So trees are pretty cool. They take carbon out of the air and turn it into oxygen that

we breathe. Pretty important. Trees take that bad carbon and turn it into wood. Wood literally

grows on trees. We plant good stuff and we get more good stuff in return. You reap what

you sow. Today we're going to talk about different types of wood and how humans can make wood

themselves, while I show how to build this workbench behind me. One of these days I want

to make one of those cool epoxy river tables that you see on Instagram, but I'll save that

for another video.

You might have heard about something on the Internet lately called #TeamTrees. A bunch

of people all over the world are joining together to raise 20 million dollars to plant 20 million

trees. One dollar equals one tree. And we're almost there. Currently we're sitting just

shy of 15 million dollars. I was going to donate $10,000, but then I saw Linus donating

$10,000 and I couldn't let him beat me. So I'm one-upping him with $15,000. $15,000 equals

15,000 trees planted. And the cool thing right now is that YouTube is actually matching the

donations - $ 1 million worth. So that $15,000 that just got donated is now $30,000. And

your YouTube donation can be doubled as well. They're still doing it. Nobody can do it alone

though. It takes a team. So if you enjoy oxygen, find that YouTube donation link somewhere

around this video, or go to TeamTrees.org and donate directly on the website. And by

our example we can show everyone that the planet is important. The link is down in the

description. Now it's time to show you how I built my workbench.

Let's get started.

[Intro]

So I recently moved shop and I don't have a good spot to put my power tools – you

know, my table saw and my miter saw. Right now I just have this white desk and it adjusts

up and down but it's not super convenient. So today I'm going to build something that

fits in this place that works a lot better for the woodworking tools that I'm going to

put there. It is weird in a video about planting trees that I'm using cut down trees for this

project. But a lot of this wood has been salvaged from other projects and was just laying around

and would have been thrown away. I've jotted down some tentative ideas of what I want this

project to turn out like, but since I haven't built it yet and the plans aren't finalized,

it'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

So I'm going to be using these larger posts as the table legs. You might have noticed

that these 4x4's have little notches in them. That's because this particular wooden post

is pressure treated – meaning that it's designed to be used outdoors, like for a deck

or a fence.

[Sawing sounds]

The wood is soaked with preservative chemicals in a pressure chamber, and the wood absorbs

those chemicals to keep the wood from decomposing with time or being eaten by bugs. Little grooves

dug into the sides of the wood help the preservative sink in deeper inside the beam. From the cross

section of the wood you can see how deep the chemicals from the treatment seeped into the

wood. The little grooves in the side help facilitate that. Of course once it's dries

it's totally safe to touch and work with. But you still never want to burn pressure

treated lumber in a campfire.

The most common size board used in construction is a 2x4, which means that the board is 2

inches by 4 inches. Fun fact – the board is not actually 2 inches by 4 inches, it's

1 ½ by 3 ½. You can see from this diagram of how a round tree is cut into different

sized boards. The rough cut dimensions are indeed the exact 2 inches by 4 inches, but

after it's been dried and smoothed out, it shrinks a half inch on either side. But we

still call it a 2x4.

Wood glue is a yellow adhesive designed specifically for wood, and when it's dried it's stronger

than the wood itself. Since I'm screwing everything together, I don't really need the glue, but

my Grandpa Jerry, who this channel is kind of named after, he would slather glue on all

of his woodworking projects. So we might as well throw some on for good luck.

The problem with naturally grown pieces of wood is that as they dry, they warp a bit.

They twist, Especially if they aren't stored flat. So these minor variances have to be

taken into account during construction. Now that the top is framed out, I can flip it

over and frame the bottom shelf. So using salvaged wood scraps like this might mean

that the work bench doesn't look as pretty, but you know, it's a work bench so it's not

meant to be pretty.

Now that the frame of the table is finished, the whole thing will eventually be mounted

on wheels so it'll be off the ground. The bottom shelf is attached to the inside of

the leg pillars so I'll never hit my shins on it when I'm working next to the table.

[Drilling sounds]

For the bottom shelf supports I could use any 2x4, but since I have some scraps laying

around, we'll use this instead. Engineered lumber is where things start to get cool.

A large board like a 2x10 can be used as a beam. But larger and longer wood has a tendency

to be irregular with knots, splits and weak point inconsistencies that you can't trust

to support very heavy loads. This is where engineered lumber comes in. This lower shelf

definitely isn't considered a heavy load of course, but I can still cut this scrap down

to the size I need. These man-made, perfectly straight and true beams can handle consistent

loads every single time. And because of that they're used a lot in residential construction.

Small wood fragments are glued together and steam pressed to make these beams. This particular

fragment was previously headed to the dump, but now it's found a second life supporting

my shelf.

I'm using an MDF sheet to cover the shelf surface. And before I explain how that's made,

this clip shows the reason I'm mounting the table saw flush with the top surface of my

workbench. When ripping or cutting long pieces of wood, it really helps when both the sides

and the end of the board are supported and the worktable I'm building will be able to

do just that once it's finished.

You can see that the sheet I just used is made up of very fine fibers. This is MDF,

or medium density fiberboard. Another engineered piece of wood. It starts off as a tree of

course, but then is ground up, steamed, and fluffed into fibers. Then combined with a

resin or wax and is hot pressed into a long flat board. The nice thing about MDF, particle

board, and plywood, which we'll talk about in a minute, is that they can all be made

from the leftover dust and chips from milling regular boards. None of the tree is wasted.

