Best commercial woodworking bench?

for what kind of work?

You're right. Home-built benches can be made "perfect" according to your needs. But, I saw this one at Woodcraft over the weekend, and wouldn't complain if it were in my shop. Or let me rephrase that... I wouldn't complain about having enough room in my shop for it. ;-)

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Dean Bielanowski Editor, Online Tool Reviews

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Do a google search on Ulma - they make some really nice benches as does Deifenbach (sp?).

But you really should go through Scott Landis's workbench book, along with the one by Sam Allen to see the different types of benches and the types of woodworking each is designed specifically to do.

Seriously consider making your own. You'll learn a great deal and have a bench that'll do what you want it to do.

Here's mine. Could have built it in four weekends once I worked out the plans. That's not including the time spent on the integral through drawers of course.

The "plans"

Alex

There's also the Hoffman and Hammer benches:

That bench was on my wish list for some time. I faced the same decision a while back and finally decided to build my own. I could easily afford to buy this bench but after looking at it I didn't like it as well as others I'd seen. I finally build one similar to one that Fine Woodworking had a while ago, only bigger and heavier. It cost less about half, including better vices and besides making my brothers give me dirty looks when it came time to move it is really nice. I only had to yell am my girfirend a couple of time for starting to put things on it, explaining I needed to build another one to actually work on.

Thanks all for the suggestions so far. I am looking at the Veritas bench, the one that gives the choice of wooden or iron legs. Anyone have those?

I will be using the bench for general woodworking, and to build the rest of my shop. Between all the cabinets and stands that I will be making, I wanted to save some time, and give myself a treat that would last for decades.

Thanks again

Kurt

Kurt Greiner

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Yeah? You really like that rediculous ditch-slash-tool corral running down the middle? I personaly dislik it very much. Or... maybe someone here can tell me why it is desirable?

Alex

AArDvarK asks:

For those who use hand tools, it keeps a variety of tools right at hand, without much danger of them getting knocked onto the floor.

It's also a fantastic sawdust collector.

Charlie Self "Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categories - those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost." Russell Baker

snipped-for-privacy@aol.comnotforme (Charlie Self) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m27.aol.com:

If you're really using those hand tools, most of what it's collecting should be whisper thin shavings. :o)

Do you have this type of traditional bench? I want one myself but as far as that central corral, I much prefer that it be at the back of the bench, like this:

AArDvarK asks:

dog holes being the only breaks. I'm currently working on a 16 year old 8' long bench with a battered double plywood top. Very battered. I like to be able to work from both sides without having to reach across a bunch of tools, hand or otherwise. My bench also serves as an assembly table, and, in a pinch, a finishing stand, so fancy is a waste of energy too.

I don't do a whole lot of handtool work. Some and more as I get older (that seems to be a standard progression in this field, though you'd think going to more power tool work would seem more sensible as you age, get less agile, weaker, etc. Maybe dodging kickbacks gets tiresome after 60).

Too, I put a wooden floor in my shop. Knock a tool off the bench or drop it and odds are great it's going to be fine or very close to fine when it hits the floor. Many of my previous shops had concrete floors. They demand, generally, a less clumsy woodworker than I, and one with feet that don't hurt at the start of the session, cause they're going to at the end. When you loose a top grade mortising chisel and a 60 tooth 10" high quality carbide tipped saw blade in one day, the future shop with a wood floor begins to look better.

Charlie Self "Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categories - those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost." Russell Baker