Self-identification:
Here’s an easy way to label boxes of nails, screws, and other fasteners: just attach a sample of each item to the outside of its box with some glue. You’ll be able to see at a glance what you have in stock and where it is.

Recycled labels:
If you store screws or other fasteners in small glass jars, cut the label from the package the item was purchased in and push the label inside the jar before filling it. Hold the label face out against the inside of the jar as you pour in the fasteners. The label will remain visible through the g]ass.

Great cheap parts bins:
Use clean plastic oil containers to make bins for screws, bolts, nuts and many other small hardware items. Cut each container as shown with scissors or a utility knife; make a simple wooden frame to hold the bins.

Spill preventer:
Put a magnet in a container of small items such as screws or panel pins. This way, the metal pieces will bind together in a ball around the magnet and won’t spill out if you accidentally knock over the container. If a few items do scatter, use the magnet to pick them up. For inexpensive magnets, buy a roll oi magnetic edging at a hardware store and cut it into whatever lengths you need.

Nut rings:
Store nuts and washers on metal shower curtain rings hung from pegboard hooks. (The ring’s pear shape and latching action allow for secure storage.) Hang nuts and washers of similar size on their own ring, so that you can find the right size quickly.

Ready-made storage modules:
Plastic electrical boxes, either single or double size, are just right for storing small items like fasteners. The boxes are inexpensive and they stack or fit neatly side by side. Just make sure to remove any flanges or ‘wings’ meant for attaching the boxes to studs.

Neat nail organisers:
Large plastic bottles with a section of their tops cut out make great nail bins. When the bottles are stored on their sides, the weight of the nails keeps them from rolling. Off the shelves, the bottles can stand upright, and their handles make for easy carrying to a job site.

Workbench catchall:
Don’t let nuts and bolts and other leftovers clutter your workbench. Bolt a cake tin or baking tray under a shelf. Swing it out and drop your odds and ends into it as you work. Occasionally pick over the pan’s contents to separate the useful from the useless.

Under-shelf storage:
Make the most of your workshop shelf space by storing nails, nuts and other fasteners in jars attached to the underside of a shelf. To mount the jars, simply screw their lids to the bottom of the shelf (place a washer under each screw head for better security).

Storing timber and long items

Gutter shelving:
lnexpensive vinyl gutters provide convenient, surprisingly strong storage for mouldings, lightweight timber, pipes and other long thin items. To install them, just screw the mounting brackets to studs and snap in the gutters. Use the brackets alone as hooks for garden hoses, extension cords and wire coils.

Stand-up storage:
Fit a sturdy cardboard box with sawn-off mailing tubes (or scraps of large-diameter PVC pipe) and use it to organise all those short pieces of moulding, pipe and dowels.

Retreads:
Tie a series of old car tyres to overhead joists and use taem to hold long pieces of lumber and pipe. You can also lay old tyres flat on the floor or ground to provide a pallet that will keep timber and plywood sheets high and dry.

Timber overhead:
Keep lumber out of the way, yet handy with ‘inverted T’ racks. Bolt two to the bottom of your garage roof trusses: spaced about 5′ (1500 mm) apart to support 8′ (2400 mm) lengths of timber. To avoid straining the trusses, limit stored pieces to the equivalent of twenty 2″ x 1″ (50 mm x 25 mm) timbers and distribute the load evenly.

Easy-reach timber:
Store timber vertically between studs. Hold it in place with a 4″ x 1″ (100 x 25 mm) swing arm, fastened to one stud with a 2″ (50 mm) woodscrew. Make a catch with a piece of 2″ x 2″ (50 mm x 50 mm) timber, notched and attached with 3″ (75 mm) woodscrews.

Easy-reach holder:
Make a tool holder out of scrap wire mesh. Form the mesh into a ‘channel shape’, leaving a section at the top and bottom for mounting on a wall or stud. A 1/2″ square mesh holds a variety of tools, especially screwdrivers.

Holding power:
For a convenient spot to store chuck keys, scissors, punches and other small hand tools, screw a magnetic knifeholder strip to the underside of a shelf over your workbench. Available in kitchenware stores, these powerful magnets can also hold larger hardware items, such as wrenches and screwdrivers. They work equally well when mounted on the sides of the stands for table saws and other large tools.

Small tool organiser:
Mount a small block of polystyrene foam above your workbench and press punches, bits, knives, screwdrivers and other such tools into it to keep them handy. Buy the foam plastic from a home centre or craft store, or recycle foam used as packing material.

