The Basic Workbench

A good woodworking bench is one that suits its user's needs.

Woodworking Bench

Photo: Flickr

The woodworking bench is to the workshop as bases are to the game of baseball: Without a proper bench at which to work, you’ll be like a base runner with no place to go. But unlike baseball diamonds, the shape, proportion and size of workbenches are infinitely variable.

If there’s one constant in benches of today and of yore, it’s their very diversity. A good bench is a bench that suits its user’s needs, that helps the worker accomplish his or her tasks faster, better, or with a higher degree of safety. Which means, in short, there is no one model that suits everybody.




At the rear, many benches also have a slot cut in them for tools. Tools in use like chisels and drivers can be temporarily slid into the slot, and the handles protruding from the bench top are easy to reach.


So what sort of bench do you need? Consider the questions that follow if you’re not sure.

Size and Shape. What do all benches have in common? Each has a work surface on the top that’s essentially flat. Otherwise, workbenches tend to be as varied as the uses to which they are put.


A good size is five to seven feet long and two to three feet wide.


What Height Is Right? Old benches tend to be lower. People were shorter then, that’s part of the explanation. But another factor is leverage: When tools are powered by human muscles alone, leverage and gravity are invaluable allies to be enlisted. A lower work surface allows for more pressure from above.

If you have a choice of bench heights, as you will if you elect to make your own bench, you might find it expedient to make it the same height as your table or radial-arm saw. That way its surface can be used as a table extension to support long boards being cut.

One traditional rule of thumb for benches is that they should be approximately the height of their user’s hip joint. In practice, this generally means in the range of thirty-three to thirty-six inches.

Be sure to remember the surprising range of benchtop accessories, some of which can help make your bench more useful. Jigs and dogs and stops and clamps, among other elements, are essential to most benches, as are vises. Before buying or building your bench, decide what your needs are for devices that will hold your workpieces firmly.

Draw Yourself a Picture. As with your workshop as a whole, a simple drawing of your workbench can help you think through your needs, and determine the materials required, should you elect to make your own. Again, graph paper makes the task easier.


Once you decide upon the right shape and size, decide where the vise will go. Or will there be two vises? And whether you’ll have one set of dog holes or two. Think it through, then go back to your graph paper.
