Fair Weather Bench

This is my "fair weather bench". I'd been getting frustrated at the amount of faff involved in getting the trestles and a board out of the shed if I needed a bit more working space on sunny days. Also I'm never very happy with how rickety the trestles-and-board combination is. My trestles are relatively heavy duty (although I bought them more because they can be adjusted to be a comfortable height for a tall person, unlike most), but they're not exactly sturdy.

As an alternative, this is a bench extension that can be attached onto the end of my woodworking bench to provide a sturdy outdoor working area. The frame is made out of 25 mm × 25 mm × 2 mm box section steel. The upper frame extends about 400 mm into the bench. At the moment I haven't added a diagonal to hold the legs vertical as it doesn't seem to need it.

I cut some grooves in the bottom of the end of my bench and set some 30 mm × 30 mm × 2 mm box section into it with four steel clamps to hold it in place. The frame of the fair weather bench slides into these larger box section pieces and they provide a robust support for one end of the bench.

The "hinge" is just an M8 bolt through both pieces with a nut either side of the top frame so that the leg section swings freely but the screw won't move.

The top is held in place with some M5 CSK screws. There are cut-outs in the bench top (and in the top of my existing bench) to give space for some clamps to hold it firmly in place.

There are some more cut-outs at the back for some castors (more obvious if you click on the picture above to see a bigger view), which make it easy to slide the bench down the back of my drawer cabinet when it isn't being used.

This website is free, but costs me money to run. If you'd like to support this site, please consider making a small donation or sending me a message to let me know what you liked or found useful.