Morning All.

I'm on the lookout for a workbench. Thinking between 1.5 – 2 metres, perhaps with a couple of drawers underneath and maybe even a back board as well. Steel would be nice. And cheap as possible.

Has any one got any recommendations or do's and don'ts, from some of the large suppliers ie screwfix? Or even a recommendation for an ebay supplier?

Yours,

Newly garage obsessed Beagle.

I built one myself after a similar search failed to throw up anything economical. There's something more satisfying about that too. A length of kitchen work surface and a design from the interweb using 4×4 wood which the DIY shop cut to length. Couldn't have been easier. Much cheaper than shop bought. Much more sturdy (over-built if anything). And surprisingly 'professional' looking. You can also drill through it easily to mount a vice/ wheel truing stand/whatever you fancy. And, if the work surface gets knackered (in many, many years time), you can easily replace it. The only down side is that cheap work surface also tends to have pretty awful designs!

I recently bought one of these: Argos workbench

The steel frame is pretty sturdy once put together but the wood is a little flimsy. That said, it's good enough to start with and once the wood goes I'll just get some thicker stuff to replace it.
I'd recommend it for the price. (several places sell it but under slightly different names, just see if the pictures match.)

You can get stainless steel offcuts from local suppliers or (often cheaper) from eBay. It cost me less than £15 to put a top on my bench (which, by the way, is a sawn-in-half freeby teachers desk mounted on the workshop wall at a decent height with angled 2×4).

I have 2 of these
and for a tool board I just bough a piece of MDF from B&Q and stuck pins in it.

That Argos one looks good value though

Thanks all,

I'll look into the suggestions. May even put one together myself!

I built one. 7ft long, 3ft high, 2ft deep. Created in situ in the cellar – whenever I sell the place it's staying put..!

Flickr photo set here.

http://www.kestrelengineering.co.uk/work_benches.html