A Quick and Dirty Work Bench and Pole Barn Plans

As you can see from the below pictures, we have lots of wood to work with in various parts of the farm and our only limitation is our imagination. We still need to build a chicken coop, a goat barn, an extension to the wood shed, a garden tool shed for Holly and Judy and of course the dock and shed for the pond and we will still have lots of wood left over. Eventually we will side the interior of the pole barn with some of the rough cut wood planking but first we need to lay up some double bubble insulation so it doesnt sweat.

In the mean time we wanted to build a quick work bench for some of our projects in the pole barn so here is what we came up with yesterday.

We have wood in the house garage...mostly for interior projects...

Scrap wood in the breezeway between the house garage and stone garage...

Thousands of board feet of mostly oak lumber in the milking parlor of the dairy barn (and this is where we got most of the wood for the work bench yesterday)..

Wood leaning against the wall in the hay mow...

Wood stacked on the floor of the hay mow....

And wood leaning just about everywhere...so yes we have a lot of wood. Unfortunately a lot of it is not dimensional as it was cut on a saw mill that used to be on the farm. Its good wood but you have to be breative to use some of it.

So in about 35 minutes we created this work bench for the pole barn using 2x4 framing and two thick oak slabs of wood for the work top.

We will eventually have built in work benches in the pole barn shop but I wanted something moveable for projects so I can pull it away from the wall and have 360 degree access.

It is definitely solid and that oak top will stand up to just about anything.

Maybelle was as curious as ever and kept us company when we moved the work bench to the pole barn and planned for other projects.

She wouldnt come inside but she hung out close by.

Even Thelma and Louise were curious and stayed close. We have found that cattle are very curious creatures and they often come to watch us when we are doing something in the pasture.

My buddy Bandit is a good co-driver and loves to ride shotgun.

But back to the bench. This framing is based loosely on plans I remember from an old Popular Mechanics article in the 1970s. I have built several similar benches from their ideas over the years and the concept is very simple. For legs, you cut one 2x4 shorter than the other so that a 2x4 cross brace can be laid flush across the front and the back, then add some side 2x4s on the top and bottom, build a shelf across the bottom side braces to tie it together then put on your work top.

Normally I would run one cross brace in each direction but oposing each other for stability but in this case I will be storing some long pieces of metal rod in the crook of the two braces and it doesnt seem to affect the stability at all.

For this bench I reversed the rear legs and made the bracing 2x4 longer as it will form the frame for something I have planned for the backside at some point but if you want them flush just do the back legs like you do the front and reverse them so everything is flush.

This old Speedy v-twin air compresser is heavy and I needed a workbench that can stand up to it and give me access all around. The rebuild starts soon.

These old pieces of equipment are works of art in my opinion and worthy of restoration. All of the hoses are dry rotted, the electrical all needs to be rewired and it needs a good cleaning but it still works and sounds awesome.

Montgomery Wards along with Sears used to sell quality items...not so much today.

We were given this old Atlanta Stove works wood stove by Steve when we bought the Allis Chalmers and we plan to use it to heat the shop. We are experimenting with various placements before we do the actual install. It needs a good wire brushing and some stove black but its in good shape and should do well to heat the shop to a tolerable temp.

One of the problems with placing it here in the back corner is that we may put a door back here and enclose one section of the lean-to machine shed for an office.

It wouldnt take much to lay a concrete floor, put a door in the side and close this all in. We have many windows to use, lots of wood as you have seen and the metal siding wouldnt cost much but its not a high priority project. We just dont want to install the stove and cut a hole in the roof for the stack if we would have to move it. So that was one of yesterdays small and fun projects....sometimes you just have to take a break from the big projects and do something just for fun..