Comment on Build a Workbench in 30 Minutes by B. MAGUIRE

DEAR TIM: My New Year's resolution is to start to repair things around my home. I desperately need a workbench in my garage, but have little money and skills. Can you help me build a workbench that will really serve me over the years and not break the bank? What kind of materials should I use? What tools do I need? Is it really possible for a lass like me to build a workbench just after the New Year in a couple of hours? Molly O'Sullivan, Tewksbury, MA

DEAR MOLLY: Not only is it possible to build a sturdy workbench, but you can also do it in about 30 minutes once you gather the few materials. The best part is the workbench is going to last for years and years.

This simple, yet sturdy workbench was cut and assembled in less than 30 minutes! Photo Credit: Tim Carter

I've constructed many workbenches over the years. Some I've done for customers, but I've also built several for myself. As you might expect, there's a wide variance of opinion as to the best attributes for a workbench.

Some will say the overall size is the most important. Others will say the workbench has to be super strong. At the end of the day, it all depends on what you plan to do at the workbench. Answering that question will act as your North Star as you think about how you need to build your workbench.

My guess is that you're not going to be rebuilding large diesel engines on the workbench, so it doesn't have to be able to support thousands of pounds. If you copy the design I just concocted, I think you'll be fine.

Not too long ago, I built a cozy workbench for my own garage using just one sheet of plywood and four 2x4x8s. I also needed about forty 3-inch-long drywall screws and twelve 1and 5/8-inch drywall screws.

I decided to go back in time and just use simple power tools to construct this rough bench. My guess is you have these same tools I used: a circular saw, a drill, a framing square, a phillips screw bit to insert in your drill, a 1/8-inch drill bit for wood, a measuring tape and a straightedge or chalkline.

The depth of the workbench top is very critical if you plan to butt it against a wall that will have tools hanging on pegboard. You do not want to make the workbench any deeper than 24 inches. If you exceed that depth, you'll quickly discover it's very hard to reach things on the wall. You may want to reduce this depth to 22 inches if you're small and have short arms.

The bench I made for my garage was only 5-feet long. While that seems small, it's really plenty big for most projects. If you have the space, feel free to make yours longer.

The height of the workbench is the hardest thing to calculate. You need to determine if you plan to work at the bench sitting or standing. It makes a huge difference. I prefer to stand. Since I'm only 5 feet 8 inches tall, I've determined that workbenches that are 32 inches high are perfect for me.

Don't be fooled by the height of kitchen countertops. They're usually 36-inches high. But you rarely are working on an object 5 or 6 inches high in your kitchen. You'll discover as you work on objects on your workbench that if the workbench is too high, your shoulder will raise up to an uncomfortable height, and you'll lose leverage.

To build the base for my workbench, I simply made two boxes that measured 16 inches by 48 inches by 3.5-inches tall. These boxes work to stabilize the legs and they support the workbench top and the bottom shelf. The 2x4s used were stood up on their edges to make the boxes.

I then cut four legs at 31 and 1/4-inches long. The legs go at each corner of the boxes with the top flush with the one box and the bottom of the leg 4 inches from the bottom of the lower box. The legs are screwed to the outside of the boxes on the 4-foot face. Be sure you use the framing square to ensure the legs are square with the boxes. Install three long screws where the legs contact each box.

I prefer to use 3/4-inch fir plywood for my workbench tops. It's a little more expensive, but it's very durable. You can use oriented strand board if that's all you can afford.

If you want a really durable workbench top, you can add a layer of oak flooring to the top of the workbench. This will add more cost to the project and considerable work. I feel you'll be very happy with just the fir plywood. So far it's working out great for me.

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Comment on How To Build A Stackable Rock Retaining Wall by Joy Davis

DEAR TIM: I'm lucky and have lots of medium to larger rock on my lot that can be easily harvested. I want to build a stackable rock retaining wall that will be about 3-feet tall and hold back that amount of dirt. Is there magic involved in this process, or do you just stack the rock and hope for the best? What would cause the wall to fail? I don't want to have to redo the job in a few years. I've seen photos of stone walls in New England farm fields and woods that seem to have withstood centuries of Mother Nature's weather and abuse. McKayla S., Pittsburgh, PA

DEAR MCKAYLA: Believe it or not, there's not too much magic involved in building a stacked rock retaining wall that will last generations. It does help if you paid attention in your high school physics class, but if not, I'll provide the crash course below.

First, let's make sure we're talking about the same type of wall. You mentioned the photos of the rock walls you've seen. I live here in New Hampshire and am surrounded by these walls. In fact, I own a piece of property that has stone walls on it that are probably 170 years old. Many of these walls are in excellent shape.

Most of this rock wall was built in less than five hours by one person. Some of the larger rocks had to be put in place with a machine. Photo Credit: Tim Carter

However, the stacked rock walls on my land are not retaining walls. They were primarily built as pasture borders when New Hampshire had millions and millions of grazing sheep. The wool from these domesticated animals satisfied the enormous raw-material appetite of the woolen mills both before and after the War of Northern Aggression, most commonly known as the Civil War.

These rock walls are not retaining walls. They're just free-standing walls that used to be in the middle of fields that acted as crude, but effective, fences. They had no dirt pushing against one side of the wall. The rock walls you see in the photos still look good because gravity is just pulling them straight down. Retaining walls have an added sideways thrust component in addition to the downward pull of gravity. In cold climates, this thrust is multiplied as the soil freezes behind the wall and expands sideways as well as up.

In other words, when you decide to use rock or stone as a retaining wall, and you plan to just stack them instead of interlocking them with mortar or concrete, you need to make sure the weight of the stones and the friction between them are greater than the sideways thrusting force that's constantly trying to tear down the wall. That's pretty much all the magic you need to know, unless you have great skills and can levitate the heavy stones into position!

The first thing, in my opinion, that you need to know is that weight is everything. Heavier stones, ones that weigh in excess of 150 pounds or more, are highly recommended. Just as it takes great effort for you to move these small boulders, it will take more effort for Mother Nature to do it too.

You say the wall will only be 3-feet tall, but is this wall cut into a hillside where the ground slopes up and away from the wall? If so, there's a tremendous amount of weight and soil upslope that's working to push over your wall.

A 3-foot-high retaining wall that has just level land at the top doesn't push that hard against the retaining wall. However, if the small retaining wall is immediately adjacent to a parking area where heavy trucks can load the soil just behind the wall, this added weight can cause a poorly designed wall to collapse, even a short wall just 3-feet tall.

I recommend that you dig a 6-inch deep trench that the first row or rocks rests in. This small keyway helps hold them in place. Deeper is better, but you don't gain much if you bury more than one third of the height of the first row of rock.

If possible you want to have a slight backwards lean to the wall. You want the face of the wall to be out of plumb with a slight tilt back towards the dirt that's being retained. Four inches of backwards tilt in three feet of height is plenty.

Do your best to tightly interlock the rock. Jagged or misshapen rocks work much better than rounded river rock that are nothing more than giant balls. The more surface area of each rock that touches adjacent rock the better. This friction allows the stones to work together instead of each rock just counting on its own weight to hold back the soil.

If the soil at the top of the wall is level, you can gradually decrease the size of the stones or rocks as you get to the top of the wall. Try not to use rock that weigh less than 25 pounds each unless they're used to fill voids in the back of the wall.

Stand back and view the wall as you build it. Look to make sure you like the look of it and look down the wall to make sure it's running in a somewhat straight line. You can use a string to help you keep it straight, but often stacked walls look best if they have a little wiggle or two in them. It creates the illusion that the wall has been there waging a battle against Mother Nature for some time and it's a tie!

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