My not be gloat worthy...

[Jerome Hanby]

...but I picked up one of the Harbor Freight Oak Workbenches with a coupon for $139.99. My wife thinks she can use it for workspace close to her lathe and I can use it as an interim solution until I get my bench built. Shaking the one they had on the floor, it looks reasonably sturdy and would be a lot more so with the addition of a plywood panel across the back. It's kind of cold here at the moment, so it's still boxed up and sitting in the shop, but here is the picture off the website... The pictured HF cordless tool doesn't come with it, but I didn't have to pay extra to get them to keep it <g>. The coupon was in the local sales paper that appear in the mailbox each week, the 20% off coupon wouldn't work with this product at my store (current sale price was $159.99, so 20% off would have been cheaper than using the $139.99 coupon).
hf_wb.jpg

[Timothy Wolf]

I almost got that one but got the sjobergs bench at woodcraft for 149 instead. Mine is similar but without the drawer. I will probably build a cabinet into mine good find!

[Stephen Cherry]

looks like a lot of bang for the buck.

[Dave Wagner]

I have seen those, been temped to get one.....

[Van Huskey]

Ain't a Veritas or Lee Nielson but it will get the job done for what you need. You kinda suck.

[Jamie Schmitz]

I checked into getting one of those and for the money seemed like a good starter bench. It is light and so what people do is build a tray that attaches to the bottom shelf and fill it with sand. Of course this might mean beefing up the tray but hey that is why god makes screw guns right.

[Jerome Hanby]

Got it put together yesterday. The parts that are actually wood seem pretty sturdy. The shelf and most of the drawer associated parts are hardboard, pretty thick hardboard, but still not actually wood. This isn't the worst design in the world. I would have made the top thicker. Would have made the middle runners on each leg either M&T, or used a sliding dovetail instead of the square arrangement they used. For the vise, I'd have made the "balls" on the rod handle thread on instead of those friction fit rubber things. But for $140 and about two hours of time, it's not bad. and it give me the one tool ytou really need when building a workbench...a workbench. I think it'll work well for my wife's work area beside her lathe once I get my bench finished.

I think I'm going to add a plywood panel across the back to stiffen things up.

I even managed to put the thing together with only one dumb mistake. You can't insert the panel for the bottom shelf after you attach the front and back runner on the legs <g>. Did find one manufacturing error, one of the drawer slides wasn't drilled exactly right. As provided, the drawer bottom slot didn't match up. It was close enough that the screws could be loosened, the panel pressed into place, then the screws tightened. With the hardboard involved, I didn't think trying to fill the provided screw hole and re-drilling would work very well.

The vise isn't great, but it's about as good as you would end up with if you bought some threaded rod and a couple of pieces of smooth and built your own. I'm still adjusting on it. Before I tighten down the screws that hold the "nut", I can maneuver things so that the action is very smooth, once I tighten the screws it isn't as easy to turn. Pretty sure I can monkey with that and get it better.

If you get one of these, I'd be tempted to get a face face and instal lit on the front left corner. I didn't see any at HF that had a dog, but if you wanted a cheapy, you could probably get what they had and add a thick wooden pad to the front jaw that would hold a dog.