I started taking paternity leave on my first daughter’s due date. (Un?)fortunately, she was born late, and I found myself with both a lot of free time, and a lot of pent-up anticipatory energy.

My workshop was a bit of a mess, since I’d acquired more tools - including a heavy miter saw and grinder. My mother-in-law was staying with us and helping with chores, so I decided to focus on cleaning up the shop. I built a sturdy set of shelves from scrap lumber and cheap sheathing plywood to hold my bench tools when they’re not in use.

I have a lot of guitars and ukuleles, and I was also feeling like I hadn’t played them enough. When we moved at one point, I sold all my guitars but one, but that honeslty didn’t last too long. Now that I own a home, it was high time to build myself a real place to keep them. Keeping instruments close at hand reduces my barriers to practice and play.

Every workshop needs a good work bench. A good bench is stable and flat, letting you estimate the flatness of your workpiece, and with plenty of space to hold the work and clamp it down.

You can buy nice workbenches for many hundreds of dollars, and then you can buy nice clamps for many more. I wanted to use this project as a learning experience, though. So I spent my time researching table plans, trying to pick one that would give me a good surface without being a big expense.