Garage Workbenches & Shelving, and a Table Saw Rennovation

I'm brand new here, as I just joined and this is my first post. I'm still getting my tools together to start this project, but I thought I'd share it get some feedback and advice. This post is about both my project and the table saw I purchased for it.

So... hello all!

Some Background
I'm a DIY guy and so was my father. I've learned quite a bit from him over the years. He passed away in 2015, so I inherited all of his tools, which includes quite a bit of word-working tools. Table saw, circular saw, chop saw, grinder, nail gun, 33 gallon air compressor, levels and squares, assorted power tools, and a ton of hand tons. I never bothered doing anything with all of these tools until my mother needed to move into a personal care home in 2019. I needed to rent out the home, so from 2019 to March of this year I spent a lot of time preparing for that by dismantling everything in their garage, including old hand-built cabinets, workbenches, and tons of pegboard. I dumped all of his tools into storage bins that line my own deep, 2-car garage and a separate rented storage unit. Now I'm designing and planning to build wrap around work benches and storage shelving to accommodate this influx of tools.

The state of my garage right now is quite messy, but at least somewhat organized. The wife wants to dump all of our seasonal decorations in here, so some storage bins of decorations are mixed in with the bins and bins of tools and supplies from my Dad. This was after spending a weekend cleaning to prepare for this project:



I've done minor woodworking before, but never for the enjoyment of it. I've cut plenty of boards, assembled many projects, and sanded, stained, and finished more times than I can remember. From recent hand rails to meet code to custom mobile carts to simple cabinets and furniture. I've always done woodworking as a necessity to serve a purpose, and as such I merged my rather amateurish skill with attention to detail to make things that served their purpose and were fairly decent. So I've only really done butt joints for projects, and my level of fancy is 45 degree cuts to make the joints flush with some decent sanding and finishing. If you spent the time reading this, at least you know where I'm coming from in my approach to this project.

If you have any advice to offer for both this project and my pursuits mentioned within this post, I'm all ears (or in this case on a forum, all eyes). I welcome it, especially constructive criticism. I'm no woodworking pro, so I'm trying to be sponge to soak up all the helpful feedback and tips I can. However, feel free to use woodworking jargon and technical names, as I am familiar with most of it and can easily search for the rest.

Project
I'm an IT guy and much more handy with computers and software than I am with woodworking tools, so of course I used CAD software to layout my project. I'm trying to keep the workbenches simple, all butt joints, with a good helping of overbuilding to make up for my limited skills. I want to make these workbenches and storage shelving a permanent addition to my garage, but not to the level of using wood glue or removing drywall.

On that note, my garage is finished with drywall and baseboards, and all of that is painted. It's an attached garage with an insulated garage door, so temperature and humidity swings aren't that bad. I will most likely be cutting the baseboards down to make my project completely flush with the drywall, as I plan to use 8' 2x4s along it for stability and mounting pegboards, as shown in my rendering:



This isn't my latest version, so I did make some changes since I saved this image. In a follow up post I'll update with new images of the design. Notes:

• The 45 degree support wedges are really supposed to be 2x4s cut with 45 degree ends for support of the shelves. My CAD program doesn't support 45 degree cut studs as a 3D object, but it did support triangles to represent that
• A 2x4 running along the ceiling, parallel to the middle shelf. I discovered my ceiling's studs run perpendicular to that shelf, so attaching that support to multiple studs would be ideal.
• The front portions of the front legs of workbenches will be cut down to 2x2s to take up less space. The sides of these legs will still be 2x4s.
• The right side bench below the open shelves is 30" deep, but in my new design it's 40" deep and slightly taller so that I can roll my new table saw under it for storage.
• There's about 21 of the vertical 8' 2x4s that run along the walls. You can see them on the right side, but they're mostly covered by peg board everywhere else.
• If I get a bit more serious with woodworking in the future, I can always build a workbench to place in the middle of that area complete with dog/holdfast holes. For now, I'll do all of my woodworking from these static workbenches or a pre-made portable work bench. I may decide to add a 2x4 along the outside edge of one of the workbenches and mount a vice when I'm done.

Table Saw
I sold my Dad's portable Hitachi table saw a couple years ago to help get rid of things. I could have kept it, but I knew that if I wanted to use a table saw again, I wanted a contractor saw instead. And that's what I did last weekend: found a used table saw that was exactly what I wanted. The ubiquitous Craftsman 10" table saw. An 86 year-old gentlemen was selling it since he could no longer use it. He claims to have only used it a few times and always stored it in his garage. From its condition I believe him. He was asking $225 but I talked him down to $175 after some haggling.

So I found this Emerson-built 113 with a full cast iron top and skeletal cast-iron wings in my local area. It's a 113.298762 model from 1993 in amazing condition with only surface rust on the cast iron and iron nuts & bolts. He even had some spare (though used) 30T and 40T ripping blades included, along with the original manual. This was back when manuals were essential, lol! I also found it online in PDF format, but it was still so nice to have a physical copy around. No scratches on the top either! Heck, even the red-painted metal throat plate is almost like new. The owner had made and installed these big wooden wheels on it, which I quickly removed and let him keep... I did tease him a bit about these Trojan Horse wheels.

Original ad photos from seller:





I'm not going to upgrade anything major on it yet. In the future I might add a fixed splitter (no room for a riving knife) and a new fence. I'm completely tearing down the table saw to clean everything and replace a couple parts before reassembling it. The motor is in great condition and it runs, although not as smooth as I'd like. I bought new bearings for the arbor, new cast iron pulleys/sheaves (which term should I use?) instead of the OEM cast aluminum ones, a new link-style V belt, and of course a brand new saw blade. I got l lowering casters and plan to build a simple wheeled base for it that I can raise up on the wheels to move around. I also bought a GrabberPro push block to use with it when I'm all done.

I soaked all of the metal hardware in Apple Cider Vinegar for at least 24 hours, with some of it soaking for 3 days. Seems to have removed all of the surface rust on the iron parts so far. I only needed to wipe them clean with a paper towel... no scrubbing required. I still have another batch I just starting soaking yesterday. Then I store them in plastic containers where I soak them in WD-40.





Taking everything apart:



I also used WD-40 to clean the table top. A few 3M finishing pads (almost the same as a Scotch-Brite pad) and a lot of elbow grease removed all of the surface rust and most of the stains. The top is looking great! I let WD-40 soak into the top over night after the initial scrubbing, then cleaned it all off. Now my finger just glides along it. That work was very satisfying.

Before, with a single pass of cleaning on the right side of the top (left side in photo):


I might spend a little more time cleaning the corners of the miter channels, but here's the result so far:


Question: the motor mount has an adjustable rail on the right side of it, near the belt. However, when I got it the motor was slanted a bit, ie: not parallel with the table. Is this normal, or is this adjustable when I reassemble it? Perhaps I might be able to adjust this with the motor mount that has two shafts connecting it to the saw cradle? I guess I can also add another bracket on the left side of the motor if adjustments don't help.

Future Projects
Eventually my next big projects are for the backyard. A new, bigger shed to replace my existing plastic shed, and also a renovation of our existing 30'x11' raised garden. The wife and I skipped gardening this year due to other life events, so this will in my mental queue in the next year or two.