Definitely need to stir porridges with MB units. Ran an experiment this morning with cooking oatmeal in a small, 1 qt saucepan (5" diameter magnetic base). The MB had trouble with low heat settings with the small saucepan. At a "2" setting, the small pan would intermittently boil furiously in a torodial pattern and then shut down, boil, shut down, etc. A "3" setting was manageable with frequent stirring. With the previous experiment with the 2 qt sauce pan, the small bubbles started out in a ring shaped band, but quickly spread across the whole bottom and gave an very even boiling. Did not think to look with smaller pan this am, but note the cooking description above. I agree that overnight in a crockpot is much the better way to cook steel cut oats. I was only experimenting because of amck's posting. I use my MB for pretty much the same reasons you do and for "cooking stations" at some large parties. Sounds like Tuesday Morning could be a good deal. We used to have one in the nearest big town (actually, our state's largest city), but they pulled out a year ago. Apparently, our market area was deemed too small for the turnover they wanted.

yes, I had the sign made....... the sign refers to the Stephen Stills song "Johnny's Garden" which came out just as I was creating my first garden, in my first house. Played it all the time........ https://youtu.be/gh48cdWgWYM

I don't have a potting bench but I have a makeshift table that I use to pot plants. It is an old 55 gallon oil drum with a top made from a heavy piece of plywood. It is located about ten feet from my barn where I store a lot of my gardening equipment, potting soil, and so forth. In addition to asking about potting benches on the perennials forum, you might also try the junk gardening forum. They post a lot of photos of re-purposed pieces of furniture that they have adapted to potting benches. A homemade potting bench might not be what you have in mind, but it might be worth a look.

OK, I am officially confused. Years ago, at the garden where I volunteer, someone threw together a 'potting bench' of a piece of plywood put on two folding trestles. It worked fine. Then someone decided it needed to be 'improved', and replaced the plywood with a series of 2x4s connected with cross pieces. We hated it. Instead of being able to scrape the soil back into a pile, half of it fell between the 2x4s. Trowels also got caught in the gap. It was just out to get us, and we returned the emotion. After much complaining, it was replaced by a new piece of plywood. This potting bench has the same top construction as the evil, hated, 2x4s. Which brings up the question of where the soil ends up when it falls between the slats. On our table, it ended up on the ground. Here, does it end up inside the doors? The same goes for rainwater. IMHO, a potting bench needs a solid countertop. Given you want this to be multipurpose, I'd lean towards something like stainless steel that can be thoroughly cleaned between uses.