The top of the table is rather complicated since I want to mount my miter saw into the

table so that the surface of the saw is flush with the surface of the table, making it easier

for me to cut long boards. To do that, I'm going to take a 2x6, which is a slightly wider

version of a 2x4, and rip it to the same depth as my miter saw. In my case, about 4 ½ inches.

That way when I frame the top of the table I can make a little square cut out in the

center for the saw to sit in. You'll see what I'm talking about in a second.

[Drilling sounds]

All the support boards I have here in the center are going to keep the top of the table

sturdy and steady. The top of the table is another thicker piece of MDF. The same engineered

fiber type board we used for the bottom shelf. Since I don't have my table top saw mounted

yet I'm just using a circular saw to cut the large sheet the right way. It's a bit slower

and not quite as exact, but still gets the job done. All of these saws accomplish different

things.

Alright the table saw cut is done. Now we just need to cut out this little portion here

for the miter saw.

[Sawing sounds]

The saw I'm using now to cut the 2x4 frame off the

table opening is called a reciprocating saw. And this saw I'm using here to cut the top

of the MDF is a jigsaw. Measure twice – cut once. Now that the top is cut, nice, I can

save the top piece and add it to the base of the miter saw opening.

So in order for me to mount the miter saw inside of the table, I'm going to use these

metal brackets right here. These are slightly modified construction framing brackets. I

just drilled a couple extra holes in them and mount it to the underside of the 2x6 that

we, you know, shortened up a little bit. That way they'll be able to handle the weight of

the puzzle piece chunk we cut out of the top board earlier, which is going to sit down

inside of this hole we framed out.

I have a feeling that we're going to add supports here in a minute, but I'm going to see if

the miter saw fits. Not too shabby. So I'll definitely need supports right here, but it

looks like everything is good. Once we get the top piece on it should be flush with the

bed of the miter saw. Now we just need to add the table saw portion after we get those

supports. So now I'm going to put the supporting pillars underneath the platform for the miter

saw.

And yeah, even though I'll be screwing the top board into place, I'm still going to be

adding glue everywhere because 1) that's what Jerry would do, and 2) it will help the table

structurally and keep it from twisting or bending because it will be totally secured.

I'm going to countersink the screw holes so that when I do screw in the top boards to

the table and they won't catch on anything sliding over the top. It turns out that my

metal strap idea wasn't strong enough for my miter saw so I added some 2x4's underneath

the miter saw cutout to help support the saw and give me a place to screw the saw into

the table to help hold it in place.

And there we go. The miter saw is in position, flush with the surface of the work table.

Now we just have to build the side rack for the table saw. This is also going to sit flush

with the table top so it can simultaneously use the surface of the table and also be the

surface of the table if needed, since the surface of the saw is flat and it can retract

the blade into itself. For the table saw rack we're going to use particle board. This is

a much lower quality version of the MDF – also cheaper. And is actually made from hot pressing

sawdust into a sheet instead of using fibers. The particles are much bigger than fibers

and it's not quite as strong. But I had some saved from some old shelves I tore out, so

here we are, giving it a second life. It'll be supporting the same saw that cut it in

half.

Luckily, now that the miter saw is positioned in the table, I can use it to cut the boards

for the table saw rack. Getting off the floor is a welcome change. The trickiest part of

this side rack is to get it to the right height. If the saw sits too low, it'll defeat the

whole purpose. Using some clamps, math, and measuring, I was able to get things pretty

well figured out. Once the saw's framed to where I want it, I can quickly cut the OSB

for the lower shelf. OSB or oriented strand board is also engineered and man-made. Except

this time, instead of using fiber or sawdust, it's using larger yet still super thin strands

of wood. These thin chunks of wood are all then heat pressed into one massive sheet.

The cool part about all these different wood products I've used in this table is that nothing

goes to waste from the tree when they were being made since every part of the tree can

be used. Trees also grow pretty quick and they are renewable. And sustainably managed

forests are a net positive for the environment. Even though the trees get cut down to make

this lumber, the forests all get planted again right away so they can repeat the process.

And, of course, as the trees are growing, they pull carbon out of the air and give us

oxygen. It's a win-win.

I'll get the supports for the particle board screwed in. Then I can start screwing down

the particle board itself. This stuff is pretty flimsy when it comes to screwing. I'm pre-drilling

my holes so that the pressure of the screw going through the wood doesn't blow out the

edges. It doesn't hold together as well as normal wood, or even OSB or MDF. I'll also

be countersinking the holes, just like we did on the table top so that the screws sit

flush with the surface. The nice thing about adding wheels is that if I want to raise or

lower the table an inch or two later on, I can just change the size of the casters.

And there we have it. The workbench is complete except for the casters on the bottom. It is

flat along the table saw and flat along the miter saw. Plenty of room for activities.

Now I'm going to flip it over and add 6 wheels on the bottom. The wheels can hold 1500 pounds

so no worries there about them being fragile. They'll be able to handle the workload just

fine.

[Drilling sounds]

Yeah maybe I went a bit overboard on the wheels, but they come in packs of 4. And there you

have it. A fully functional work station that fits my miter saw and my table saw with plenty

of room for storage. I'll probably add a power strip in the future to organize the cords

a bit better, but either way, it's way better than my previous table.

I'm pretty excited with how well it turned out, and it should last me for forever. Don't

forget about Team Trees. Even a few dollars goes a long way, especially when everyone

chips in. So do it now before you forget and let me know down in the comments if you donated.

Also let me know if you enjoyed this video. It's a bit different than my normal content

but I feel like it was pretty important. It's for a good cause. Come hang out with me on

Instagram and Twitter. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.