Thread: Work bench height

The ideal general woodworking bench height is level with your palms when standing with your arms straight down and your palms flat as if resting on the workbench.
Hope you understand the mouthful, I'm not an English teacher

Andrew,
Personal preference really is the guideline. For myself I like it to be at about 900mm. Lower than that and you have to bend down too much. I guess it also depends on what you want to build on it.

Rhys H.

Agree with hobbyhorse, 900 mm. If you have to bend at the waist to do your work then the bench is too low.

Depends on what your doing on it alright.

If your throwing a hammer around. Like say a blacksmith. One guide was - when standing upright, with arm down straight, the top of where your hitting, in this case the anvil, is lined up with your knuckles.

If your pushing a handplane. What I've read is the table top should be a couple of inches below elbow height. Stops strain on back they say. In my opinion, shore, for finishing work. But if your really hogging it, I mean, making heavy shavings, then a lower bench is better.

(shrug) personal preference. If you decide to get a new bench, to work out what hieght that should be, I'd muck around with your old one, by shimming its hieght with bricks or whatever, to find out what you like.

Whats ideal I reakon, is to have one low one and one high. Have two.

Originally Posted by echnidna

The ideal general woodworking bench height is level with your palms when standing with your arms straight down and your palms flat as if resting on the workbench.
Hope you understand the mouthful, I'm not an English teacher

Yeah! the resting measure is the way to go, I do a lot of that on my bench. Mainly thinking of how to rectify the most recent mistake without writing it off and starting again!....
savage(Eric) .

900mm the height of my benches....calculated on my height plus depth of an average acoustic guitar with the sides on. I tend to work standing up most of the time.....unless Ive had a few too many reds.


Cheers Martin

G'day,

I found the best working height for me is at waist level, which on my bench is about 1.3m

Kiwioutdoors G'dayThere have been a couple of threads on this before and the general opinion was , as has already been said whatevers comfortable for you taking into account what ure are using it for. My only advice is pick a height and keep it the same for all your work surfaces unless you have one that is used for a specific task. Possibly the same as a table saw or ban saw if possible


The trouble with life is there's no background music.



Ashore

1.3m at waist level Waldo... that makes you about 2.2~2.4m high!

I like my bench level around 950mm Im 5'11

G'day Harry72,

I'm 6' 4", my bench is working height for me so I don't have to stoop down. Needless to say not too may find my bench to their own height - even my in-law, which is all the better.

So we really should call you Shorty instead of Waldo

G'day Echidna,

An I'm not fat like my avitar either.

No, he's not


Cheers..............Sean

New one I have just started to make will be same height as triton saw table .. thats 890mm i think - will let me use bench like extension table ..

Albert