Paulk Workbench

First – an apology. This article will have a limited audience. It will be interesting only to those who have a woodworking shop, those who aspire to have a woodworking shop or those who wish to be wowed by my creativity. God is still working on my humility.

The genesis of my workbench was rooted in a problem that I’m sure none of you have or have ever had. My workshop isn’t large enough. The area outlined in red is my woodworking area. It is comprised of a 240 sq. ft. dedicated machine tool area and my wife’s parking space which doubles as a place to set up a temporary work/assembly table.

Before I came upon the solution described herein, I was breaking down full sheets of plywood in the yard using a circular saw and two sawhorses overlaid with two-by-fours. Once the plywood was cut to rough dimensions, the sawhorses were then moved inside and covered by a sheet of plywood. This was my workbench – not very satisfactory, and frequently in the way of parking.

THE SOLUTION

In January of 2015, I was browsing Festool’s website and came across their TS55 track saw. In looking at YouTube for videos about the saw I found a video by Ron Paulk.¹ He had designed a novel workbench. Ron is a home builder and finish carpenter. His design was a lightweight, portable workbench to take to job sites. It breaks down for easy transportation. Quoting Ron: “It uses engineering to be strong, rather than mass.” So with my problem in mind, it occurred to me that this design might be easy to hoist to the ceiling for storage. And in combination with the TS55 track saw, it would provide an excellent solution to breaking down plywood, inside rather than outside. 

Here is the result of a calendar year of design and construction. It is Ron Paulk’s basic design, including material selections and dimensions. I did add some features to extend its functionality to meet other needs. Ron’s design incorporates a couple of extremely rigid torsion boxes which are bolted together to form the complete bench. Each box is made entirely of ½” birch plywood. The top is a full sheet of plywood minus the saw cut down the middle. Upon being bolted together, the two sections sit on folding saw horses. The sides, ends and stretchers have elongated holes to reduce weight and also provide access to the inside for temporary working tool storage. Ron’s design has provisions for hanging a table saw from one end of the bench, which I did not need. But the same characteristics that Ron desired for ease of portability and setup, which are light weight and detachable legs, I exploited to be able to hoist the bench and store it overhead. And since I will never be able to physically lift the two bench sections manually, even if I wanted to, I had the flexibility to add some features (which also added weight) without exceeding the design parameters of the hoist system.

Hoisting cables were attached to the underside of each end of each section. With all the added accessories, the bench weighs 215 pounds, including the legs. The hoist system is rated ½ ton.  

Even though I was able to purchase 11x17-formatted plans from Ron, and they were invaluable, I modeled the entire project in SketchUp. The following shows one image from the model. It is a view from the underside of one box (1/2 of the bench).

Structurally, each side of the bench includes two longitudinal rails, two ends, three internal stretchers and a bottom, which is hidden in this view. The frame and top are glued and pocket-hole screwed. The resulting structure is extremely stiff and if constructed carefully affords a very flat top and flat, orthogonal sides. 

This image is of a straight edge placed diagonally across the top. The top is flat to within less than 0.022. Flatness is important for an assembly table.

The openings around the sides provide temporary working tool storage. It is a common tendency to get our work surfaces cluttered with tools - the under-top storage is a nice solution.

The side and end  openings also afford side clamping points all around the perimeter.  The clamps are 5” Festool screw clamps.

The Festool clamps also work nicely for vertical clamping, here securing a pocket-hole jig to the work surface. The bench has 3/4” dog holes on 4-inch centers across the entire top.

 

This cross was unplanned. I accidentally set a running router down on the top while the bench was under construction. The gouge was deep and wide. After getting over my aggravation with myself, I decided I’d cut a piece of matching material to inlay to hide the damage. But that would have been obvious. Then I thought of making it a feature and inlaying of some type of tool - maybe a hammer or a saw, in a contrasting color. A couple of days later, out of the blue, it occurred to me to inlay a cross. How appropriate – a cross to cover my mistake – same as how the cross, and what Christ did on it, literally covers all my mistakes. The cross is in perspective, with the viewer looking up at it from the ground, and it is made of red mahogany, which is intentionally symbolic.

