How wide is your bench?

UATW 24"

Jack Guzman from Maine

"Up against the wall"

Bill Houghton, retired fun in Sebastopol, CA


>always sounds so confrontational to this child of the 1960's demonstrations...but that's where my bench is, and it's a bit wider than 24" because I thought I'd need the width to clamp things on in my little shop.

Ironically, it has spent most of its life as a 12" wide bench, because the back accumulated so much stuff (entirely on its own, you understand - not that I put it there), but today, getting ready to clamp up the window frame, I cleaned it off for the first time in years - and boy, is it nice! I'm going to need to be more diligent about keeping it clean.

Re: "Up against the wall"

John Clifford


>About 30 inches wide, in the middle of the room.

Re: How wide is your bench?

thomd


>Mine is just under 24 inches I'd like it to be narrower, but I wanted to use the double screw end vise and this was about as narrow as mine would go. I don't like a terribly wide bench, and it hasn't anything to do with where I put it.

The main thing about folks who have a bench in the middle of the workspace is that they generally have more space. If I had a lot of open space, I would have room for a big set-up table, and I would still have the narrow bench. To me the bench is a functional tool and for my size of work has certain dimension. Just because I had more room I wouldn't have wider planes or chisels.

Thanks for letting the acronim out of the bag

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond, CA


>Bill, I had no clue what Roy was talking about...

I'm a MOTS (middle of the shop, I like MOTS better)

Mine will be about 30- 36 inches wide. I have monkey arms, I want a wide bench, widerer is betterer.

My bench is still under my pillow too BTW...

16" front slab

David Charlesworth


>32" overall. Preferably not against wall.

16" front slab with sliding tool well and approx 5 to 6" slab at back.

Sliding removable, tool well boards, allow large F clamps to fix stops/work etc all over the entire bench surface. Best thing since sliced bread.

It is very difficult to plane flat, anything much wider than 16". It is also very difficult to controll tools which are further away than 16". I know this because I thought it would be good to make my first bench extra wide, and then found it was not such a good idea!

If wide table wanted, simply add sheet of ply or mdf.

See page 8 of my first book.

David Charlesworth

Re: How wide is your bench?

Dan Clermont in Burnaby


>My bench is 24" wide and up against the wall. Soon it will go back in front of the window once I do the shop reorganize.

If I were to build it again it would still be 24" wide

My shop is about 12" by 15" and doesn't have a table saw

Dan Clermont

UTAWUW, Shirt Sleve Size Minus 4 inches

Donald Pierson

Re: How wide is your bench?

Dale Lenz


>24" in the middle of my bench room, I like access to all side of my bench. When I built my shop ten years ago this Dec. I compartmentalized the building and put in a 10'x15' bench room. As I spend 80% of my time at the bench. It's easier and less costly to heat and cool the smaller room vs. the whole shop, 20'x42'x10.5'. If I'm sanding in the bench room, that can be a concern, several parts of floating dust/million. I use a furnance filter taped to the back of a box fan. At least when I blow my nose it doesn't look like I've blown my brains out.

Re: How wide is your bench?

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native now in Jax Fl.


>My bench under-construction is 31 3/4" wide and 6' long. It is going to be used primarily in the middle of the floor. I built it with a smaller base/smaller footprint for the purpose of making it easier to move up against the wall in the event I ever need to use the shop as a garage.

Today I attached the top to the base by using two lengeth of angle steel. I used 4 short lag bolts in each piece, two in the botton of the top, and two in the base frame. I was going to start flattening the top today, but ran out of desire. I seem to be doing alot of that lately.

Todd O.

motr 30"

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod


>I agree with others that 30" is too wide to use uatw. But since I can walk around my bench I have can, for example, have something clamped up on the back side while doing something else on the front.

I'm going with MOTS and UTAW's

Roy Anderson


>We've uncovered a new divide in the world of woodworking. The big divide is the Normites vs. the Neanterthals. Now we have a new sub-divide among the Neanderthals, the MOTS and the UTAW's, and that special subcategory, the UTAWUW's (which is up against the wall, under a window, of course). Meet you in the vacant lot after midnight, like the Sharks and the Jets.

Re: How wide is your bench?

mikew


>Hi Roy,

UATW, no window , and 30" deep, 5' long. Shop is 11' 6" square.

Take care, Mike

Re: ditto

paul womack

Re: How wide is your bench?

Dave Anderson Chester, NH


>Mine MOTR and 30" wide. I might be only 5'9" tall, but I wear a 35-35" sleeve. Back in my rock climbing days I had what was called an Ape Index of +5" which meant that with arms and hands fully extended out to each side my wingspan was 5" more than my height.

And no Mr. Cronkerdude, I can't scratch the backs of my knees while standing straight up.

Corollary bench width question

wilbur


>For those of you who have narrower benches (24" or less), do you also have a separate place to do large assembly?

The reason I ask is because I'll be building a bench in the near future for my small workshop, and though I understand the advantages of a smaller bench for hand tool work, unless I can figure out a way to warp the space-time continuum, there's a pretty good chance that this will be my assembly area as well, so that would be one reason to build it larger.

Aha, a drummer in a past life.

Gerry D.


>Along the lines of Bonham, Moon, etc. Kinda fits with the whole neanderthal thing.

Gerry

Yep.

Bob Hackett


>My bench is on the narrow side(20")and short side(60")of the pack.

I built it with transport in mind(job sites,demos,etc)and just adjusted to it`s size.

Right now it sits against a wall,near a window,in the diningroom of all places.

For larger assembly work I have a rolling MDF table who`s undercarriage is an old gurney from the ambulance service.If that table could talk...

Mainely,Bob

Re: How wide is your bench?

Roger Bell


>Four benches.

Hand tool/hand plane emphasis. motr. 30"

Assembly/glueup. motr. 40"

Dirty work, i.e. oil/grease/grunge. uatw next to wrenches/pliers/prybars and other loathed tools. Heavyduty mechanics vise and two ww vises. 24".

Chopsaw. 12' overall length. uatw. 24".

All benches have at least one vise.

Re: Corollary bench width question

Glenn Madsen - on the road from SF


>When I need a larger top, I put a sheet of plywood on the top of my otherwise too narrow or too short bench. Makes for a great temporary table, for a lot of tasks.

Since my bench isn't for show, I've been known to run a couple of screws through the ply into the top, to reduce slippage.

MUCH easier than the whole time-space warpage thing...