Wokbench power upgrade

[Big Frank]

My basement has a duplex outlet in the middle of all 4 walls, and nothing closer than those to my workbench. For years and years I've been using a 50' extension cord with a triple tap adaptor like the one in the first pic on it. I used cable ties to help keep it attached even if it snags on something when I drag it across my driveway. Thursday I pulled the nails out of the end of my workbench where I had 4 handsaws and a bench brush hanging. I put 2 screws in and put this extra power strip I had in their place. I drove the screws in until it was a snug fit, then pounded 3 roofing nails in the top edge of the bench. The heads stick out just far enough over the edge of the power strip to keep it from lifting up. I wish I would have thought of this 30+ years ago.

Now I have 7 outlets waist high next to my vise on the right front corner of the bench (left side of picture). And I don't have to keep picking the cord off the ground to plug my tools in and unplug them. There are sliding doors over each outlet to keep dirt and grime out when they aren't in use. I pulled the cord to the back of the bench and wound it around the diagonal brace, and secured it with 2 cable ties. Now I can use the other 50' extension cord with the triple tap for other things, and keep this extension cord plugged in all the time if I don't need it for anything else. And I don't use all 100' of cord very often. It doesn't matter how wet the basement gets because both ends of the cord are high and dry. And the power strip has a button to turn it off when I'm not using it. I have a Cable Cuff on the excess cord that's rolled up next to the outlet.

[Big Frank]

The top of my workbench is a hollow-core closet door from the mobile home I lived in before I bought my house. The frame is 2x4 boards that were the frame of one of the couches I had back then. I was trying to bend 2 pieces of steel plate in the vise last year and when my 2# ball peen hammer wouldn't do the job, I tried smacking it around with a 12# sledge hammer. The top of the bench broke and caved in and the vise broke in half. Inside the base was a part the 2 screws go into, to lock and unlock it so you can swivel it around. That's what broke. My vise is somewhat similar to the one in this picture. It has 2 pairs of jaws, one flat and one for holding pipes, plus more jaws on the very bottom, and the whole thing spins 360 degrees on its horizontal axis. I'm going to bolt it directly to the bench without the swivel part of the base. I thought about making a piece to go inside the base to thread the 2 screws in, maybe from those pieces of steel plate, so I could still have it facing the front, side, or corner of the bench, or any other direction. But It's just going to be facing the front.

I already had a 12"x12" piece of 3/4" thick plywood attached to the underside of the bench top in that corner. Today I looked around for scraps of wood to reinforce the top. I had 1 2x4 about 25 1/2" long, so I cut it into thirds. I squirted Goop into the biggest dents and holes in the bench top, then brushed all the Elmer's glue I had to cover an 8+" square in the corner. I brushed glue on the edges of the 2x4s where they butted against one another and screwed them down with 3" drywall screws. I brushed glue that seeped out the sides on top of the 2x4s and screwed a 3/16" scrap of plywood on top to level out the surface. I did that without cutting the plywood to fit or square it up. I had a triangle shaped piece of good 5/16" plywood big enough to cut a 6" square out of. I beveled the edges and corners with my sander, brushed some Goop on the back of it and screwed it down on the other scrap of plywood. The part of the vise I'm able to reuse is 5 1/2" in diameter, an inch less than the swivel base. That part, seen in the third pic is going in the recycle bin when I'm sure I won't be using it for anything.

I painted the whole mess and will drill 2 holes through the whole stack and bench top, including the 3/4" plywood on the bottom. I'll have to buy a couple of 1/2" bolts 6" long to bolt it all together through the holes where the T-handles to tighten the swivel base used to be (yellow arrow in picture). I'll have to buy hex nuts, flat washers, and lock washers to secure it. After that I need to sweep the floor and slide the bench back to where it was before I started hammering on those steel plates. And clean out my tool boxes, fill them with the tools that are piled on the bench or still lying on the floor where they fell, brush off the bench and slap a little more paint on it, before I can put my tool boxes and trays back on the bench. Then when I have everything back as close to normal as it's going to get, I'll finally be ready to start working on my guns again.

I have plans for a new workbench from Norm Abram of The New Yankee Workshop, but I might wait and see if I'll be moving or not. Hopefully my inheritance will be enough to get me out of this ghetto city. Williams Cheese Factory Outlet in Linwood is only 60 miles north of here. If I lived around there instead of here, I'd be a lot happier. And when I went up north to ride my ATV with my friends, I'd be already be halfway there. If I end up moving, I'd rather not have to haul a big, heavy workbench around.