The recent thread on workshop organization lead me to order the plans
from New Yankee for the miter bench and workshop hutch.
The current bench I have is a piece of kitchen countertop complete with
splashguard and rolled edge, about 24" wide of working surface.

The plans show bench widths of 31.75" and 36". I find that a bit
unrealistic for against the wall workbenches.Norm must have oranguntan
length arms or something. I prefer 24", maybe 30" at a stretch. How
about you?

I'll be modifying these plans to suit my purposes, when I get around to
them that is!

I'm visualizing the miter bench with a sunken area to hold the 12"
planer so that the tabletop is flush with the planer table, and it will
be slide out to boot so I can reclaim the space when I need it.

I may just modify the workbench I have instead of building the hutch
workbench. New counter top (not the kitchen stuff), take off the face
framing and build all new drawers. No dovetails either. Don't have the
capabilities or desire for them.

John

Size your workbench to suit the largest project you routinely make.

The bench needs to be bigger if you are using it for assembly / glue
up.

If used for assembly consider mounting the bench on a set of lockable
castors so it can be moved out for access.

The plans show bench widths of 31.75" and 36". I find that a bit
unrealistic for against the wall workbenches.Norm must have oranguntan
length arms or something. I prefer 24", maybe 30" at a stretch. How
about you?

Hi John,

IRRC, Norm has some DC pipes behind his set-up.
I have about 24" and I don't hink that 32 or 36 inches
are practical against a wall.

Sometimes even the 24" seems too deep.

Lou

"John T" wrote in message
...
The recent thread on workshop organization lead me to order the plans from
New Yankee for the miter bench and workshop hutch.
The current bench I have is a piece of kitchen countertop complete with
splashguard and rolled edge, about 24" wide of working surface.

The plans show bench widths of 31.75" and 36". I find that a bit
unrealistic for against the wall workbenches.Norm must have oranguntan
length arms or something. I prefer 24", maybe 30" at a stretch. How about
you?

I'll be modifying these plans to suit my purposes, when I get around to
them that is!

I'm visualizing the miter bench with a sunken area to hold the 12" planer
so that the tabletop is flush with the planer table, and it will be slide
out to boot so I can reclaim the space when I need it.

I may just modify the workbench I have instead of building the hutch
workbench. New counter top (not the kitchen stuff), take off the face
framing and build all new drawers. No dovetails either. Don't have the
capabilities or desire for them.

Having built all kinds of shelves and cabinets in shops and garages for
years, I will tell you this.

Any exposed surface-shelf will soon fill with dust.

The deeper the shelf-cabinet, the more stuff gets lost in back of them.

If you have a need for a bigger space, go for it. But something aginst the
wall is only usable to what you can actually see or reach. Extra deep
spaces are mostly wasted.

I'm visualizing the miter bench with a sunken area to hold the 12"
planer so that the tabletop is flush with the planer table, and it will
be slide out to boot so I can reclaim the space when I need it.

I may just modify the workbench I have instead of building the hutch
workbench. New counter top (not the kitchen stuff), take off the face
framing and build all new drawers. No dovetails either. Don't have the
capabilities or desire for them.

Is this your only bench? Can you have more? This matters... alot.I have 4
"bench-like" horzontal surfaces (wall-mount built-in, a traditional
European, Outfeed table wich functions very nicely as a glue-up space, and a
dedicated miter station.

My "wall bench" is the least used. It holds a bunch or drawer storage and
utherwise functions mostly as a dumping ground.

I would strongly urge you to have one workbench space which is accessible on
3 or 4 sides.

That said, I think 24" is fine for a wallmount bench is enough. I would not
be ably to function with a planer set into a bench. "clearing the deck"
would becone a major PITA. I have this situaton for my miter station. But
there, I only need to clear the front 6 inches, and it's dedicated to the
task and It's not really a general work area.

Granted, I choose to define bench rather broadly, but If I had to have ontly
a wall-mount (and It was not that long ago that that I was in that
situation) I could not have functioned with a planer in the middle.

-Steve

John,

The plans show bench widths of 31.75" and 36". I find that a bit
unrealistic for against the wall workbenches.Norm must have oranguntan
length arms or something. I prefer 24", maybe 30" at a stretch. How
about you?

My workbench is about 30" wide x 72" long, and is on wheels so I can move
it around in my shop. At times the 30" width seems a little small when
I'm trying to assemble a project, but it's a good middle ground of width
and compactness when pushed against a wall.

I also use my workbench as an outfeed table for my table saw, and the
30" width is handy when I'm ripping a sheet of plywood down the middle.
Plenty of support for each half of the sheet.

I can easily reach the other side of the 30" top, but if it were wider I
could simply go around to the other side. So, I could go the full 48"
width of a sheet of plywood if I wanted. But, a 48" wide workbench would
take up a lot of space in my shop, so I compromised with the 30" width.

Anthony

I do have a 4'x8' "bench" in the other half of the basement, but thats
my airplane buildig table.
The bench I currently have is 8' long. this is the one I've been
thinking of modifying. I would like to add another one at righ angles so
that I would have a L shaped setup. The additional bench would be based
on the NYW miter bench, but built to my specs.

For the planer, it would be slide out when I need the long bench
surface. Hard to describe without a drawing.

John