Workbench Size

I actually used my workbench for it's intended purpose today

I must have built it 15 years ago? And it's suffered many indignities over the years, generally relegated to a position up against a wall.

Yesterday I moved a bunch of stuff out of the garage and moved the bench to a central location. It's part of my overall shop reorg project. I'm putting up some more cabinets and another counter up against a wall.

It was fantastic to have a nice big out feed table for the saw, and it was great using it as an assembly table for the upper cabs I'm making...

It is just too big though, and the abuse I've given it is clear. I'm thinking though for the time being, I'll just remove the front vice and trim it down a bit. Right now it's 6' long by 3' wide. I'm thinking of cutting down the length to 4'....

Might even break out the sander and clean it up a bit....

Like Larry's I have a giant one that's 4' X 8'. It's my first shop table and I made it big because I needed something big to work on 7' bookcases. It's built like a brontosaurus (Jim) but I didn't know any better. I like it. Going to mount a vise as soon as I get the right bolts.



Like Carol described, I love having these 2 little tables that I put on wheels. I put whatever I need on one and wheel it over to wherever I am. For a while I thought they were kind of idiotic, but now, not so much, . I like them. Any and all of these 3 things can be used for infeed, outfeed, or support.



Jim, I hope your wife gets better soon.

why are all you guys so hung up on size all the time.

Brent ..... My bench is 40X43, It is 35 1/2" tall same hight as my TS. A stand a lone bench with storage under it behind sliding doors with fullextention drawers on some of the shelves. also an electrical outlet on two sides of the bench. I have a 2" over hang all the way around for clamping things to the bench. Also a vice and some dog holes for other uses. I also have a just recently made a bench or table with a drawer and a shelf under it that is same hight as the bench and can be easly moved into position. It came in very handy when building the last cabinet that was 80 " long.

Thanks Ron! That's a good data point.

I'm still trying to figure out if I want to cut down my bench or not.

I've got some heavy duty locking casters coming and I'll have to make up my mind if I want to keep this bench.

I'm sort of thinking that if I built a new one, I could make it with drawers and storage instead of relatively empty space under it...

I don't know if you would call mine a work bench or not... It's just an MDF shelf across one end of the shop .. 2' wide x 12' long... then with a 2 x 4 ft "L" that goes under the front window and is butted to one end of the 12'.... no vices or anything attached.. it's mostly clutter and storage... also have another free standing one butted to the other end of the 12' section that holds the drill press and belt sander, plus what ever else I can pile onto it... it's about 24" x 5' (maybe 6' but not certain).

Brent Dowell said:

Thanks Ron! That's a good data point.

I'm still trying to figure out if I want to cut down my bench or not.

I've got some heavy duty locking casters coming and I'll have to make up my mind if I want to keep this bench.

I'm sort of thinking that if I built a new one, I could make it with drawers and storage instead of relatively empty space under it...

Click to expand...

Remember Brent "size does matter"..