What is the optimal workbench length for you

[tibi]

I am just building my workbench and I was thinking about what length should I make it.

My workshop is 4x4m, so the space is tight. I have oak slabs for top that are 2 m long, so that is my maximum length.

I see that some people (a.k.a. Paul Sellers) have relatively short benches (it looks around 1.5m).

From my personal experience, unless building workbenches, most of my parts will be less than 1.5m. I have planed 2.5m lengths on my 1.9m previous workbench and it went pretty well - either one end or another overhung.

What is your experience with your bench. Do you wish it was longer than it is. Or do you find that if you had even shorter bench, you would get by pretty well?

Thank you.

 

[Fitzroy]

I have two benches each 1.2m long, I find them too short for many tasks and end up with the workpiece braced across both benches which is not totally successful. My new bench will be c. 2m long as that the timber I have and my workshop is 2.6m wide so I can place the bench across the width if required and still get round the ends. Apart from the space it takes up and the difficulty to build/move I don't see any functional problems with a longer bench.

 

[Dee J]

Really depends on what you make. If you make stick chairs then something 1-2 metres is great. Assembling box carcases out of sheet materials is a whole different scale. Making a 2.4 metre wardrobe door then a 2.4m plus bench is really useful. At least as long as your largest workpiece is a good guide. A side note would be - if I had some 2m slabs of oak then I wouldn't waste them on a bench top unless that bench was some sort of retro craft piece. Softwood, ply, mdf, firedoor blanks, etc are all perfectly adequate for a functional bench top, and are more likely to be and stay flat.

 

[Just4Fun]

My first thought was that Dee J is right: it depends what I am doing. On reflection, I always prefer a long bench because I am so disorganised and messy that the more space I have to put tools and wood down the better. My main bench is about 1.5m and I would like it to be longer.

 

[tibi]

Really depends on what you make. If you make stick chairs then something 1-2 metres is great. Assembling box carcases out of sheet materials is a whole different scale. Making a 2.4 metre wardrobe door then a 2.4m plus bench is really useful. At least as long as your largest workpiece is a good guide. A side note would be - if I had some 2m slabs of oak then I wouldn't waste them on a bench top unless that bench was some sort of retro craft piece. Softwood, ply, mdf, firedoor blanks, etc are all perfectly adequate for a functional bench top, and are more likely to be and stay flat.

I want my bench not to only be functional, but also to be beautiful - as everywhere in life, I also look at aesthetics, not only functionality.

 

[Jacob]

Too long can lead to unused parts of bench becoming cluttered - better to have short, and somewhere else to put the clutter.
Short also means more space around and if not too heavy the possibility of moving the bench to suit the light etc.
Unless regularly doing large window frames etc maybe 6ft, 2 metre ish, is a good size.

 

[tibi]

I think I will leave it at 1.9m, as I need to trim the ends of the 2m slabs. Thank you.

 

[Sideways]

Work bench and assembly table don't have to be the same thing.
Assembly table may well need to be bigger, and above all flat, but may not need to be setup all the time.
A possibility is a smaller bench and some sort of flat even like an old door that can be setup on trestles when required and levelled to do your assembly on.
Another option is to have an assembly table (big or small) that doubles up as an outfeed table for a table saw or an MFT style thing for a tracksaw.

 

[IZZY]

Surely it should be a long as the space allows .You don't have to use ALL of it ALL the time but you will soon curse if it's too small . Just be aware that it will soon fill up as an extra shelf and you will be reduced to the required space quickly . I can't help wondering if too much thinking goes on sometimes.

 

[Jacob]

Surely it should be a long as the space allows .You don't have to use ALL of it ALL the time but you will soon curse if it's too small .

Even more of a curse if it's too big. That's my point here: Bench. Small is beautiful

.... I can't help wondering if too much thinking goes on sometimes.

Or not enough - as the case may be!

 

[quintain]

I am just building my workbench and I was thinking about what length should I make it.

My workshop is 4x4m, so the space is tight. I have oak slabs for top that are 2 m long, so that is my maximum length.

I see that some people (a.k.a. Paul Sellers) have relatively short benches (it looks around 1.5m).

From my personal experience, unless building workbenches, most of my parts will be less than 1.5m. I have planed 2.5m lengths on my 1.9m previous workbench and it went pretty well - either one end or another overhung.

What is your experience with your bench. Do you wish it was longer than it is. Or do you find that if you had even shorter bench, you would get by pretty well?

Thank you.

I was given some 6' 4" mahogany 10" x 2" thick boards from the beer++ bar when Coventry Theatre was being demolished. OOOOPS I should have said closing as a theatre not being demolished; they pulled it apart about mid 1960s, closing the bar and reducing its national standard; it stayed open as a 2nd rate theatre for a time and then was used as bingo hall. I thank my lovely wife for her better memory.
They determined the length of my workshop bench, which is battered and bruised by this time.
BTW Sean Connery just prior to him being OO7 with other 'artistes' were the last (ish) group of people to have a drink at the bar. which is now my battered workbench.

