Another Hollow Core Door Question

[Dale Murray]

I have two hollow core doors from the 1960's. These were sliding doors and measure 36x74x1.375 with maple or birch skins. They are very well built and given the age I imagine better than I could get today.

I want to use them as the basis for a garage work bench - not woodworking bench but more a general work surface for general garage stuff.

The entire assembly would be 120" long with an open span of 90" between the supports.
The open span is so I can roll my table saw under the bench when not in use.
The left end and rear are attached to a poured concrete wall as are the two supports.

My plan is to use one full door and cut the second door to length.
Skin both sides of the doors with 3/4" plywood; glued in place. I may run a few screws through the door tying the plywood together for better adhesion.
Wrap the entire assembly with dimensional lumber milled to fit, glued and screwed in place
The joints would be staggered to maximize rigidity.

I feel my plan would result in a very stout surface but would like thoughts on this idea.

Thoughts?

Assembled view:
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Exploded view:
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This is another drawing, though not using the doors, that shows the complete assembly.
The notch will fit my miter saw.
The other open span if for a rolling assembly table I've already built.
My garage is where I run my machines, the basement is where I will do all the hand work and other bits.

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[Dale Murray]

Nobody responded but I built it anyway. It worked like a dream. Its rigid with virtually zero sag. Sawstop rolls under it without issue. Other rolling bench fits easily. Just need to integrate dust collection for the miter saw and install a drawer and it will be done.

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[Rich Engelhardt]

Nice!
I missed the original post. I would have told you what to expect when you cut into the door, but, you already know that now ;).

I've mentioned this before, but, it's worth repeating. My wife and I rehab houses. The first day on the project, we always find a couple doors to replace and use the old doors as work surfaces for the entire length of the rehab.
First things up & last things to get tossed out @ the end.

I also replaced some doors here @ home and made a big giant roll around storage unit out of four of the old doors & a couple of 2x4's.
Nothing anywhere near as sweet as your setup though.

[Dan Chouinard]

Looks great Dale. I like those cut-outs allowing miter saw to swing 45 degrees. Enjoy your new work surface.

[Justin Ludwig]

I missed the post too. That's a space saving sweet little setup. I'd say it's overly rigid and you should have any sag issues given you doubled the ply and ran what looks to be a 2 1/2-3" solid band around it. What plywood is that? It looks like the top is hardboard treated with polyurethane.

[Jim Becker]

That looks like it was a great solution for you. I like the idea of a stout thickness for a work surface like this without too much weight and the hollow door at the core serves nicely to save time from building one's own torsion box. You probably could have done well by skinning with 1/2" material if you wanted to, but your end result looks great!!

[Dale Murray]

The saw is fastened to a 3/4" piece of ply through a couple 5/16" pieces of poplar to make it level with the overall top.
Removing three hand screws (wrong term I know) allow this whole assembly to be removed from the bench. The idea being I could make other carriers for things such as my planer or a mortiser in the future. Another idea is to make a perforated insert and have a down draft table or a solid insert to have a continuous flat surface. Ultimately, I have options which is what I really wanted.

I still have to do some trim work above the bench making a ledge between the existing drywall and the new plywood.

I suppose it is a bit overdone for a garage bench as I will be building a real woodworking bench in the basement. I just really wanted a place to put the table saw, miter saw, and my rolling bench thats out of the way.

In the photos below you will see I attached wood and insulation to the walls then covered with 1/2" ply, giving about an R8.5 on the wall.
The 2x6's are the fastening points for all my supports and held in place with 3.5"x3/8" wall anchors.
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The top:
- I wrapped the edges of the doors with 2x4 stock machined to fit, glued and screwed in place.
- I glued 3/4" ply to the top and bottom sides of the doors using the edging as a fastening point.
- I used clamping cauls to assure contact between the surfaces for glue. When I attached the second sheet (bottom) I and ran screws through the middle of the field mechanically fastening the two sheets of ply to each other, again assuring good contact for glue and maximizing rigidity.
- I attached a cleat to the wall so the top and bottom sheets could be screwed to it from top and bottom.
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- The triangular top supports are made from 3/4" ply and 1.5" wood. Lag bolts hold them to the wall and three 3.5" #10 screws hold the top down to the braces.
- I covered the top with 3/16" hardboard and wrapped with poplar and received three generous coats of poly.
- I dont recall the overall thickness of the top, I think it is about 3-1/16" or so.
- The cutouts allow for the full swing of the saw in either directions, something like 50* and 60* respectively.

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