about the height of my workbench.
I built a work bench last year and after much perusal on the Internet, etc, decided to go with the recommendation of "the height of your wrist when hanging loosely at your side" (for me that came to 32") As some may know, I am on the quest to become reasonably competent on the use of hand tools, and the bench was built with the use of hand planes as a major consideration.
Having done a bit of planing over the subsequent months, one thing I noticed was that after a full day of pushing the planes, I frequently "felt it", particularly in my middle to upper back (between the shoulder blades). I attributed this to may age and lack of expertise in the usage of the planes.
I am now in the midst of making a table, and not only have I found the need to joint the rough boards for straight edges for milling, have also decided to make some clamping cauls out of some red oak for the top glue-up.
Faced with the dilemma that all other horizontal surfaces in my shop were full of boards, lumber, tools, etc, I found it necessary to use my workbench as an outfeed table for my TS, so stuck some 4 x 4's under the legs to raise it, after which I was working on the cauls. I spent a day getting the tapers right, but remarked to LOML that eve that "I must be getting used to this plane stuff, as my back doesn't hurt".
Edging the boards for glue-up this week (Tues) I duly resharpened my plane irons, lowered the bench, and commenced to start matching the edges (stack on edge and view for light in between as my TS blade lacks a bit for a 'glue line"). Again, the back discomfort, not to mention my efforts left something to be desired.
On a "why not" impulse, yesterday I put the bench back on the 4 x 4s. After matching all seven boards on both edges, No Back Pain!! and the results of my efforts were much improved.
Just thought I would pass this along, as I never thought that the height of the bench could be so significant in not only my control of the tool, but also my comfort.
Go
I built a work bench last year and after much perusal on the Internet, etc, decided to go with the recommendation of "the height of your wrist when hanging loosely at your side" (for me that came to 32") As some may know, I am on the quest to become reasonably competent on the use of hand tools, and the bench was built with the use of hand planes as a major consideration.
Having done a bit of planing over the subsequent months, one thing I noticed was that after a full day of pushing the planes, I frequently "felt it", particularly in my middle to upper back (between the shoulder blades). I attributed this to may age and lack of expertise in the usage of the planes.
I am now in the midst of making a table, and not only have I found the need to joint the rough boards for straight edges for milling, have also decided to make some clamping cauls out of some red oak for the top glue-up.
Faced with the dilemma that all other horizontal surfaces in my shop were full of boards, lumber, tools, etc, I found it necessary to use my workbench as an outfeed table for my TS, so stuck some 4 x 4's under the legs to raise it, after which I was working on the cauls. I spent a day getting the tapers right, but remarked to LOML that eve that "I must be getting used to this plane stuff, as my back doesn't hurt".
Edging the boards for glue-up this week (Tues) I duly resharpened my plane irons, lowered the bench, and commenced to start matching the edges (stack on edge and view for light in between as my TS blade lacks a bit for a 'glue line"). Again, the back discomfort, not to mention my efforts left something to be desired.
On a "why not" impulse, yesterday I put the bench back on the 4 x 4s. After matching all seven boards on both edges, No Back Pain!! and the results of my efforts were much improved.
Just thought I would pass this along, as I never thought that the height of the bench could be so significant in not only my control of the tool, but also my comfort.
Go
