Decided to re-design my indoor workbench ready for next winter ( well you have to think ahead a bit ! ) what I needed was one that was dead flat,it is vital with wing construction to have a surface that will stay that way with no warps or buckles,so I visited my local B & Q hellbent on achieving that perfect surface,firstly I purchased a de-luxe wallpaper pasting table onto which my structure would stand,do not confuse those slip-shod cheap tables with the de-luxe version,these have warren girder lower braces which hold solid and have a thick surface,you can easily stand on them and they dont move anywhere,price around 22 pounds but well worth it,next you will need to buy a piece of MDF board to fit the top,get this cut at the shop free it is well worth it,now select some two and a half inch square timber paying particular attention to selection,buy enough to support the edges and with at least four cross pieces,take your lumber home and lay out and cut the edge and cross pieces,mark with a pencil and drill pilot holes to take countersunk screws in the MDF,now glue the pieces to the base with PVA glue and screw up tight,recess the screws and fill the holes with plastic wood filler,now lay the finished board on top of your sturdy pasting table,look along one edge to make sure it is exactly flat,good old Mk.1 eyeball will tell you if it has a sink or out of line,to rectify this cut a strip of wood to the offending area and glue into place,do another check with a metal straight edge,once everything is to your satisfaction and you are sure that you will be able to build many perfectly flat structures on it then go ahead and glue it to the top of your table,then screw into each corner and mid outer at the edges,use those really good bite self tapper screws to complete the job.
As modifications to your superb new bench treat yourself to a self healing cutting board from your local graphics supplier,this can be placed to the side of your bench and will save many blunted knife blades and proper cuts into your wood,it will last years together with your great new bench to provide many happy modelling hours which above all will produce accurate work.
If you are intending to use pins to build your models buy some panels of foamboard ( graphic suppliers again ) and lay them onto the workbench,you could add a few pieces of tape at the edges if required,after many,many models you can just replace the foamboard easily when the pin holes become intolerable.
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