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It is really easy to get all bogged down into plans, materials, joints and joining, glues, nails and screws. It can quickly reach the point of not being able to see the forest for the trees leading to an inability to even make the first move. You can avoid this by simply remembering that every journey begins with the first step. Woodwork can be broken down into a handfull of things, wooden boxes become chests or cabinets, workbenches can become tables of all sizes and varieties. When you are thinking about a project, try to THINK it simple. One piece at a time, add the pieces together, finished item. The ever handy workbench can be a simple affair built from pine or a behemoth from oak or maple, YOU, the BUILDER, decides what it will be made of, what it will look like and how hard it will be to build.
A drawing/crafting table is a glorified workbench. Add a piece of glass, a light and you now have a lighted tracing table. It all boils down to simple thought processes and tweaks in design. Cut (4) 2 x 3's at 36 inches and you have legs (the height can be adjusted to suit your taste). If you want a 24 x 48 work surface, a little math will reveal the front and side supports you need to work with your legs or you can wing it. Working on top of your 24 x 48 handi-panel or whatever you have cut for this you can physically lay out the legs and tweak your design however you like. A front and back rail cut at 40 inches plus the 3 inches (in theory) of the two legs will give you 2 1/2 inches of overhang from your handi-panel. Cut (2) side rails at 14 inches, the legs will add 5 inches (in theory) and you now have 2 1/2 inche overhang for your handi-panel in the front and rear. Provided your cuts are square (they ARE square aren't they?) you can clamp your legs and rails together and assemble them. Simple butt joints will do just fine. Glue and screws, biscuits, nails, whatever floats your boat provided it is a solid and square joining of legs and rails. Screws can be counterbored with a bigger bit to allow the heads to be below the surface and decorative plugs can be added to conceal them (if you are getting fancy) or cut some dowel plugs from the same material (plug cutters work great) and with careful matching of plug to surrounding wood the screw hole will blend in and disappear. Once your base is assembled you will need to add a back rail and two more side rails to give it a bit of rigidity. The rails are cut and assembles into the base just like the original rails. Get the picture? Keep it simple and it goes well, eat this apple one bite at a time.
Now that your base is fully assembled you can add your top. This can be as simple as screws or nails through the handi-panel into the rails or as complex as "L" brackets screwed to the inside of the rails and then into the top of maple or whatever you are using. Yes, I changed direction just to show that these simple instructions can be adapted to a multitude of possibities.
IF you wish to light this table for tracing, plunge cut a hole smaller than your piece of glass then route to fit or not. The glass can actually just sit on top if that is what you want. The old glass front stereo cabinets have glass doors than can be used for the glass and this works well. Flea markets, Goodwill, or some other shops will be your best bet for cheap glass. Double thickness, not single as single breaks pretty easy. The other option now that you have a pretty good idea of how to do this would be to build your table to match your glass. Why not use an old sliding glass door (provided you have the room for a table that big). Forget cutting the glass down to size, sliding glass doors are tempered and don't cut as quick as they explode into a gazillion pieces.
What's that? You say you want a tilting top? OK, add a piano hinge to the front rail and the front edge of the top itself, now your top is hinged. You can buy hardware to hold the top up or with a little creative thinking you can duplicate the hardware from wood. Go ahead, you CAN do it.
Drawers are just boxes inside boxes. Using whatever hardware you have on hand you build a box to hold the drawer and then a box that is the drawer then attache the bigger box to your bench and insert the drawer. Now you have a drawer, as big or little as YOU want.
No, I didn't really tell you how to build anything yet I told you how to build everything. Scale it up, scale it down, make it your own. You can build what you need, you can build what you want, you only need to learn a few basics. If you are lacking ideas, grab a catalog and study the pictures. Do a little doodling and think about how the joints will be made. Most catalogs give dimensions, just do a little reverse engineering and you can make your own plans for whatever you want to build.
Lighted tables are lit from underneath and use flourescent bulbs since they put off less heat. The home center carry a huge assortment of fixtures and bulbs, just find the one that suits what you are building. A lighted table is handy to have when tracing pictures, plans, and much more. A crafter would likely love to have one and if you have a crafter in your life or you are a crafter, you may want to build one. Remember, you can scale this up or down as the need arises. Might make a really cool gift for someone. Enjoy!!!
Recommend this article... Last update : 04-10-2007 07:58
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