that your own design?

Awesome bench.

Thanks! I ran my own design for the secondary wasteboard. I started by drilling the holes (before calibration, bad move) and then did the squares just to get an idea about of the low spots and to give a way to square up an item by eye. I can try to get the Easel link for them if you’re interested.

I chose to use melamine because I could write on it in pencil and clean it off, but I will probably switch to MDF when it’s trashed. The inside is more like particleboard, and I can’t imagine that it will level as well as MDF. We’ll see though, since I will probably end up leveling it in a month or so.

I would be interested in the Easel link. Thanks!

HOLES: The Easel link for the holes is Easel - Secondary Wasteboard.

  • I figured out where I wanted the mounting holes to be by threading in bolts and leaving the heads above the surface, clamping the wasteboard down, and then hammering the board above the bolt heads to make an impression in the melamine.
  • I drilled the 9 mounting holes by hand (8 perimeter, 1 in middle), and used a larger forstner bit to make a hole large enough to hold the washer and deep enough to put the head of the bolt below the level of the wasteboard.
  • The rest of the holes are 11mm in diameter because my first attempt at 6mm holes gave me a nice set of ovals, with about 75.2mm spacing instead of 75.0. Not a big deal, but it added up enough that I had to enlarge them quite a bit to make them all work and look good.
  • I didn’t drill every hole out, only the ones the CNC could easily reach.
  • IMPORTANT Make sure you remove any holes from this pattern that are located where your mounting bolts are. Don’t try to drill through your bolt and washer.

SQUARE PATTERN
The easel link for the square pattern is Easel - Wasteboard Square Pattern.

  • I found the lowest part of the board and set it as my Z-zero, then milled the pattern with the ball-end mill.
  • Turns out I had about .030" difference between the low and high spot, and it was easy to tell where it was low and high because the higher spots got a wider groove cut into them.
  • I didn’t mill all the way around the board because I primarily wanted the lines at the left and bottom for alignment. I’ll be using that corner the most, although I will likely try to mill stuff in the center after I flatten the surface.

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If I may ask, what is the actual size of the table top you have your X-carve attached to? I really like your design and functionality of the drawers also.

The exposed melamine area underneath the X-Carve is 42-1/8" wide and 43-3/4" deep. If I had it to do again, I would make it another inch wider since some of the holes for wires are closer to the drag chain than I really like. I’d also make the drawers shorter (in height) so I could put multiple bit and fastener drawers, as well as a couple shallow drawers for the random junk I’ve got stored in the bottom.

I’m looking for a design that is fairly inexpensive, that will help with keeping the dust to a minimum (since I don’t have a dust collection) and maybe some storage for wood and parts underneath. Ready, set, and go.

Thanks
Nick

Hi Robert, your cart is almost like what I want to build for my X Carve which is en-route now. Can you please share dimensions and any other details you can including what kind of casters you’re using. I am sure I am alot shorter than you (5-3) so I’ll have to adjust height. What are overall dimensions of the cabinet and the top?

Thanks
Munawar

Robert, what is the wing off to the side with the fans? I was thinking of building wings, but to support long pieces - like an outfeed table if I wanted to put a decoration on the end of a board.

Hi Robert, the wing is for holding a laptop. I’ve got a refrigerator light switch connected to the bottom so that the fans shut off when the wing is down. I’m sure something similar could be made for infeed and outfeed tables.

Hi Munawar, I’m sorry it took so long to reply to you! My cart is 44" wide, 46" deep, and 38-1/2" tall. There are five heavy duty 5" casters on the bottom, one in each corner and one in the middle to make it easier to swivel the cart around. I made a video on building the cart, you can watch it at https://youtu.be/n9qI6K7Spj8.

No probs. I built a 48x48 cabinet/top for it with torsion box. I appreciate the reply and I will look at your video for future reference.