Work Bench questions

[anonpostguy]

I am going to be building a small workbench for doing some electronic/guitar work. I know that some of you guys have some pretty large benches, but I'm just wondering what thoughts you had on things like bench setup, height, depth, etc. For instance, do you normally stand or sit at the bench and did you build it to accommodate both standing and sitting, etc? Do you leave enough room on the bench for your tools/soldering station or do you mount them above/below/beside, etc? Drawers in the desk or use the underdesk space for shelves/storage. I'd love to get some input before I start the planning process.

 

Thanks in advance,

Anonpostguy

[BillESC]

All of our benches are designed to work at while sitting on one of those pneumatic office chairs, the ones that go up to bar height (something I'm familiar with.) This way you can also work at the bench while standing as well.

 

I find it much easier to solder while sitting, but sometimes it's easier to take apart a speaker while standing.

[W. M. Hellinger]

My stand at it benches are 38" above grade.

 

My sit-down benches are 32" above grade.

 

I'm 6' 2". My employees range from 5' 10" to 6' 3", and they find the bench heights to be "about right".

 

BTW: All of my work benches are 36" deep, which seems to be a fine depth for what we do.

[agedhorse]

Sit down.

 

My benches are between 24 and 32" deep. I would like 36" but don't have the room. I have about 50 feet of bench installed... probably 1/4 of what Mark has.

[Craig Vecchione]

As a former mechanic, I'm used to standing at benches. However, for long tedious persnickety tasks like repetitive soldering work, I much prefer sitting, and bar-height stools are IMO not the right ergonomic for this type of work. YMMV....we're all built differently.

 

General workbench thoughts:

 

No matter what height you decide to use, make sure you allow plenty of overhang so that feet or knees can fit easily without banging legs, doors or drawers.

 

Provide benchfront outlets, and some at the back. Don't make the bench top so deep that if you sit, you can't get your legs under the front edge.

 

Maple makes a good perimeter band that'll take some beating, can sand to a smooth "soft" finish, and looks decent.

 

If you raise that band 1/4", you can insert a piece of tempered masonite board as the top, and reverse it once you've beaten it to death.