Portable workbenches?

[tetris]

Hi All.

 

I'd appreciate your thoughts for a portable bench for major home renovation (anything from decorating to fitting new windows and replacing small flat roofs).

 

I've got an old aldi workmate but that's quite flimsy and not suitable for working on anything large.

While I still have access to my woodworking workshop for a few weeks, I was thinking of making a couple sawhorses with the top surface drilled for dogs + figure out some way of attaching a woodworking vice to it. Maybe a way to join two horses with a board so the whole thing is heavier & more stable while being used, then knock it down into 3 separate parts.

 

Any cheap, smart & easy solutions to this problem? I've searched the forum, but just saw a thread about workmates.

 

Thank you.

[Nickfromwales]

[ToughButterCup]

Two Bosch workbenches. PWB 600.

I've had them since 2016, been outside in all weather for almost every day since then . Cost £80 ( then)

 

I'm going to replace them with the one @Nickfromwales suggests because the replacement cost of the Bosch is now £120 - at least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask.

[Bancroft]

3 hours ago, tetris said:

top surface drilled for dogs

You can actually buy work surfaces already drilled for 20mm dogs - I bought one as a spare for my Festool worktop.

 

Relatively cheap and you can then add whatever legs you want.

Alternatively, if you want to really up your game do a Google search for Paulk workbenches.  You can get plans for them and make them as big/small/portable as you need.

[tetris]

Thanks. The Bosch looks like a slightly upsized workmate?

 

2 hours ago, Bancroft said:

You can actually buy work surfaces already drilled for 20mm dogs

 

Yeah, but the idea of paying somebody £100 to drill a few holes in MDF for me just doesn't resonate. I've heard a lot of good stories about MFT, but personally, I have 10 dog holes in my workbench and I've only used 5 in 15 years I've owned it. One of those 5 was only used 3 or 4 times.

 

Keter looks interesting but on the small side? How would it handle chopping a 2.4m-long 2x4? 

Edited Saturday at 17:12 by tetris

[saveasteading]

 

This is what our chippies are using on site, with 2 bits of 4x2 on the brackets, and a sheet of osb. very sturdy.  Roughneck sawhorse twinpack. £120 but I've seen them cheaper.

 

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, tetris said:

Yeah, but the idea of paying somebody £100 to drill a few holes in MDF for me just doesn't resonate

Erm……it would be you drilling the holes!

 

A 20mm drill bit for £5 and some time marking out is total cost there. Copy other ready made benches, considering their logic for where these holes are and why etc.

[tetris]

1 minute ago, Nickfromwales said:

Erm……it would be you drilling the holes!

It will be indeed. I was replying to bancroft about pre-made MFT tops.

 

Plenty of drill bits here, 20mm or otherwise 

[Alan Ambrose]

Depends what you’re doing, of course. But, we tend to use (for a timber frame build) 3 x sets of bought in sawhorses with sheets of 18 or 25mm ply on top. No vice, maybe the occasional clamp. We’re largely cutting sheets of ply and C24 at this point. Not much use for an mft yet. A tool strongbox for somewhat nickable tools, some wire shelves for non-nickable tools and supplies (these are both undercover now) and a 20ft container for less used tools, fixings etc.

[ToughButterCup]

21 hours ago, saveasteading said:

....

 

I used a pair of these for a year, until a pair of wrens nested in them two years in a row.

They tucked themselves up underneath the cross-beam where the legs attach to the beam.

 

The following year the (same?) wrens decided to use the padlock cover I welded onto our container doors.

 

I know when I'm beaten. 

 

 

 

[Bancroft]

On 04/07/2026 at 18:12, tetris said:

Keter looks interesting but on the small side?

Keter?  I was talking about Paulk workbenches - Can make them pretty much any size you like.

Agree with you about the number of holes versus number used.  But, on that odd occasion they do come in handy.