work benches

[Anonymous]

Having retired with a life long interest in model railroading I am ready to begin my empire. The room is finished and I'm ready to bulid my workbench. Does anybody have any suggestions?

[jwmurrayjr]

Workbench or benchwork?

Track plans?

Do you have plenty of MRR books on planning, electrical, benchwork, scenery?

Sounds like you're ready for some MRR fun!

[Anonymous]

If you are looking for a workbench there are probably as many answers and opinions as there are modelers. For my use I found that going to a home improvement store and buying a kitchen counter top is the answer. You can get them in varying lengths. Buy a few unpainted kitchen floor cabinets with drawers, paint them a nuteral color, put the counter top on and your ready to go. The drawers will give you a decent storage location and the splash guard in the back will keep things from going down behind the workbench. The height is just about right for a stool or a tall office chair. You might even find a second or slightly damaged counter top at a greatly reduced price.

Ed S.

[robengland]

I went to a second hand furniture barn and bought an old office cubicle desk for a hundred bucks, made out of white particle board. I put a roof on it, hung a fluoro tube, screwed a power board under the bench, installed a magnifier/lamp on an arm, put peg-board on one side wall, put shelves and hooks and those little plastic arrays of drawers everywhere. I'm pondering building a spray booth into one corner of it...

I went back to the same place and bought several of those units that roll under an office desk on castors, for about fifty bucks each. One of them has a pen drawer that now holds all my Xacto knives etc, another drawer for tools and a deep filing drawer now full of rolls of wire. Another has lots of little shelves that used to hold stationery but now hold sheets and strips of styrene, balsa etc. A third has a big cupboard in it that now holds my reference library in ring binders, and has my throttle cabs installed on top of it on a flexible cable!! These now live under the railroad benchwork, and I draw them close to me when I am working at the workbench.

And I got an old adjustable office chair on castors for seventy more dollars.

I reckon the whole rig cost me about 500 bucks and a couple of hours of my time. I understand second hand furniture is even cheaper in the US than it is here in NZ...

[Jetrock]

My workbenches are a pair of industrial-gray metal worktables I picked up at an auction for $2 each--they're 60"x30" and 30" high. I have them moved beneath my shelf layout, which is situated 48" high, so there's just enough room for a row of 18" high tool chests to hold assorted parts, tools and miscellaneous widgets. If you're planning on using a modular, sectional or domino type construction method, make sure there is enough room on your workbench to set the biggest module you will be working on--my latest module is 1'x6' and being able to work on it at the workbench instead of at its operating high of 48" was a real advantage!