Tool belt:
Tack in old leather or strong canvas belt along the edge of a shelf to hold tools. As you nail it, leave small loops in the belt for tools to slip into.

Handle holder:
Chest handles — available in a variety of sizes from any large hardware store — are great for hanging heavy tools, such as hammers and hand axes, up out of the way. Mount the handles directly on a convenient wall over a stud, or alternatively on a plywood backing,putting them upside-down so that the handles stick out from the wall.

Orderly power tools

Power tower:
To keep power tools handy, build a tall, narrow box out of 12″ x 1″ (300 x 25 mm) strips of plywood. Then staple carpet scraps between the sides to form soft cradles for your tools.

Concentrated power:
Put vour most frecruently used power tools on a shelf mounted over your workbench. Cut slots along the back for your circular and jig saws, and bore 1″ holes along the front for your drill, electric screwdriver and router.

In the wall:
Another way to keep tools close at hand yet out of the way is to store them on shelves built between exposed studs. Make the shelves out of 4″ x 1″ (100 mm x 25 mm) timber and cut notches into them so that the tools seat firmly. Nail 2″ x 1″ (50 mm x 25 mm) cleats to the studs, angling them downward toward the wall to keep the tools from falling. Then glue the shelves to the cleats with construction adhesive.

Ready supplies

String out:
Make a dispenser for string by cutting off the bottom half of a 2 liter plastic bottle. Then mount the top half upside-down on the wall with the string coming out of the bottle neck.

All-in-one tape dispenser:
A toilet paper holder mounted on the workshop wall or on a workbench makes a great dispenser for as many as five or six rolls of masking, friction, duct and other types of tape. For easy cutting, tie scissors to the dispenser with a length of string.

Quick wipes:
Facial tissues are great for quickly cleaning up water, oil and glue and for wiping your hands when the phone rings. To make a holder for a box of tissues, bend a vire coat hanger and hang it on a hook or a nail.

A word on First-Aid kits

An inexpensive and essential safety item for any workshop is a locked first-aid kit. Buy one and mount it where it is easy to see and reach. A standard kit will include anti-septic, bandages, gauze, elastic and adhesive tape, cotton swabs, eye drops, tweezers and scissors. Latex gloves and an instant cold pack are also useful. Make sure the container closes tightly to keep out dirt and dust.

When working with paint, solvents, strippers or any chemical with an eye hazard warning, keep a squeeze bottle of eyewash solution handy. If any chemical gets into your eyes, use the solution immediately. If i chemical irritates your skin, wash it off with water. A first-aid kit is for minor injuries only. Get prompt medical attention for a serious injury such as a deep cut or puncture or a head blow. Also see a doctor if eye irritation persists after washing.

Picking up small items

Nuts and bolts scoop:
get small fasteners back into their boxes quickly with a scoop made from a square-shaped plastic milk, or other container that has a handle. Use a utility kiife to cut off the bottom half of the container at an angle and away you go.

Magnetic bagger
Here’s an easy way to pick up spilled washers, nuts or nails. Drop a bar magnet into a plastic sandwich bag. The spilled items stick to the magnet through the plastic. Then turn the bag inside out and pour the items back into their container. Similarly, to clean up small metallic filings, put plastic wrap around a magnet, sweep it over the work area, then fold the wrap over the filings and discard it.

Magnetic sweep:
Separate out screws, nails and other reusable small iron and steel items while sweeping up. Use contact cement to glue a flexible magnetic strip onto the edge of a dustpan. The items will cling to the strip when you empty the pan.

Dust busting

Brush it off:
No vacuum cleaner readily at hand? Trim the frayed bristles from an old paintbrush and use it to sweep fine sawdust or filings from your bench top, or to clean out blind corners on a drill press or lathe. Also, keep a, child’s broom handy for sweeping around stationary tools, bench legs and other tight spots you can’t reach with a regular broom.

Blow it away:
If you have a spare hair dryer, use it to blow away dust, dirt ind shavings in the workshop; to dry sweaty hands before handling new timber; and to speed the drying of paint touch-ups.

Enclose it:
Before undertaking a large messy sanding or sawing job, tape or staple plastic sheets around the work area to contain the dust. If your home’s heating or cooling ducts serve your workshop, turn off the system while doing heavy sanding; otherwise it will spread fine particles all over the house.

