I-Beam Workbench Built Like An Anvil

I-Beam Workbench Built Like An Anvil FARM SHOP Miscellaneous 25-3-40 Russ Gilbertson is pretty sure no one is going to carry off the workbench he and his father Ron built for their repair shop in Glasgow, Montana. Gilbertson does a little farming, and has a small beef herd. He also sells and repairs trailers. "We needed a substantial workbench for the shop," he says. "I looked around the farm and came across some steel I-beams that had been around for awhile. We got them for nearly nothing when our old high school was torn down. The flat sides of the beams are 15 in. across, so we welded two 20-ft. sections together to make a 20-ft. long, 30-in. wide workbench." Gilbertson says the steel in the beams at their thinnest point is 1/2 in. thick. "We put four legs made of 3-in. square tubing on front and mounted the back side of it to the wall. The worktop is about 30 in. off the floor," Gilbertson adds. To mount tools, they welded trailer hitch receiver tubes at various locations along the front edge of the table. Then they attached hitch insert tubes to their shop tools, including a vise, bench grinder and hydraulic hose maker. "This method holds the tools solidly, but makes it easy to move them where we need them, or just take them off if we have to put something big on the bench," he says. "There are some old rivet holes, about an inch in size, in the top that come in handy for bending things, too. As heavy as it is, you can use it just like you would an anvil. And because it's steel, it makes a good welding table too." He figures the entire bench cost less than $200. "These old I-beams are really good quality steel. Welding them together took some time, but wasn't all that difficult," he adds. "I don't know how much the bench weighs, but we had a heck of a time getting it up into place, even using the tractor to lift it." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Russ and Ron Gilbertson, RR1, Box 4855, Glasgow, Mont. 59230 (fax/ph 406 228-8900).

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