Apartment work bench

Ok folks, here’s my new mobile work bench.  After having to re-locate to the big city I was forced to leave most of my big tools and equipment at my home and adapt to apartment living. Being a guy that likes to fix things and yes, sometimes tear them up I needed my tools, mostly to keep me sane.  I bought a mini wood lathe from Harbor Freight and started turning pens, small bowls, and such.  Well now I am missing my G0602 metal lathe and decided to try and find a way to get it in this small one bedroom apartment without killing myself, or tearing up the floors.  So after looking for a suitable mobile work bench that was priced within my budget I discovered there isn’t one.  Now I’m not that cheap, but I needed a work station that was a little wider and longer than my lathe, rated for the weight  of 400lbs.  So I decided my only alternative was to build one.  Picked up the lumber from Lowes today, a few boxes of screws and presto. I have a new bench. Already had the casters I accidently double ordered from Amazon.  I plan to enclose the back with 1/4″ plywood, add two fold down shelves on the sides that I can raise up if I need to use a bench grinder or my smallish drill press.  Took about 4 or 5 hours to build. Price $68.00 including three boxes of screws and a cheap 12″ level.

Let me know what you think.

I think it’s amazing every time a guy in apartment comes up with a new way to work. Awesome job dude!

Thanks ChrisK. I’m new to this apartment living, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

metaljunkie wrote:

19 hours ago, metaljunkie said:

Thanks ChrisK. I’m new to this apartment living, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Good looking quick setup, I think I would go crazy in an apartment…

If it wasn’t for tinkering on my lathe I would go nuts.  I’m use to country living, but my job moved, and so did I. Got to eat and make it 10 more years til retirement.

What do you do about dust and noise that might disturb the neighbors? I have lived in a lot of apartments in my day and I feel your pain dude. 

Nordraw, I use a vacuum dust system I picked up at Harbor Freight with a trash can cyclone separator from Wood Craft that is not very noisy at all and the lathe is pretty quiet. No one has complained since I started back in April.  The vacuum doesn’t catch all the chips, but does a good job on the fine dust and when I’m done turning a project I disconnect the intake hose from the magnetic dust guard and suck up all the bigger wood chips on the floor.  My floor is hard wood so I wouldn’t recommend this for a carpet. I also try to time my projects for week ends and don’t start too early so I don’t disrupt the neighbors.  I try to respect the neighbors and keep noise to a minimum.  After clean up which takes maybe 30 minutes I cover the lathe with a grill cover and push the tool cart in my hallway closet.  The only caveat is you have to make your wife a bowl or pen every now and then so she don’t tell on you.

Impressive it only took you 5 hours. Looks nice. You planning on any durable stain or finish/sealer?

Haven’t really had time to think about a finish yet. Do you have any recommendations on a low odor protective finish. I think it would be hard to use a standard stain or varnish because the smell would migrate to other apartments which would equate into pissing off the neighbors.

Water based poly?

How strong is the odor?

 Update; The little cart handled the 400 lb load great. Rolled easy with no signs of stress on the frame.  Now I just need to finish it as suggested with water based poly and enclose the top half.  I pre-cut furring strips, 2×2″s and some 1/4″ siding cut-offs from my last storage building project. I plan on using two set’s of hinges so the top will unfold on two different axis. This way I can have access to the front and top of the lathe and close it after I’m finished with a project, and lock it up. It will/should look like a wooden box on top of a wood cart when I’m done until I unfold it foe the next project.

oil stain does smell but its not too noticeable when poly is put on top in my opinion. I have used both polyurethane (sprayed) and polyacrylic (brushed). urethane is faster to apply cause I sprayed it but acrylic had a heavier coat cause I brushed it. I think the acrylic dried faster. I cant remember if there were many brush marks with the acrylic. The Acrylic is thiner than urethane and is white but dries clear. The urethane is a more golden yellow color and a bit thicker. Ive also used amber shellac (brushed). It dries faster than the other 2 I’ve used and has an amber color to it that will dry with an amber tint. I’ve never used any other finishes. 

I’ll have to make a run to Lowes on Saturday and check out both options.  Thanks for the pointers.

Got a few tools out today and decided to get creative.  The work bench seems to work great with the 400 lb. load except for getting it out of the walk in closet. Plenty of clearance to get through the doorway, but it’s tough to turn with that much weight on it.

That’s pretty cool to see you making do with what you can. looks like a pretty decent lathe!!!