Trap it:
To capture fine airbourne dust when sawing or sanding, mount an air conditioner filter on the air-intake side of a box fan, using adhesive tape, wire or an elastic stretch cord. Put the fan next your work area, blowing away from you. vacuum the filter when it becomes filled with dust.

Recycle it:
Save the sawdust from your workshop projects. It will come in in handy for soaking up grease, oil, paint or other spills. You can also use it to rub glue off vour hands or mix it with carpenter’s glue to make a wood filler.

Vacuuming

Thrifty timesaver:
You can extend the life of some workshop vacuum cleaner filters, and so avoid having to clean them so frequently. Cut the legs from an old pair of panty hose, tie the cut ends, and then stretch the waistband top over the filter. The suction won’t be affected, and you can clean the panty hose by just rinsing it.

Easy-empty cleaner:
To avoid the mess of emptying a workshop vacuum cleaner, line the canister with a plastic garbage bag (fold the bag over the canister rim so the top holds the bag in place). To empty the cleaner, all you need to do is take the bag out.

Long reach:
If the crevice tool on your vacuum cleaner isn’t long enough to reach the accumulated sawdust behind your workshop cabinets, make your own extra-long crevice attachment using the cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper. Fit one end of the tube into the hose nozzle and secure it with cloth tape. Then flatten the rest of the tube.

Tips on buying a workshop cleaner

A wet/dry workshop vacuum cleaner is an invaluable aid that gobbles up sawdust, chips and nails as well as large and small spills. You can also hook one to a sander or other tool to remove dust as you work (but a vacuum cleaner is no substitute for a proper dust cotlector if you do a lot of sawing and sanding).

Power and performance:
Determining a vacuum cleaner’s power is not an easy matter. Neither a high wattage nor a gee-whiz demonstration of lifting power is a reliable indicator of a unit’s capabilities. Luckily, most brand-name units sold in home centres and department stores are adequate for a home workshop. However, if you do want to compare units, multiply the cleaner’s ‘sealed pressure’ (measured in millibars) by it’s ‘airflow’ (measured in cubic decilitres per second). The resulting figure should be at least 7000; the higher the number, the better. If the information is not available at the store, the manufacturers may be able to send facts sheets on request.

Tank body:
Plastic is the most common material and is fine for most workshops. It has the advatage of being lightweight, rustproof, and dent resistant. Steel, used an some higher-end models, is durable and less prone to damage from beat and solvents, P. 45 -~o 70 litfe cip,andcit-~T
is adequate for most home workshops.

Filter type:
If you vacuum mostly dry debris, a pleated paper cartridge filter provides more surface area for dust, reducing the number of fiIter cleanings. But the pleats are hard to clean when the dust is wet or caked on. If you do a lot of wet vacuuming, a flat paper (or foam) filter is better. Some units can accept both filter types.

Attachments:
Large- and smaller diameter hoses (typically 2-1/2″ & 1-1/4″ (65 mm and 30 mm) are available. A large-diameter hose is handy for picking up sawdust and chips, a small one for picking up nails and heavy particles. Many large-hose units have adaptors to accept small hoses. Extension wands, a floor nozzle and a crevice tool are essential.

Shedding light

General illumination:
Replace overhead incandescent bulbs with fluoroscent fixtures, which are cheaper to operate, last longer, and give an even, diffused light. Suspend two-tube units over major work areas. Choose 4′ (1200 mm) units and, for a large workshop, double the number of tubes. Plug each unit directly into a ceiling light outlet. If that’s not possible, have an electrician install permanently wired units. Fluorescent tubes are available in a viriety of light ‘types ‘, so that you can have ordinary tubes or ‘daylight’ units which emit a light that more closey mimics daylight conditions outdoors.

Reflected glory:
To improte general visibility in your workshop, paint wall and ceiling areas white or a light colour (the lighter the colour, the better it will reflect both natural and artificial light).

Workbench lighting:
A folding-arm lamp is perfect for close work. But having it clamped on the workbench edge can limit its usefulness. To put the lamp wherever you need it, remove the lamp bracket and drill holes at various points in the bench top for the lamp to fit into. Make each hole, the same diameter as the hole in the lamp bracket.

Mobile light:
Clip-on lamps with reflectors also provide a flexible source of light for close work. If you don t have a shelf that you can attach them to, mount a 2″ x 1″ (50 mm x 25 mm) timber strip onto the wall 2′ (600 mm) or so above the workbench. This will allow to light your work from many angles. or from two angles at once.

Prevent popping lights:
Flying debris produced by power tools can shatter a hot light bulb. Use shatterproof bulbs or tape window screening over the front of the lamp reflector.