The integrated router table was a nice feature of the Paulk design. Due to sharing space with three cars and open shelving, I do my best to collect all dust and chips at their sources. The Milwaukee router, mounted below the bench top, is fitted with dust ports top and bottom. I did not want to have a flexible dust hose cluttering the bench top, so I integrated the dust plenum into the fence. The ducting is below the bench top. Being integrated into a 4x8 work surface, the router has generous in-feed and out-feed distances. This allows extremely long material to be machined. Also important – the fence tracks extend into the connected back half of the bench. This allows extremely wide material to be machined.

The dust port is connected to a 2-1/2 inch dust hose underneath.

A dust port cover is held in place by gravity. Lowering the router bit leaves a flat work surface for other tasks not requiring a router. 

The black lines on the top highlight obstructions underneath, which is important for planning clamping layouts. Red lines, which are barely visible along the outside edge, highlight electrical cable.

A 2’ x 2’ area directly behind the router fence comprises a downdraft table/sanding area. With dog holes in the top, it was a natural evolution to add a dust-collection box underneath connected to the dust collection system. Another smaller area is a downdraft area for large-chip collection. Because it is smaller and uses fewer holes, it affords a higher air velocity to move the heavier wood chips. Green lines on the top outline the two downdraft areas. There are three 4” quick-connect Dust Right ports. The left one is for the router, the middle for the sanding station and the right for the large chip collection area. A nearby 4" flex-hose affords quick connection to the dust collector system.

A six-foot, 12 gauge power cord provides power to the router, outlets and lighting.

The downdraft areas and integrated power and lighting were not part of the Paulk design.

There is a power strip on each side of the bench. There is a switched outlet for the router, and its power switch is conveniently-located in front of the router plate.

More or less diagonally opposite the router is a 7” Eclipse vise. Both faces are solid oak. 

I wanted to store the saw tracks in the bench, so this tray keeps both tracks secure from damage. A 1/8” Masonite shelf glides in and out with the tracks.

The end vise and integrated saw track storage were not part of the Paulk design.

The solution to breaking down plywood involved the purchase of a Festool TS55. The saw’s integrated dust collection was key to being able to move the task inside. Almost no saw dust escapes it. A heavy-duty nylon cable tie fastened to the ceiling and centered over the workbench supports the dust hose and power cord. This saw is simply amazing. The accuracy and smoothness of cuts produced with it are phenomenal, rivaling anything that can be done on the table saw. And it can do things a table saw can’t like sawing a straight diagonal cut across a large piece of wood or making inside, stopped cuts. 

Sacrificial strips of plywood prevent the saw blade from penetrating the workbench surface. A common application is covering the bench entirely with sacrificial strips and then placing a 4x8 project sheet on top to cut it into its desired pieces. The track is comprised of two, 55” segments connected by steel connector bars. Or they can be used individually for shorter cuts (4 feet or less).

The planer ceased to be portable for me after my back surgery, and I’ve never had a permanent mounting place for it. Now I can use one lift cable to lift it from the floor to the bench top. Before, I had to use it on the floor.

There are five 1/2” holes spaced down the center of the workbench to receive drop-in task lights. The lights are held in their mounting holes by gravity and connect to one of four outlets under the bench top. Access to the lighting outlets are through a large hole near the center of the bench.

The bench legs are also 1/2” birch plywood. Each set of legs is held together by 1-1/2” nylon straps secured with 1/2” lathe screws. Not installed yet here, the feet are covered with an anti-skid material, which is fiber-reinforced Harbor Freight drawer liner. The entire workbench is very solid and stable. 

