Today’s project was building a work-counter in the basement. There was this big wall across from the washer and dryer just begging for a counter.

Materials:

• Sheet of 4×8′ plywood, with a veneer top so it looks and feels nice.
• 2×4 studs – 6x
• 1×2 – 2x
• 3″ coarse-thread drywall screws – many

Tools:

• Ryobi BTS21 table saw
• DEWALT DW716 Miter Saw
• Carpenter’s Square
• Black & Decker 18-volt Drill
• Irwin Industrial Tools 12-Inch Quick-Grip Bar Clamp
• 48-Inch Level

First, I screwed a 1×2 to the wall at the desired height of the counter and leveled it. The countertop could rest on this later during installation, helping it come level more quickly and taking some of the weight. This board was removed after installation of the countertop.

I cut the boards to length using the miter saw and built the frame for the countertop. This was pretty simple 2×4 construction, same as framing a wall, but smaller. I added diagonal corner-braces at two of the corners, ostensibly to keep it square, but mostly because I just bought a miter saw, and I wanted an excuse to miter something.

It’s important to build a frame like this on as flat a surface as possible, otherwise it will be warped. I built the frame on the concrete floor of the basement, because I figured that was as flat a surface as I was going to find. In the end, it was just a tiny bit warped, but not too bad.

After building the frame, I checked that it was square by measuring the diagonals. If the diagonals are equal, the frame is square. It was off by maybe 1/8″, but that was good enough for me.

In the picture above, the frame is resting on the 1×2 that I leveled against the wall. It has been screwed to the studs of the wall. A second 1×2 has been cut and half and is being used as temporary legs. The 1×2 legs are clamped to the outside corners of the frame. A level is placed on the frame to check the level. I raised and lowered the outside corners of the frame, re-clamping each time, until the surface was acceptably level.

Here, I have added the support legs and removed the clamped-on temporary legs. Cutting the support legs was kind of a pain in the ass. It required a lot of marking the board and cutting with the miter saw and then seeing that it still wasn’t quite right and re-cutting. In the end, everything turned out okay, but it took way longer than it really ought to. I could have sped things up with a tool to measure the angle between the leg and the wall, such as this one.

I was going to install three legs, one in the middle, but the table seemed plenty strong without a third one, and I omitted it. More leg-room!

Finally, I installed the top. This was cut from a 4×8′ piece of plywood, which I ripped in half using the table saw. I also wanted a backstop, to keep things from rolling off the table, so I took a left-over 4′ length of 2×4 and ripped it in half the long way, to make two roughly 1×4 pieces of wood. This was a bit of a precarious cut, because my 10″ table saw couldn’t cut deep enough to go all the way through the long side of the 2×4 in one cut, so I ended up removing the guard and just doing one cut down one side of the board and a second cut down the other side of the board. This involved a lot of push-boards, as I had no interest in getting my hands that close to the blade (duh). I need to make a feather-board ASAP to make cuts like this easier and safer.

Here’s a photo of the finished counter. I’ve installed power strips using zip-ties and four-way zip-tie mounting bases.