The Perfect Gear Garage

I set my Happy Norwegian Ski Tuning Stand on my workbench, placed my skis on the blocks, and grumbled in frustration. There was barely enough space to hold my skis while I tried to tune and wax them. Frustrated, I moved to my Swix portable table. Same problem.

I stopped, looked around my garage workshop, and decided to make a change. Every time I went to work on my gear, whether it was skis, bikes, woodworking projects, or fly-tying sessions, I never seemed to have adequate space. Enough was enough.

I finished tuning my family’s skis, hung them back up, and went inside to look for a solution. After a deep, deep dive down the YouTube rabbit hole, I found the classic Moravian Workbench.

The Moravian Workbench is a portable, compact, and versatile design. It can be easily disassembled and moved. It originated in Old Salem, N. C., a Moravian settlement founded in 1766.

Thanks to the wonders of YouTube and the passion of Will Myers, a furniture maker who began teaching students how to build them at The Woodwright’s School and, more important for me, sold an eight-hour instructional video complete with plans I could follow to build my own, I decided “Ay, caramba, I’ve found it!”

So, I bought the video and plans, and on October 23, 2024, I started my workbench journey. Because this bench was a classic design, originally built using only hand tools, I decided to follow suit—which meant borrowing hand planes and other gear from my father and buying what he didn’t have, like a good set of chisels and a way to sharpen them. Each night, I watched the section of the video I was working on and tried my best to emulate Will’s instructions. I made mistakes—again and again and again—and there were many nights I went to sleep angry and frustrated with my head spinning, trying to figure out what I had done wrong.

When things turned impossible, I texted my friends who were excellent woodworkers and had a lot of experience with hand tools. That’s how I learned a hand plane works much, much better when the blade is installed correctly. Also, keeping them sharp is imperative.

Slowly, the bench started to take shape. I got the bench top glued up and planed level. Then, the undercarriage started coming together, and finally, I figured out how to build and install the tool tray.

Getting a little cocky, I borrowed a router and made a custom inlay in the workbench top—scared the entire time that I was ruining my bench once and for all.

The final step was putting on the perfect finish. I decided to try mixing my own from a recipe I found on, you guessed it, YouTube.

For five days, I applied a coat, let it cure, and then repeated. Slowly, agonizingly so, the wood began to soak up the finish, and when I applied the final coat of wax, it was as perfect as I could make it.

I smiled, circled the date (April 15, 2025) on my desk calendar, and sent a text to everyone I know with a picture and proof I was finally done.

My winter project was complete. I was a happy man. So happy, I agreed to make benches for my friends who needed the perfect workspace for their gear garages. To speed up the process, I automated the workflow—using power tools and learning from my first-time mistakes. I can now build a bench in about one week, a little longer for my friends who want a leg vice or dog holes drilled into the top.

If you want one for your space—and don’t want to build it yourself—you can order it on our website: www.moraviandesigns.com. First come, first served, of course, but you’ll like what you get, when you get it.

In the end, my new workbench completed my gear garage workflow and organization, making maintenance of our family’s gear a joy and, I hope, helping to give their expensive gear a long life.

If you want to see how our gear garage is organized, you can view the video on our YouTube channel (@McCallLife).

If you like the products we used in our garage—and let me tell you, we’ve tried every wrong product before finding the right one—here’s a list of products I’ve found to be essential: