I had both, Tom. After handplaning, chiselling, routing, assembly, etc. I didn't think it was overkill.
Jim
While on vacation I read Scott Landis' workbench book. A workbench is
> my next major project. The vast majority of the benches he describes
> and the four with "plans" all only have a lower stretchers. I just
> assumed workbenches would have had both upper and lower stretchers to
> resist the racking forces, especially since most of the benchtops are
> held down by just gravity.
>
> So, poll to the wreck. Do you have both upper and lower stretchers,
> or lower stretchers only. I'll include "midway" stretchers with the
> lower only, but I plan to put a cabinet under the bench (a separate
> slide in rather than part of the structure most likely, for
> portability reasons) so my lower stretchers will be LOW (therefore I
> think I'll need uppers as well unless this is total overkill).