For storing the bench, I place the sand bottles and sacrificial strips on top. The sand-filled bottles are for ballast to keep the cables taunt when the bench is not attached. After raising it a few inches, the legs are then placed on the top. Only the task lights and larger power tools have to be stored elsewhere.

What you see here weighs 280 pounds. Each of the four lift cables are rated for 250 pounds, so the working load is 28% of the maximum working load - a conservative working load. 

The attaching cables are splayed for a purpose. With two separable bench halves, I can drop the bench, disconnect the halves, raise one half and leave the other on the legs. This may come in handy for access to a long, narrow piece of furniture, such as a bookcase or sofa table, for assembly.

Bench stored on the ceiling and my wife is happy - and I’m happy. Win-win. There is 10” of clearance between the top of the bench and the ceiling, so if I have to store it mid-project, I can leave a lot of the tools and work-in-progress on top and just set the legs aside. We can even get the GMC Safari underneath it for loading.

There are redundant safety cables at all four corners which connect to fixed eye bolts in the ceiling. These must always be attached before I’ll allow anyone to walk under it. (And I don’t want to have to explain to State Farm how a workbench fell on the car.)

THE HOIST SYSTEM

The hoist, track and cable trolley are fastened to the attic ceiling (underside of house roof). It was important not to encroach on valuable attic storage space. The hoist is rated at 1100 pounds and is from Harbor Freight. The controller is on the wall near the workbench.

The black cable trolley connects the hook from the hoist to the four lift cables. It is welded to a 1” EMT glide running on a 3/4” EMT track. I welded up the trolley using material from a discarded bed frame. Four turnbuckles provide for balancing the load. The cables are arranged in a 1-1/2” square pattern. A safety cable provides redundancy to the turnbuckles.

On the other end of the track is a pulley block of four pulleys which direct the cables down through the garage ceiling. I made the track long enough to allow dropping the bench all the way to the floor for offloading heavy projects.

The four inner pulleys direct the cables horizontally to the four drop pulleys. On the far right and far left are the drop pulleys for one end of the bench. These are load-bearing. The 2x6 into which they are bolted span five 2x12 ceiling joists, and are fastened to the joists with seven 5/16x5 lag bolts. 

The black box on the right is a limit switch to shut off the hoist before the bench gets too close to the ceiling. Old guys like me can doze off while operating machinery.

Clearance for the door opener was tight. But it worked.

The first item I made using the bench was a Christmas present for our granddaughter.

USAGE EXAMPLES

Even before completing the workbench, I learned about the versatility of its clamping capabilities. Here I was clamping the router fence parts as the glue dried. This is a good example of combining vertical and horizontal clamping for one task.

The ability to clamp work pieces to be sanded over the downdraft area has been a pleasant surprise. These are the stool legs for the Christmas stool being finish sanded before assembly.

These work frames space the work 2-1/2 inches above the bench surface, allowing enough clearance for drilling, hole sawing, jig sawing, sanding, etc. Dust collection! The frames knock down and store in the bench.

The flat panel was to become a side of a table saw accessory storage cabinet. Here I was cutting a slotted hole with a hole saw and a jig saw. Dust collection!

This is the glue up of a tool drawer for another project. The drawer joints are box joints, but are hidden by the clamping cauls. It was helpful to have the horizontal clamping to the bench top to keep the drawer square, flat and in place as the other clamps were added.

To the right of the router is an area to temporarily mount a miter saw. There are captured T-nuts in the bench top to receive the attaching bolts. Pictured is the setup for cutting the compound angles on the stool legs.

CONSTRUCTION

For anyone who might build one, I have some observations about aspects of the construction.

This shows making the side rail cutting template. It is also a good example of where the track saw excels over a table saw.

And here using the template to cut holes in a side rail with the plunge router equipped with a 1/4" up-cut spiral bit and good waste material collection.

A plunge router with a 3/4" up-cut spiral bit was used for drilling the many dog holes in the workbench top. The top halves were stacked so that two holes were cut at a time. An 8’ template with holes spaced at 4 inches, and a movable, indexed router stop were used to accurately place each row of holes.Cutting all the holes only took about 45 minutes.

The orthogonality of the surfaces and the flatness of the top are very dependent on the precision of the cuts on the frame parts and their assembly.  All the side rails, ends and stretchers were ripped using the same fence setting. The ends and stretchers needed to be exactly 90 degrees to the side rails and all cut to length using the same stop setting. A clamping caul was used to hold the parts in position for gluing and screwing. Pocket hole screws and glue were used to fasten the ends and stretchers to the rails.

After the frame was assembled, it was glued and screwed to the workbench top, again using glue and pocket-hole screws. The assembly cauls were essential to ensure orthogonality.

I sized the frame 1/32 smaller than the top on all four edges, and the overhang was later removed with a bearing-guided trimmer bit in a hand-held router. The side and end cauls are made of two layers which are offset by 1/32 to achieve this. It was important to contain the sides and ends as the pocket screws were set.

The dog holes came in handy for locating the router plate guide template.

Before attaching the bottoms, all the interior equipment was installed, beginning with the wiring. The power cord and all internal wiring are 12 gauge.

This shows the router dust plumbing with anti-static ground being installed. The flanged connector in the top of the field of is aligned with the hole in the bench top to connect with the sliding plenum on the router fence. The smaller port connects to the router directly to provide under-top waste collection. This was later replaced with a larger, custom router shroud for more effective collection. Reinforcing strips for the miter track and fence guide tracks were glued and nailed to the underside.

The dust collection bin (far left) is tapered in two directions to attempt to keep air velocity constant across the work area. The clean-out ports are for retrieving hardware. Total hole area is 26 in².  Pipe cross section is 12.6 in². The smaller box in the foreground is the large-chip collection box.

A five-star knob, 3/8 inch bolt and fender washer, in combination with a “key-hole” opening in the opposing side provide a strong, but easily-disconnected joint between the two workbench sides. There are five such connector assemblies spaced evenly along the longitudinal bench dimension.

Rails made of two-by material were glued to the underside of the top and span between adjacent stretchers to provide strong mounting points for the end vise. (No, that’s not a level attached to the end of the bench –it’s a straight edge, at least as it’s being used.)

Attaching the bottom was a critical step in ensuring a flat top. Up to this point, the structure bent like a wet noodle. Placing the top on an absolutely flat surface before attaching the bottom was crucial. Any twist in the structure after the glue dried would have been permanent. I taped stacks of playing cards (0.011" each) underneath the corners and rails to get entire the structure in the same plane and used the saw tracks to check for twist.

I use the workbench almost every day. It has been in use for over a year now. It is always a pleasure to use. Setting up the bench takes less than four minutes. Storing it takes about the same time. This is far less time than I used to spend driving to work every day before retirement. It provides a place to break down 4x8 sheets of plywood dust-free. But much more than that, it is a great construction and assembly table. It has a large-surface router table, two down-draft areas for sanding and drilling, places for mounting a miter saw and planer, and lots more features and uses. We have even covered it with a clean drop cloth to wrap Christmas presents on it. In summary, it solved my main problem while providing many pleasant surprises.

Me - working on a Vacation Bible School project.

Congratulation for getting to the end of a long, boring article! Should anyone choose to make a Paulk workbench, I’d be glad to share all the things I did wrong so maybe you can have a more pleasurable assembly experience. Just post a comment with contact information and your request. There is also a thirteen-part construction video series Ron produced which was very helpful to me.² In these videos, you can also see the TS55 track saw in action.

References: 

1. Paulk Work Bench II overview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnNi6Tpp-ac&feature=iv&src_vid=sJoGTf6KL8s&annotation_id=annotation_11341
2. Building the Paulk Workbench – 13-part construction video series on YouTube:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt77_jugVZs&src_vid=KnNi6Tpp-ac&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_402348