Use what is suitable and available and in my view "always go as big as possible to fit your shop" .

Best Regards from Richard

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Mine's 2 x 1.5m x 280mm x 70mm - two pieces of rock hard African mahogany fished out of the sea off Cornwall 34 years ago by a fisherman friend. He drowned shortly afterwards.

 

[J-G]

when Coventry Theatre was being demolished. OOOOPS I should have said closing as a theatre not being demolished; they pulled it apart about mid 1960s, closing the bar and reducing its national standard; it stayed open as a 2nd rate theatre for a time and then was used as bingo hall. I thank my lovely wife for her better memory.

It seems that even your wife's memory is lacking - There was never a 'Coventry Theatre' so I have to assume that you are referencing the 'Coventry Hippodrome'. It was a travesty when the council approved the building of The Belgrade Theatre (which is still subsidised) and became a direct competitor to the Hippodrome which was a vastly superior 'Theatre' with an audience capacity of over 2000, widely known in its glory days as "Showplace of the Midlands".

 

[quintain]

It seems that even your wife's memory is lacking - There was never a 'Coventry Theatre' so I have to assume that you are referencing the 'Coventry Hippodrome'. It was a travesty when the council approved the building of The Belgrade Theatre (which is still subsidised) and became a direct competitor to the Hippodrome which was a vastly superior 'Theatre' with an audience capacity of over 2000, known in its glory days as "Showplace of the Midlands".

Thank you for your correct naming of what was locally & simply called the the Coventry Theatre; it was of course the Hippodrome. I am pleased to hear that the Belgrade albeit subsidised by Coventry Council i.e. tax payers remains open. I wonder if the little pub immediately behind it remains open, or was it closed some decades ago. Again thank you for the correct naming.

 

[TRITON]

Might also ask what it the correct height of workbench.

Some benches, especially in assembly are only 12" high.

 

[J-G]

Thank you for your correct naming of what was locally & simply called the the Coventry Theatre; it was of course the Hippodrome. I am pleased to hear that the Belgrade albeit subsidised by Coventry Council i.e. tax payers remains open. I wonder if the little pub immediately behind it remains open, or was it closed some decades ago. Again thank you for the correct naming.

As you can probably surmise, I grew up in Coventry, living there for the first 62 years of my life. I appeared on stage at 'The Hippodrome' at least twice and was in the audience many, many times. It's very likely that I drank at the bar your bench material came from! I never ever recall referring to it as anything other than 'The Hippodrome'.

I couldn't be specific as to the date of the closure (as a theatre) but since the Belgrade opened in March 1958, the early 60's is very likely. I remember taking a dance partner (who I was hoping to woo!) to the Hippodrome in 1962 - the event didn't end well

The 'Little Pub' you cite, I think, would be the 'Town Wall Tavern' in Bond Street - which IS still trading, though there has been recent massive re-developement in the vicinity of the Belgrade but mostly to the Upper Well Street side, so Bond St. and Hill St. have remained mostly unscathed. Ryley St. has had student accomodation built though.

 

[quintain]

As you can probably surmise, I grew up in Coventry, living there for the first 62 years of my life. I appeared on stage at 'The Hippodrome' at least twice and was in the audience many, many times. It's very likely that I drank at the bar your bench material came from! I never ever recall referring to it as anything other than 'The Hippodrome'.

I couldn't be specific as to the date of the closure (as a theatre) but since the Belgrade opened in March 1958, the early 60's is very likely. I remember taking a dance partner (who I was hoping to woo!) to the Hippodrome in 1962 - the event didn't end well

The 'Little Pub' you cite, I think, would be the 'Town Wall Tavern' in Bond Street - which IS still trading, though there has been recent massive re-developement in the vicinity of the Belgrade but mostly to the Upper Well Street side, so Bond St. and Hill St. have remained mostly unscathed. Ryley St. has had student accomodation built though.

It was probably us 'out of towers' who called it a theatre. I joined Coventry FS in 1965 and one of my early menial jobs at about 0700hrs was the polishing of a brass plaque o/s the Hales St fire station opposite the theatre/hippodrome. It was a menial but v pleasant job. Mini skirts had just become the norm and looking at the young ladies at 0700hrs-0800hrs arriving by bus to start work was a pleasantry. I returned to the wonderful north England in 1993 but my lovely wife Betty & I remember Coventry with great affection. We consider we had the best out of Coventry and it certainly had the best out of us.
BTW: what on earth has this to do with the original post!!!!!

 

[J-G]

BTW: what on earth has this to do with the original post!!!!!

I was thinking the same

 

[Jameshow]

I was thinking the same

Bench - bar top - theatre....

 

[J-G]

Bench - bar top - theatre....

'Normal' thread drift then !