Also did you figure out a finish? Anything water based is going to have much less odor then oil based

Thanks and no word on the finish yet. Both me and the wife have been under the weather this weekend so we stayed in.  I did use the wood cut offs to enclose the bottom half of the cart with the front as hinged doors and a hasp.

Wow that’s terrific MetalJunkie!

I’ve always appreciated the ingenuity that people have when constrained by space. It looks like you got that workbench dialed in for your needs.

Thanks for sharing!

On another note, have you ever checked out “This Old Tony” on YouTube? 

Thanks Surfer.  Never heard of “This Old Tony”, but I’ll check it out and get back to you.

Pretty cool videos Surfer.  He explains processes that even I can understand. Thanks for point him out.

metaljunkie wrote:

1 hour ago, metaljunkie said:

Pretty cool videos Surfer.  He explains processes that even I can understand. Thanks for point him out.

Your welcome man.

I have no idea about metal-urgee or machining stuff but I really enjoy his videos. Especially the one on Multimeters lol

Nice bench dude, I love building your own work stands because it allows you to customize to your needs and the best part if you ever need to change it, you know how you put it together

Thanks Jimbo. Your right, no guess work on changing it if I need to later. I had some cut offs from 4×8 sheets of siding from an out building I built a year ago and they work out great for enclosing the bottom of the new work bench. I just had to add a few 2×2’s, hinges for the front and a hasp.  I’m thinking of building another one a little smaller to hold my bench size drill press, band saw, and rock well table saw.

My second work bench with new compressor.

metaljunkie wrote:

54 minutes ago, metaljunkie said:

My second work bench with new compressor.

nice bench man and smart way to have it enclosed in the bench and on casters what is the top made out of looks very clean and smooth 🙂 have a good one 

The top is from a reclaimed IKEA coffee table someone tossed. I cut it down to 36 inches to accommodate the cubby where I park the tool cart.

metaljunkie wrote:

My second work bench with new compressor.

Living in an apartment you have to be creative keeping noise levels in mind and space. Thanks Jimbo

If you can run an air compressor in an apartment you are doing well 

My air compressor needs are minimal so the compressor doesn’t run continuously. It is nice having it when I need it for small air brushing projects, and air tools.  I am still amazed at how low noise this thing is.

would be cool to see an air compressor that runs off battery maybe an x2 or a flexvolt would be sufficient?

Jronman wrote:

11 hours ago, Jronman said:

would be cool to see an air compressor that runs off battery maybe an x2 or a flexvolt would be sufficient?

Makita has one in Japan!

Well guess not, was sure I saw the brushless logo so I assumed, but I don’t think that is the case…

It is brushless, but not cordless

[External image (image.rakuten.co.jp), not copied]

..

[External image (image.rakuten.co.jp), not copied]

..

Jronman wrote:

11 hours ago, Jronman said:

would be cool to see an air compressor that runs off battery maybe an x2 or a flexvolt would be sufficient?

Reddit had a guy from DeWalt who leaked info about the flexvolt tools before the big reveal also mentioned of a flexvolt compressor.

metaljunkie wrote:

On 11/26/2016 at 5:28 PM, metaljunkie said:

My second work bench with new compressor.

Great idea there. Always love seeing people make stuff to work in their apartment. My wife yells at me for making a mess in my garage when I’m working on projects – I couldn’t imagine working in an actual apartment. Apparently I need to step up my dust collection game lol.

I can only imagine what the neighbors think. You are rad. This goes to show that if there is a will there is a way. Keep it up and post some pictures of your projects. What kind of lath is that and where did you get it from?

tcoscarelli wrote:

7 hours ago, tcoscarelli said:

I can only imagine what the neighbors think. You are rad. This goes to show that if there is a will there is a way. Keep it up and post some pictures of your projects. What kind of lath is that and where did you get it from?

What the neighbors don’t know, won’t hurt them.  I’ve been in this apartment for almost a year and have not received one complaint about noise or dust.  I do run a pretty tight ship when it comes to wood turning, always keeping the dust collection system on and taking extra pains when it comes to clean up. 

metaljunkie wrote:

What the neighbors don’t know, won’t hurt them.  I’ve been in this apartment for almost a year and have not received one complaint about noise or dust.  I do run a pretty tight ship when it comes to wood turning, always keeping the dust collection system on and taking extra pains when it comes to clean up. 

Finally got around to finding a mobile cabinet for my apartment dust collection system. $100 base cabinet, added casters and a cheap table top. Doubles as a mobile table when we have guest.