Power supply

Dust off:
Keep your workshop’s electrical outlets from becoming sawdust-clogged fire hazards. Cap unused outlets with plugin ‘childproof’ plastic covers. Or install outdoor weatherproof covers that face down and do not trap dust.

Cord hangers:
Use clothes pegs to keep power cords out of your way. Screw or glue them to overhead joists or other strategic spots. Or, for a hanger that lets a cord move without chafing it, slit a short length of old garden hose diagonally. Open the slit to tack the hanger in place and to insert or remove the cord.

Convenient outlets:
A multi-outlet power strip installed under the front edge of your work-bench provides a handy place to plug in power tools while keeping cords out of your way. Use a properly earthed power strip with a fuse or circuit breaker and a reset button to prevent overloads. Also make sure it is rated to handle the maximum total amperage that you will use on it.

Power from above:
For access to electricity, having a retractable (reel-type) extension cord from a hook screwed into an overhead joist. Or mount a multi-outlet power strip on a drop-down board bolted to a joist. Plug your new overhead power source into an existing power point. If you have to run an extension cord to it, secure the cord loosely with slit-hose hangers. Permanently attaching an extension may violate electrical codes.

Rewiring?
Make sure you have enough circuits and a safety switch installed in your main meter box. Have your electrician install a sub board near the workshop to control all workshop circuits. This way, you can easily turn off all power to the workshop and lock the sub-board to prevent unapproved use of your power tools. Check with your electrician to see if separate circuit breakers can be installed on your sub-board so that you won’t have far to go when a breaker trips, or if an emergency requires you to turn the power off immediately.

Avoid shock!

Here are some simple ways to cut electrical risks in your workshop:

Safety switches:
Have an electrician install a safety switch on the main meter board for your house, to protect all power circuits. You can also buy power points with safety switches, as well as in-line units for use with extension cords.

Cords and plugs:
Replace frayed or cracked electrical cords and plugs. Damaged cords are extremely dangerous and should be replaced immediately. Never try to fix a cord with electrical tape. Keep cords from being trampled underfoot and away from the work area as much as possible. Pay particular attention when using power cutting tools, such as saws and grinders. Always use heavy-duty cords rated to handle more current than your tools will draw. Avoid tangles and fully retract coiled cords when using high-wattage toots or heaters.

Earthing:
If you have a metal workbench, have it earthed to reduce the chances of a shock from shorted equipment. An electrician can earth it by running a wire irom the bench to an electrical sub-board, or to a metallic electrical conduit.

Creature Comforts

Foot ease:
Here’s relief from tired feet and legs; cover the floor in front of your workbench with a scrap of low-pile carpet. Besides providing cushioning, it prevents a major cause of leg discomfort — the transfer of body heat from legs and feet to cold concrete. And it’s easily cleaned with a vacuum cleaner. You can also reduce strain on leg and back muscles by standing on a rubber antifatigue mat, available from home centres and floor-covering stores.

Home alone:
Can’t hear the doorbell in your workshop? Buy a trailer stoplight (check the voltage first) at a car parts store and connect it to the doorbell wiring at the point where the wires run closest to your workshop. Install it at eye level so that it will catch vour attention whenever someone rings the bell. To amplify your workshop phone, electronics stores carry an extension bell.

Attention getter:
Family members can also call you to come to dinner or to the phone by ‘ringing’ the trailer stoplight. Just hook it to a separate doorbell transformer and to a doorbell button inside the house. It’s a lot safer than getting an unexpected tap on your shoulder while you’re using a machine.

It’s not the heat:
If your workshop is damp, install a dehumidifier. In addition to making life less muggy for you, it will keep tools from rusting, prevent timber from swelling and rotting, and speed up the drying of glue, paint and other finishes.

Clearing the air:
To rid your workshop of fine dust particles and noxious fumes, it’s essential to have good cross, ventilation. If your workshop has two facing windows, open one and place a fan in the other so that it blows out. If there is only, one window, consider installing an exhaust fan in the wall opposite, or in the ceiling.

Chilly workshop?
Give it a quick warm-up by installing an infrared heat lamp over your work-bench. It will warm your hands and tools so that you can work comfortably on cold days. Use a heat lamp that screws into a standard ceramic screw light fitting. Heat lamps typically drain 250 watts, so check that the wiring can handle the lamp plus whatever other equipment you use on that circuit.

