Realized I was overthinking my workbench design for years

I spent months planning this big workbench with all these fancy features like a built-in vice and storage drawers. Last weekend my neighbor shows me his beat up 2x4 bench he built in an afternoon. He just threw some plywood on top and called it done. I watched him build a bookshelf on it and it worked perfectly. All that time I spent planning could have been spent just building stuff. Has anyone else caught themselves making a simple project way harder than it needed to be?

2 comments

2 Comments

sanchez.blair13d ago

You ever read that article about how the guy who invented the post-it note spent years trying to make a super strong glue but ended up with a weak one that worked better for notes? It's the same thing with workbenches. I saw a woodworking channel on YouTube where the guy said his best bench was just a solid door on sawhorses, because he could move it around and swap out the top. Planning is fine but it can turn into a way to avoid actually making something, you know?

evand6513d ago

My dad was the same way. He spent three months planning a birdhouse once, drew up blueprints and everything. My grandpa just nailed some scrap wood together over coffee and it lasted twenty years.