My workbench went from a sheet of plywood on sawhorses to a real 8 foot bench in two weekends, was it worth it?

Skyler Wood · 2026-10-08T12:55:04.182708+00:00

Two weekends ago I finally tore down the plywood on sawhorses setup that I used for 3 years in my garage and built a real 8 foot bench with a laminated top and a leg vise. The old one wobbled so bad I could not hand plane anything without chasing the whole thing across the floor, and my chisels kept rolling off onto concrete. The new bench cost me about $140 in lumber and took maybe 14 hours total, but now I can actually chop mortises without the bench walking away from me. Some guys told me I was crazy to spend that time instead of just buying a Sjobergs and getting back to building. So here is my question, do you think a heavy homemade bench is worth the build time, or is that just time you could have spent on actual projects?

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My workbench went from a sheet of plywood on sawhorses to a real 8 foot bench in two weekends, was it worth it? | Diy Builders - The Community Guide