Extended work season:
Is your workshop inside an unfinished garage? For the cost of insulation, you can use the space for a greater part of the year and increase your comfort in extreme weather. Give priority to the roof, where most heat is lost or gained. Staple fibreglass batts, vapour barrier down (if thore is one), between the joists or install a ceiling of plasterboard and lay insulation between the joists.

Save steps:
Take a cue from kitchen designers. Arrange your workshop in an efficient triangle that puts the workbench, tool storage and assembly areas all within easy reach of one another. Set up your lumber storage and wood-cutting and wood-shaping tools in a similar fashion.

Noise control

Workshop door sealants:
Keep both noise (and dirt out of the rest of the housc-, by secil~g the gaps around ~Four ~vorlcshop door. Tack spring-metal or tubular-gasket weatherstripping along the edges of the fidme and mount another strip along the door bottom. If yours is a houow-core door, glue or staple acoustic t~es onto its ivorkshop side or replace it with a sohd-core door.

Sound barrier:
Contain loud workshop noises bl~ soundproofing the wills bet/veen your workshop and living areas, If i wall is unfinished, inst~ffl batts of rock-~vool or noise control blank-et between the studs, and cover them with wallboard. Cover a finished wall (or ceiling) with acoustic tiles, or even better, applv a sounddeadening board, such as Sonoboard, followed by a second layer of wallboard.
To silence a freestanding piece of workshop equipment, take apart its base, stand or cabinet. As you reassemble the piece, apply ~t bead of silicone sealant where~ier metal parts join. This will bond the parts and keep them from vibrating against one another.

Clamp down on vibrations:
Reduce the noisy -,.-ibr~itions of a bencli top power tool by putting a rubber pid or carpet scrap under each tool leg and clamping the tool to the bench.

Glue rattling parts together:
To silence a freestanding piece of work-shop equipment, take apart its base, stand or cabinet. As you reassemble the piece, apply a bead of silicone sealant wherever metal parts join. This will bond the parts and keep them from vibrating against one another.

Instant order:
Get your workshop shipshape quickly by storing everything you can in same-sized cardboard boxes. Cut off the tops, label the boxes by general categories, such as ‘brackets’ or’sandpaper’, and arrange them alphabetically on shelves. Identical boxes measuring 12″ (300 mm) or so in height, width and depth work well. Storage firms and office supply stores are good box sources.

Recycled dish rack:
Turn that old vinyl-coated wire dish rack into storage racks. Use bolt cutters and pliers to cut and bend the rack into the sizes and shapes you need. The long sides of a dish rack make convenient wall racks for hanging tools and supplies. Turn the bottom and ends into a portable table rack by bending the cut ends at the bottom and fitting them into holes in wooden dowels.

Serving up hardware:
Turn discarded baking trays (or other items with a projecting top lip; such as cake or cafeteria trays) into handy, ready-made pull-out shelves for tools or fasteners. Mount the trays in a box made from plywood or particleboard, with grooves routed in the sides so that the trays can slide in and out of the box.

Pegboard lore

Put it everywhere:
Don’t limit your use of perforated hardboard, otherwise known as pegboard, to workshop walls. Mount it on the inside of cupboard doors and on the sides of your workbench and cupboards. Pegboard is fine for hand tools: as well as for heavier items.

Hook security:
Keep a pegboard hook from coming loose by putting a dab of glue on the ends that hook into the board. If you need to move the hook, a light tug will usually free it. Otherwise, you should be able to soften the glue with a heat gun.

Outline reminder:
You’ll always return tools to their proper places on pegboard if you outline each tool with a wide permanent marker. Or put up tool silhouettes cut from the adhesive plastic used for shelf lining.

Drawer magic

Protect your toes:
To avoid pulling a heavy drawer out too far and spilling its contents, paint lines on the drawer edges to indicate how far it can be safely putled out. Also attach a wood block on the back that will catch on the frame. Pivot the block and make one end longer than the other. That way it will hang vertically but you can turn it aside to take out the drawer.

Stronger pull:
Does the handle on a tool-laden drawer keep pulling off? Replace it with a garage door handle, or similar, secured with bolts going through the drawer front. Put flat and lock washers onto each bolt before screwing on the nut.

Workshop shelves

Open stud wall?
Narrow 2″ x 1″ (50 x 25 mm) shelves installed between open studs in a garage or workshop are ideal for storing cans of paint, jars of fasteners and car needs. Secure the shelves with 3″ (75 mm) woodscrews going through predrilled holes in the studs into the shelf ends; stagger the shelves in adjacent spaces.

