One thing I was lacking in my "shop" was actual work surface. I had one built in bench alongside the wall, and one 2x8 butcher block top bench. That wasn't going to be nearly enough for what I needed though. Like most have done before me, I decided to build a couple of the EAA 1000 benches. Some of their dimensions didn't make much sense to me (waste of wood), so I ended up making them slightly different. I wanted to maximize the use of material and get a maximum amount of bench space, so I made two 3'x4' benches and one 2'x4'. The two larger benches have an overhang for clamping (the EAA plans don't have an overhang for some reason), and I decided to put trim around the edges of the top so a sacrificial top could easily be popped in and out. The two large benches (you can just barely see the second one to the right in the photo below - it's now been moved) are the same height as each other and my existing 2x8 bench. The idea is that when I have long parts to deal with, I'll be able to clamp them together to have a single, large surface. I probably didn't need the smaller 2x4 bench, but since I had the material, figured I might as well build it.
I ended up putting two drop down casters on each of the big benches - just a few pieces of hinged 2x4 that drop the casters into place when you lift up that side of the table. This makes them a lot easier to move around, because they are deceptively heavy! Hindsight is 20/20. I built the workbenches by just following the plans. Had I really thought about it, I would have designed them differently. They are overbuilt in a big way. I guess I'll still be using them in 30 years.
Flash forward a few weeks below and you'll see what I've added to the space already. I added some clamp storage to the smaller workbench, and also decided that it'll probably primarily be used as my dimpling table. I'll explain the C-frame dimpler later, but basically I built up a couple of small platforms and covered them with the cheapest doormats I could find (thank you Dollar Store). The idea is that these platforms elevate the parts being dimpled, so the parts are at the same height as the dimpling die.
I had some shelving material from Dad, and since I lack storage in a big way, I installed one shelf for keeping material out of the way (have boxes of fiberglass material and some of the wing hardware up there right now). I still had material left over, so I threw a French cleat on the wall below the shelf and hung a piece of scrap plywood with a short shelf below it. This will be home for the actual plans to be clipped up, as well as the manual.
It didn't take me long to realize that my best bang for the buck in terms of maximizing space was to keep the two big workbenches together most of the time. I did some rearranging of other tools and ultimately butted the workbenches up against each other and threw a piece of plywood on top to tie them together. This gives me a large work surface that I can just drill into and trash without worrying about it. When I no longer need the large surface, I'll just take the benches apart.
