When I was growing up my highschool had 5' x 9' butcher block benches
with a wood vise on every corner. Those were the best benches I ever
worked on. My bench is 10' x 30" made out of fir tounge & grove
flooring with hardboard on top. I wish it were a little flatter! How
wide of a planer or wide belt sander can you gain access to?


Andrew Williams wrote:
I have two.

The main one is gigantic and heavy, 3 feet by 7 feet. Probably weighs
close to 400 lbs with the iron from the vises and the stuff on the
shelves. I use it on all four sides. Each side has a special use.
The face-vise side, the tail-vise side, the long no-vise side, and the
side with the face vise on edge (good for a wide planing stop). I have
to lean over a bit to plane down the middle of a long board across the
width of the table (if it happens to be part of an assembly, otherwise
I just approach boards from the back, along the face of the bench) but
frankly leaning over is not much work when I am handplaning anyway,
since it is exercise to begin with.

The other one is for assembly and finishing. It's top is just a
solid-core door 6'8x30" and is dead flat. Easy to access both sides of
something when you need to act fast while the glue is setting.