Deeper shelves on studs:
To store larger items in the space between studs, install 3/3″ (19 mm) particleboird shelves supported by 4″ x 2″ (100 x 50 mm) brackets. When making a bracket, cut the diagonal support’s ends at a 45 degree angle; attach both pieces to the stud and to each other with 3″ (75 mm) woodscrews. Mount a bracket on every other stud for a moderate load, on every stud for heavier loads. Notch the shelves to fit around the studs and attach them to the brackets with 1-1/2″ (38 mm) woodscrews.

Utility shelving

Great for workshops with no exposed studs to hold shelves, this four-shelf, 11-1/2″ (285 mm) deep storage unit can be up to 8′ (2400 mm) high and 3′ (900 mm) wide. To make it you need five 8′ lengths of 2″ x 2″ (50 mm x 50 mm) DAR timber, two 6′ (1800 mm) lengths of 12″ x 1″ (300 x 25 mm) shelving, one 8′ (2400 mm) long 4″ x 1″ (100 x 25 mm) brace and two 2400 mm long 2″ x 1″ (50 mm x 25 mm) braces. Multiple units can be screwed together.

1: Clamp four of the 2″ x 2″ timbers together. With a square and pencil, mark across all four pieces the length you want the legs, and the position of each cleat. Cut the legs to size.

2: From the remaining 2″ x 2″ timbers, cut cleats that are the same length as the shelves’ depth. Then align each cleat on a marked line and attach it with 3″ woodscrews.

3: Cut the shelves to the length you want. With the end frames on edge, secure the shelves to the cleats with 1-1/2″ woodscrews. Stand the unit up and check that it’s level and square.

4: Mark and cut a 4″ x 1″ brace to run diagonally across the back from the top to bottom shelf. Attach with 1-1/2″ woodscrews. Add 2″ x 1″ braces to both sides in the same way.

Soft saddle:
The battered, saw-chewed top rails of most sawhorses can scratch finished wood or furniture. To provide a nonmarring surface, cover 12″ (300 mm) or so at one end of the rails with some lengths of scrap carpeting. Even better, make a timber cap for each sawhorse and cover its top with carpet. Then you can slip the caps on the sawhorses whenever you need them.

Tools at your fingertips:
Add a tool tray between the legs of your sawhorse. Make a shallow box — a 4″ x 1″ (100 x 25 mm) frame with a plywood bottom and attach it to cross braces running between each pair of legs. Put the tray on just one sawhorse so the pair will still stack.

Instant measure:
Nail, screw or glue an old steel tape measure blade to the side of your sawhorse’s top rail. You’ll find it invaluable every time you need to make a cut. Don’t use a wooden rule because it will soon become damaged and illegible.

Sawhorse dogs:
To hold your work in place on sawhorses, drill a series of holes along each top rail, then put nails or pegs in the holes. Measuring from a hole near the rail’s centre, make the distance to each hole correspond to a standard timber dimension — 1-1/2″, 2″, 3″, 4″, 6″, 8″, 10″ and 12″ (38, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150 200, 250 and 300 mm). At most, you’ll need to apply light hand pressure to steady a piece.

Knock-down horses:
Here’s a way to quickly set up and take apart sawhorses made with metal sawhorse brickets and 4″ x 2″ (100 x 50 mm) timbers. Screw the brackets to the legs, but not to the top rail. On each pair of legs, hinge a brace on one leg and cut a slot for it on the other leg. When you force the brace between the legs, the bracket teeth bite into the top rail and forms a sturdy sawhorse. When you release the brace, the rail lifts out and the legs fold.

Sawhorse substitute:
No sawhorse? Your stepladder can sometimes provide instant support for sawing, sanding, planing or painting timber. Simply lay the ladder on its side, open its legs,
and support the timber.

Versatile pieces

Extra reach:
Need to hold a wider piece in your portable workbench? Make four extension pieces from 2″ x 1″ (50 x 25 mm) timber. At one end of each piece, drill a hole and glue in a dowel that fits in the bench dog hole on the bench. At the other ends drill holes that will accept the bench dogs.

Relieve your aching back:
When oversize projects force you out onto the patio, don’t keep stooping to retrieve drills, saws, tapes, pencils and other items from the ground. Instead, take along a fold-up tool table. Made of 3/4″ (19 mm) particleboard or plywood, the table is bench height when set up, but only 4″ (100 mm) deep when collapsed.