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Poor Man’s Workbench Part 1

As you will see I don’t have the steadiest hand when it comes to a jig saw nor do I have a ton of room and I have a limited budget so I decided to build a modular workbench. I wanted a scroll saw functionality, a table saw, belt sander and a vacuum former. I had an extra jigsaw, a belt sander and a circular saw.

While some of my skills need work I did draw all of my plans up in a CAD software to avoid measurement issues. If you have any suggestions please comment below.

I started off by cutting a 8 1/2″ x 11″ hole out of my workbench. I decided on a 8 1/2″ x 11″ hole because it is the size printer I have, it fits several tools and this is going to be for working on small projects. The inner line is for the 1/2″ frame that will hold inserts.

I did a terrible job cutting out the hole with a jigsaw and the blade was dull but it got the job done.

The frame will sit below the hole and provides a 1/2″ lip to hold inserts. Wish I had a nail or brad gun.

The module insert frame bolted in place. I did at least counter sink the screw holes. I will had 4 more bolts before calling it good.

Module inserted and extra bolts installed.

Extra module blanks cut out and ready to go.

First module is a jigsaw. I made a template and cut out a hole for the blade (not perfect) then drilled holes to mount the jigsaw to the module. The bottom of the jigsaw has a plate that can be removed. I used these screw holes to mount the saw to the board.

Jigsaw mounted to modular insert and extra module inserts ready to go.

Gallery of all photos