Review on Shop Fox D2056 Tool Table by Tony Meyer

Good table. Tips: Read the reviews of others who put this together and follow their advice because it helps. The written instructions are quite good. Read them 2 or 3 times. Look carefully at the picture of the assembled table, this is your only visual reference. However, I was able to assemble the steel frame (legs) myself without any problems. I took my time and kept everything by hand until the end of the build as instructed. I used a standard Philips screwdriver and a ratcheting T-handle for most of the assembly. The only time I didn't use the included hardware was when I replaced some hex head screws with flat washers with Phillips pan head screws. I did this because the long rails that are bolted to the wood panel have a gap underneath them due to the angle brackets. I put some washers I had under and over them before threading the hex screws all the way in. My hex bolts were a bit too long and I had to use three washers on one of the four I put (the middle one in the photo was supposed to show the hex bolts with washers. I had a hard time seeing them.) Handle: 1.) A meat block countertop is not a meat block countertop. It is not made of laminated pieces of solid wood. It's made of MDF (medium-density fiberboard) with a plastic coating that looks like a cutting block, but is actually just a plastic coating. Note 2.) The instructions state that you will need to drill 3/4" holes in the MDF table top to accommodate all of the screws you will need to insert to attach it to the leg assembly. I didn't have a stop on the drill, so I just drilled the holes at a shallower depth. I didn't want to accidentally drill through the MDF. As you can see in the third photo, one end of my countertop cracked. I don't know if the crack had something to do with how I screwed in the screws, but the MDF cracked anyway. Needless to say I was disappointed. I took my table to the garage, put a dab of glue over the crack, pressed the glue into the crack with a ruler, and attached as many staples as I needed to seal the crack. Tomorrow the glue should set well and the crack should close. By the way, there is a sticker on the underside of the worktop with the date of manufacture of the MDF. My MDF was made in January 2012, over seven years ago. I'm wondering if the age of this item has anything to do with its cracking? I don't know, but I'm interested. The instructions say to lay the cutting board upside down on the floor and place the assembled legs on top and line them up. I tried doing this by kneeling next to it and measuring the sides with a tape measure to try and center it. The first photo shows that the table legs are off center, but I didn't know that until I got up to take a photo for this review. LESSON: To center this thing, stand up and look down at it. Centering your eyes while standing is a lot easier than kneeling and using a tape measure, at least for a clumsy guy like me. JS303