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I have about 40 linear feet of bench space in my garage. Its cheaper to make durable benches out of 4'x8' sheets of 3/4" plywood with another 3/4" sheet of mdf underneath. I cut them to 3'x8' sheets and use the extra 1' as a shelf. You need the 3' bench space for equipment.

Ikea used to make things out of real wood but they haven't in years. Anything other than actual plywood will sag.



I cut 48x96 sheets into 48x32 benchtops, I find that ideal. Deep enough to hold a lot but shallow enough to still reach the shelves.

Use Gorilla glue to laminate a piece of thin (1/4" or 3/8") ply to a piece of rigid pink foam board, with another piece of thin ply on the bottom. This foam-core sandwich is stiff but lightweight, acoustically dead, and very cheap. You can use a ton of random objects or just a vacuum-bag to apply the lamination pressure. Stick some one-by on the edge and radius it with a router, and you're done.


What's the mdf underneath for? Would another sheet of plywood (offset from the one above, for strength at joints) work better, but is more expensive?


I honestly prefer IKEA's lightweight honeycomb techique.

They're crap at surface impacts (putting a sheet of plywood on top is a great idea) but really good at rigidity.

If only they were available in decent depth dimensions, like they used to be.




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