About The Rusty Bench

Made in a One-Car Garage

I’m Garrett Dunn, and I learned to weld in a single-car garage with a borrowed wire-feed welder, a face shield from a yard sale, and no idea what I was doing. My first beads looked like chewed gum. The Rusty Bench exists because I kept going anyway — and because the internet had plenty of advice from professional fabricators with $40,000 shops, and almost none from someone figuring it out next to a parked Corolla.

Mistakes Are the Curriculum

I document my failures on purpose. The welding table top I warped by running beads in the wrong sequence. The knife blank I ruined by overheating the edge before quench. The “bargain” angle grinder that ate three discs and then itself. Every one of those mistakes taught me something a product page never would, and they’re all written up here so you can skip them. When a project goes sideways, that’s usually the most useful post of the month.

What’s on the Bench

Welding projects and technique for hobbyists — mostly flux-core and MIG, the processes garage budgets actually start with. Knife making from old files and leaf springs. Vintage tool restoration: rust removal that works, japanning, bringing a $10 flea-market plane back to life. Workshop setup for small spaces, and honest budget-tool reviews, because most of us aren’t choosing between good and great — we’re choosing between okay and dangerous.

Who This Is For

Garage makers, first-time welders, tool-restorers, and anyone who ever looked at a rusty thing and thought “I could fix that.” No formal training required — I never had any. Wear your safety glasses; sparks don’t care how experienced you are.

Keeping the lights on: the site runs ads and some tool links are affiliate links (small commission, no extra cost to you). If a tool is junk, I say it’s junk — the review history speaks for itself.

Get In Touch

Stuck on a project, or restored something cool? Contact me here — I genuinely like seeing bench photos.