THE LSD WORKSHOP BENCH - MK II
Preface
If you are reading this expecting a detailed account of how to build a workbench, you may be disappointed.
There will certainly be timber.
There will be life lessons, mistakes and enough sawdust to keep a small vacuum cleaner employed for several lifetimes.
A workbench does get built.
Eventually.
But this story was never really about the workbench.
The LSD Workshop Bench Mk II began as a practical problem.
I needed a second bench.The workshop was growing. Projects were becoming larger. Teaching was becoming a bigger part of my life.
One bench was no longer enough.
The solution seemed straightforward.
Design a bench.
Buy some timber.
Build it.
Anyone who has ever made anything will already know where this is going.
Nothing is ever that simple.
Somewhere between the first sketch and the final assembly, the project gathered people.
Yuvraj arrived carrying curiosity. Darsh arrived carrying precision. Liam arrived carrying questions.
Liselle arrived carrying food, patience and the remarkable ability to look after everyone else while expecting absolutely no credit for it.
Even Babu, who sold me the hardware, managed to become part of the story.
The further we progressed, the less the project felt like a woodworking build and the more it felt like a record of a particular moment in time.
A collection of weekends.
Shared meals.
Terrible jokes.
Questionable decisions.
Unexpected lessons.
And a growing realization that the objects we build are often less important than the people who help us build them.
The comic strips that follow are based on real events. It encapsulates 10% of what transpired in reality.
Some details have been simplified.
Some moments have been exaggerated.
A few disasters have undoubtedly become funnier with the passage of time.
That is the privilege of storytelling.
The facts remain intact.
The spirit remains unchanged.
What began as a workbench project eventually became a story about mentorship, friendship, family and the strange ways in which ordinary weekends become meaningful memories.
The bench was completed on the 14th of June, 2026.
The story, however, is still under construction.
Welcome to the workshop.
— Merwyn Dsouza