DIY Folding Workbench

Tired of bending down and working on my garage floor I finally decided to build a workbench for myself. The problem is four of my motorcycles take up all the real estate in my garage. So I had to design a workbench which would fold away when not in use. I came up with a pretty simple design which involved a piece of plywood, three planks of teak wood and a few hinges.

I bought a 18 mm thick 5 x 4 feet marine plywood from a shop and took it to a nearby saw mill to cut it to 120 x 70 cm. I also bought three teak wood planks from the saw mill and cut two of them to waist height and the third to 120 cm. The 120 cm plank would be fixed horizontally to the wall and would hold up the plywood along one side whereas the two waist height planks would serve as legs and hold up the plywood on the opposite side.

I applied a clear coat since I didn’t want to do it after the workbench was installed.

Next I used a hinge to attach each leg to the bottom of the plywood. I left a decent enough margin from the edge of the plywood because I didn’t want to legs to come in the way of a vice or tools later.

Finally I used 3 inch screws to fit the 120 cm plank to the wall and connected the plywood to the plank using six hinges.

The end result was this.

I need to move out only one of my motorcycles to use the workbench. When I’m done I fold the table against the wall and roll the fourth motorcycle into the garage.

To complete the work area I installed a couple of peg boards above the folding workbench.

Next I plan to build a set of narrow shelves so that I can place my machine tools against the wall.