Rob Will
02-28-2008, 11:31 PM
I'm not sure this really constitutes woodworking but I did use some scraps from the woodshop floor to make it.......a child's workbench.
My 3 yr-old shop rat daughter Anna was always climbing up on my bench or building stuff down on the floor. I realized that she needed something her height.
Her bench is 40" wide x 20" deep x 18-3/4" high. The frame is simply some scrap 2x4's that I sent through the planer to give them a clean surface. Since this is supposed to look like a workbench and NOT like her mom's cherry end tables:eek:, I just screwed/glued the 2x4 frame together and left the screw heads showing. The top is 3/4 birch plywood attached with pocket screws.
Notice that all edges have been smoothed with a 1/4" roundover bit. Anna helped sand everything and splash on some Colonial Maple stain. Later, I gave it a couple of coats of spray can lacquer.
The bench is equipped with Anna's personalized nameplate (that I ran through the CarveWright machine), a small HF vise, and two plastic parts bins. The parts bins are screwed down to the top so they don't spill.
Anna likes to build toy trains from blocks of wood so I ordered an assortment of wooden wheels, axles, smokestacks etc. from an online craft supply co. (highly recommended if you have kids around - they love it)
I found a used child-size chair for $3 at a surplus store. The bench is sized to work with that particular chair. The front of the work surface has a set-back apron so there is plenty of room for little legs. This allows the top to be set fairly low and creates a more comfortable height for manipulating tools.
Thanks for looking.
Rob
My 3 yr-old shop rat daughter Anna was always climbing up on my bench or building stuff down on the floor. I realized that she needed something her height.
Her bench is 40" wide x 20" deep x 18-3/4" high. The frame is simply some scrap 2x4's that I sent through the planer to give them a clean surface. Since this is supposed to look like a workbench and NOT like her mom's cherry end tables:eek:, I just screwed/glued the 2x4 frame together and left the screw heads showing. The top is 3/4 birch plywood attached with pocket screws.
Notice that all edges have been smoothed with a 1/4" roundover bit. Anna helped sand everything and splash on some Colonial Maple stain. Later, I gave it a couple of coats of spray can lacquer.
The bench is equipped with Anna's personalized nameplate (that I ran through the CarveWright machine), a small HF vise, and two plastic parts bins. The parts bins are screwed down to the top so they don't spill.
Anna likes to build toy trains from blocks of wood so I ordered an assortment of wooden wheels, axles, smokestacks etc. from an online craft supply co. (highly recommended if you have kids around - they love it)
I found a used child-size chair for $3 at a surplus store. The bench is sized to work with that particular chair. The front of the work surface has a set-back apron so there is plenty of room for little legs. This allows the top to be set fairly low and creates a more comfortable height for manipulating tools.
Thanks for looking.
Rob