Hello again everybody,

I'm putting together ideas for a rod wrapping work bench and wanted to solicit feedback. Your thoughts and ideas on length, height, features and over all construction would be greatly appreciated. Photos would also be great.

Best regards,
Steve

I went to the "scratchand dent" section of Lowe's and bought two lower kitchen cabinets in Maple (one with a hole in the side of it) and a damaged 10 or 12 foot section of countertop. Put the cabinets on eihter end and put the counter on top. After a few months the top began to sag in the middle so I bought an L Bar and put it under the top, now it's rock solid. I bought everything for about $120 and it's a perfect height for a bar stool. I did takes a lot of trips to Lowe's to find everything I needed. I was tempted to "accidently" drop a good cabinet so it would make it's way to the scratch and dent faster, but I stopped myself.

The Volume 10 #5 issue of RodMaker will begin our series on building a self-contained, mobile, rod building workshop. In an 8x3x4 foot area, it will contain:

Rod Lathe
Wood Lathe
Bench Grinder
Belt Sander
Blank Storage
Guide Storage
Complete Dust Control system
Foot Board Variable Speed Control
Overhead Lighting System
Electrical Outlets

And, quite a bit more.

...................

looking forward to that issue Tom, especiallyy interested in dust control methods, as this is currently driving me bonkers.


For bench size and height you need to know what type of rods you will be building (6' bass vs 12' surf) and whether you prefer to work standing or sitting.

If both standing and sitting it will need to be fairly tall , so as not to cause back ache when standing but not so tall it can't accomadate a reasonable tall chair when sitting.

I built my bench 12' long and 48' tall. I only work standing, but may at some point find an exceptioanlly tall bar stool for when I wish to sit- or whack some of the length off the legs to shorten the height. So far it's worked out fine.

Mark

Steve,
I went to the local home improvement store and purchase 8’ counter tops and some 30 inch 2 door storage organizers for the base.
I have some photos of my shop on the photo page.
The RodMaker Magazine had an article on a rod shop with good info and photos. I think it was volume 9 – Issue 4 but not for sure.


Lynn

I went to Office Depot or Max, I disremember which, and bought three 24 x 48in. folding tables and lined them up against the wall. Then I put a half sheet of white formica bath room paneling (24 x 96in.) in the center of the tables. This is my rodbuilding bench since 1996. If I remember right, it cost about $40. for all four parts. Before that I used the kitchen table.

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.

Lowe's! 8' Formica countertop w/ backsplash, ($50), 2 upper kitchen cabinents, unfinished (about $25 each) works great! I built two, one for another room for my wood lathe, tool sharpening system, etc.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

i went to a salvage place here and got a long countertop w/backsplash(11'). i used heavy duty metal shelves found at home depot as the bases. it gives me length and storage as well. it works well and gives me lots of room and storage.

My neck used to hurt. It was due to the heigth of my bench and staring down for long periods of time. An adjustable heigth chair is also a nice consideration, and one comfortable at that too since you'll be sitting for awhile.

when i get done making mine ill post pictures...i use a nice comfy leather computer chair and lounge out while im building haha

I just built mine this week, hopefully when I get it finished I will post some pics of it, but what I did was built mine out of ply wood 2x4's and 2x6's. I built it 2 feet wide by 8 feet long and just made a simple box with 2 cross beams out of the 2x4's and screwed the piece of plywood on top of it. I mounted the legs on the outside, the ones in front were 3 feet and the ones in back 4 feet, Not to make the bench slanted but to make a shelf on the back.

I used the 2x6 across the back for a shelf that I will mount my dryer so I can put one rod in to finish and still work on another. I also took a piece of 2 inch oak and beveled it so it was flared up and cut matching grooves in the bottoms of my supports so you can slide them back and forth but to take them off you'd have to slide them all the way down to either end. But you wouldn't be able to tip them over.

All in all my bill at lowes was 99.91 so I figured I did pretty good and built it all in 2 nights. Now alls I deed to do is finish making my rod supports and mount my thread tension devices and i'm ready to go.