When I bought this house in 94, I got a couple work benches at an auction. One was an entertainment center and one was not. The entertainment center was about 7 feel long, and the top was 2 2x12s. Of course they warped, cupped and was a real pain, so I replaced them with 2 slices of plywood.
But this isn't about that. It's about the other bench, 5' long, about 2' wide and 2' tall. And it's about a round plastic picnic table sort of thing. It was 38" across and 28 or so tall. If you follow my Instantgrandma account, you know that I took a huge maple slab and made a King's Wood Shop sign. That slab is heavy, and when I put it on the table, bad things happened. The table has been around a long time, too, and was always outside. One winter a hungry squirrel or rabbit snacked on it which didn't help. And then one day I dropped something on it, which poked a hole in it, and then all covarona season I used it for various things, like lawnmower repair and other table activities.
Plastic doesn't like to be outside...UV causes it to degrade. Degraded plastic that is also cracked doesn't like to be cold, which February is, and it suffered a catastrophic failure the other day. It broke right in half in two, right down the middle, causing all the crap on it to fall to the floor. Nothing liquid or flammable, thankfully. Watch closely for a dramatic recreation:
Wasn't that exciting?
So now what? It's still covarona season, so there's no work, but it's too cold to do anything in the garage, and I know spring is coming, so the only thing to do is to build a new table/bench in the basement and move it to the garage later.
I had taken apart some pallets and built the table inspired by a tall skinny youtube guy that claimed to build his in an hour. Of course, he had designed it in advance, had a set of plans and all new wood, Plus he's young, skinny, and is able/willing to work on the garage floor. I made a few modifications due to my "unique requirements". I wanted the legs far enough apart to push a mower under it. I don't remember what the other parameters were. But I knew them then, and it fulfills them.
I hope........because it's still too damn cold to fool around with mowers, I'm not going to get one out to measure. (it's been like 20 minutes (of typing time) (or maybe you're a slow reader?) since I last complained about the seasonal (pretty normal) coldness)
But I did measure between the legs of the plastic table, and so they should fit.
And if they don't fit, I'll always think they should have.........
I put wheels on it, and painted it too. No primer, just one coat of oil based Diamond Vogel paint. CS1331, Satinamel, if you must know, and the colour is OW1, and I know that's the colour of someone's bathroom. I know that because the label on the lid says so. I got it from the Olmsted County recycle center. Free. I get a lot of my stain and varnish and paint there......it's great if you're not too fussy about the colour of paint. I've gotten lots of unopened cans of varnish. But that's another story. CS1331 has a low satin sheen, btw, in case that's not obvious. It's an interior/exterior paint, which is useful.
Already using it.....paint is pretty much dry, and I need to varnish some boards for some wine bottle shelves. I will probably install a vise to it, and some electrical outlets, that I'll plug into an ext cord. Contemplating a light.....
