Bench space

I am getting my garage ready to start a -9 and was wondering is it better to have fixed or movable benches (EAA benches)??? I currently have a large L-shaped bench with the band saw and such, but it does take up a large part of my usable wall space.. I have the 60 Gal. air comp., tool box and L-bench and the wall is Full..
Any help or shop pictures would help
Thanks

I have two of the EAA benches; one is my "workspace" and the other holds the desktop mill (precision drill press), vice, toolboxes, etc. I haven't found a situation where I've run out of bench space this way, plus the storage space from the shelves underneath holds my box'o'smallparts and misc. items such as the C-frame rivet tool etc.

In my standard (small, approx 18'x19') two car garage, I technically have four benches. The first two have been with me for about 20yrs. One is a standard 8' kitchen cabinet with a bench top. The other is basically a 4' "EAA Bench" that has always had my drill press and sanders on it. For RV building, I added two standard EAA benches that I drag around the remaining floor space in various configurations. They spend most of their time end-to-end with about three feet between them (walk space) and parallel to whatever major aircraft structure I'm working on.

This has worked great for me. I don't feel cramped for floor space.

One way to be flexible with the table/floorspace tradeoff might be with small, cheap banquet tables, so that you can move them or get them out of the garage when you need more floor. They can actually become quite sturdy if necessary if you put a very thick piece of particle board over them. But really, most of my table space is only used to spread out tools and parts and not much more.

I did much of my building on a 10' banquet table with a 2" solid particle board/plastic laminate door on top. Worked pretty well. I also had two 4' EAA-style benches for power tools and heavy work. In retrospect, another small table would have been useful.

Also try to get some sort of work surface over your compressor (unless it's an upright?) to utilize that wall space. Even if it's just a flimsy table, or a sound-insulating contraption of insulation board like I have, at least you can put tools and plans on it.

Paul

Not the normal I know, but I have two EAA benches and a 4 x 8 foot table. I'm tall so reaching across the big table is not a problem and I find I use it for everything. One of the EAA benches is used for my DRDT-2 and the other has the bandsaw and some misc on it. I do have a lot of space in the shop which helps also.

cwoodyfly2001 said:

I am getting my garage ready to start a -9 and was wondering is it better to have fixed or movable benches (EAA benches)??? I currently have a large L-shaped bench with the band saw and such, but it does take up a large part of my usable wall space.. I have the 60 Gal. air comp., tool box and L-bench and the wall is Full..
Any help or shop pictures would help
Thanks

Click to expand...

Hi 'Woody', (I watched Disney's Toy Story with the little one last night, main caracter is Woody)

I See you are new here, low post count, Use the Search facility of the web site it is very powerful, it has been discussed before, good info.

In brief, I would recommend make them movable, you can always stack them back up against the wall. Also there are a lot of improvements on the standard EAA table.

I did the search for you here is a couple of links.
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=8843

and improved tables here
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=1624

Kind Regards
Rudi