Workbench height

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Man with many vises
Corporate Member
Looking for a book or two for a beach read, my bookshelves had this one by an old ways historian.
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Inside there is this recommendation for workbench height that is higher than most others recommend for hand work.
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I built my bench at pinkie joint height and later raised it to about 1/3 up from my wrist to elbow. However, I do almost everything in my tall vise which is at elbow height.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
Mine is like Martin's, maybe an inch higher. I raised my PCS because it was uncomfortably low for me.
 

pcooper

Phillip Cooper
Corporate Member
Years ago I built the Norm Abram bench and found it too high for me, I still have it but it's not used for a bench now. I later built a large Shaker style bench (Hancock Shaker Village) and by that time I knew about how high I needed it to be. It's about 4 inches lower than Norm's bench, and works well for me. There's nothing like trying to do something on an uncomfortable work surface.
 

mdbuntyn

Matt
Staff member
Corporate Member
That recommendation would put my bench at 40" (current bench is 34"). That may be okay if I buy my stock pre-thicknessed and S4S, but it would be too high for working rough lumber by hand.
 

jlwest

Jeff
Corporate Member
I built mine so it is the same height as my Unisaw. Provides some support for long cuts.
 

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