I'm starting the layout for my new shop, and I've got plenty of room --basically 26' long x 22' deep. I'm thinking of building an 8' x 3' or8' x 4' workbench for the center of the room. Is this ridiculously huge?A quick Google search shows that the widest commercial tops measure 30"(with the most common length of 6' followed by 8', and some as long as 10').Is there an ergonomic reason for the 30" rule? My reasoning for such alarge bench is that 1) I can lay a full sheet of plywood down on it, and2) you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much flat work surface.This would be my primary bench, for planing and assembling, and Istrongly suspect it might also accumulate piles of tools, bottles ofglue and the occasional wood scrap.I plan to put another (slightly higher and much narrower) L-shaped benchalong one wall for finer work.Any recommendations for height? I'm 6'-4" (and yes, I have "TheWorkbench Book," but I figured its worth getting additional input fromthe wrecking crew).You can see the proposed layout of the shop here: (15K)Constructive criticism always welcome.DarinP.S. I don't actually -own- any of the tools shown in the layout yet,but I suspect I may acquire them all at some point. The shop is goingdown in the basement of a newly-built detached garage in Minneapolis,with radiant floor heat piped in under ground from our house boiler.Well, technically speaking, the garage doesn't completely exist yeteither -- it's framed and roofed, but lacks doors, trim and siding. Thefoundation was poured into insulating concrete forms. December photos ofthe partially-built garage can be found here: further down in this batch, you can see some very early photos ofthe shop space: shop hasn't progressed much since then, as I stopped constructionfor the winter once we hit 20 below 0, and now I'm working on the garageon my own in my spare time. The boss says I need to get her garage donebefore I can start on my shop :-)

The Workbench Book mentioned is a good one. A bench should be largeand more importantly heavy. The size is only important as to whatprojects you build. If I had to do mine again, I'd leave out thebuilt in "tool tray" which collects sawdust, tools, screws, bits. woodscraps and other things like an open sewer. The height matches theheight of the table saw. A quality vise is important. Mine is a#9.5 quick release Record and I love it.

you forgot to mention that a piece (5x5) of Russian /baltic birch cutexactly in half is 30 x 60 .. what a coincidence. I used it to make sometemp benches and they have outlasted the perminent ones....

Workbench Size?

May 17, 2004 23 Replies

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bridger 22 years ago

what works for me:

table saw dead center in the room, with a 4x8 outfeed/assembly table behind it.

other stationary machines and wood storage against the walls. this fills up all of the wall space, including the inside of the garage door.

rolling carts for material staging/ transport from machine to machine.

this leaves a fairly large area of open floor in front of the table saw, which is at times pretty useful.

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Gregory Jensen 22 years ago

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scott_tuttle 22 years ago

Dont forget to add a bit of overhang for attaching clamps.

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JJ 22 years ago

Mine is exactly 30x60 The tops are held in place by weight and 6 dowels that drop into holes on the benchtop. The desk tops just drop on the dowels.

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