What’s The Best Height For a Workbench?
What’s the best height for a workbench? Try breaking the pinky promise.
34” - 40” (865mm - 1015mm) is the normal range of heights chosen for a workbench. This Goldilocks zone meets the needs of most woodworkers, both hand and power tool, and covers all the normal tasks you find in the workshop.
But let’s explore this a little more. Is there a magic formula that can tailor your workbench to you? Is there an ancient mystery that we can decode to achieve workbench height Nirvana? No, thankfully the solution is a bit more down to earth.
Firstly, if this is your first go at woodworking at a proper workbench you’ll have little hope of getting it right. Don’t obsess. So my first down to earth tip is build a simple and traditional style bench that allows for a 4” reduction in height. A British joiners bench is an excellent choice for this (stay tuned to this blog for my take on this) and make it a little taller than you think you might need. So how do you work that out the “taller than you think” part? If you wear a watch, this is where it’ll help. Stand relaxed in good posture with your hands by your sides and make a note of the height to the top of you wrist watch. For a lot of people this will be near 38”, but we’re all different, embrace that, this is your workbench!
Once you’ve made your bench start making things! This is the most critical part. Do you work with machined timber and metal planes, concentrating on joinery? It’s likely that you’ll end up keeping your bench on the taller side if this is your preferred method of work.
Do you work with rough stock and wooden planes? Are your projects normally quite big? In this case you might find yourself dropping the height of the bench a 1/2” at a time until you hit the sweet spot. In my experience, this is the only way to get things right for you and avoid back pain, neck pain etc. Remember although woodworking has a common thread running through it, we all vary in height, weight, shape and the tools we use. You are responsible for coming up with a solution that lets you work comfortably. Let’s look at some of the information out there on how to determine your workbench height.
The Pinky Promise. The theory here is that the ideal height is the distance from the floor to where you’re pinky meets your hand. If you’re from the UK like me, the pinky is your little finger. My take on this is that it will likely reward you with a bench that’s too low. You might find it perfect for your needs, but if you need to adjust the height it’s probably going up. It’ll mean adding blocks under the feet of your bench. Considering the cost, effort and procrastination many woodworkers go through making a workbench, having some lumps of wood screwed to the bottom of the legs could be the stuff of nightmares! My advice here, break the pinky promise.
Paintings. If you’re interested in pre-industrial woodworking you can look at some paintings. There are two good examples we can look at. First up is the Interior of the Carpenters Shop at Forty Hill. It’s a great painting and lot’s to digest, we won’t get distracted by the glass bullion or fashion for the moment, but it’s reassuring to see these. Clearly the painter got details right. If you look in the background you’ll see a someone using a plane stepping forward with a shaving being ejected. You can try and recreate this if you fancy, shouldn’t be that hard to do. The chap in the foreground is a bit more bent over, doing some detailed work. His high waisted trousers make it difficult to determine a height. I’d speculate that it’s somewhere just below his gentleman’s area. Next is George Forser’s painting. This is a real favorite of mine. We can see so much great information here! The stance of the joiner planing is brilliant. He is not leaning down, stooped or bent in an uncomfortable way. This individual has an optimal stance too, just look at his footwork! He is using a wooden plane though. Typically the body of a wooden plane is about 2 3/4” taller than a our common Bailey planes. You would never choose to dimension any volume of material by hand with metal planes, but let’s be realistic, even the most avid of home woodworkers would not get anywhere near the volumes of a professional from days of yore, so there is nothing wrong with using metal planes to process stock if you want. If you took the time to recreate the joiners stance shown in the painting with your metal pane I think your bench would be a good height for a variety of work.
By the Book. Sadly I can only manage reading my native tongue therefore everything I read is English based. Feel free to overcome my ignorance and add a comment, I always appreciate feedback. Workbenches by the book, tend to be lower that what I would personally find comfortable. I think this could be due to the prevalence of wooden bench planes but also my preference. If you add 2 3/4” to most sources you get something sensible. George Ellis suggests 28” (710mm) in his book Modern Practical Joinery. Charles Hayward says 30” - 33” (760mm - 840mm) in his book Tools for Woodwork and a favorite of mine, Practical Home Woodworking, says 33” (840mm). All of these are too low for me. Add near three inches and we’re in business. This is the trick, tailor it to you, not books.
Commercial Workbenches. Let’s review a couple quality ready made workbenches. The Sjobergs Ellite 2000 is 35 1/2” high. In my opinion that’s an okay height but it would be a little too low for me. The great thing with the design is that some strips of beech could easily be prepared and tastefully screwed to the underside of the trestle to increase height. And that’s about it! Very easy. The Benchcrafted french style benches are 34” or 35”, although I’m sure they’d make one taller if you asked. Again, 34” is to low for me and I’m no giant. With the french style you would end up adding blocks if you got one too short, and if you spent good money, that’s going to hurt. Again, I encourage you if you possibly can, to make a simple workbench and tailor it. Then if you want to order a bench you’ll know you won’t be disappointed.
Old Benches. This has become a really easy way to look at the varying heights of workbenches. Websites like 1stDibs, ebay and Antique shops all have listing of old benches that will likely be repurposed into furniture. They provide all the dimensions which is incredibly helpful. To of studied this previously would of taken an obscene amount of time and effort. Using this method I’ve seen benches taken form Undertakers, Joiners, Schools and Furniture Makers. Almost exclusively they originate from Europe and Perhaps North America. What’s reassuring is that they all vary, what a surprise! It’s fair to say that most are on the low side but there are some that are also on the high side too. And remember, if the bench is quite old, wooden planes were still hugely popular in Europe so you can add on 2 3/4” to the heights you might discover. Remember to study the past, it holds many, many keys to our craft, but don’t be wedded to it. This is your bench, you’re not making it for someone 200 years ago.
Clues that you got it Wrong. You’re leaning over your planes and pushing them down! Go back and look at George Forster’s painting again and look at the stance of the man planing, his body position is pushing the plane forward and not down, his legs aren’t crazy bent and nor is his back bent over. If you can’t adopt a position like this guy you made your bench too low. You just copied a number from your favorite woodworker! Are they the same height, weight and work on the same projects as you? Do they even know what they’re talking about!? Many of the celebs suffer from confirmation bias (a preconceived view and find evidence to back up their argument). If you have been inspired by someone (this is a good thing), watch them work with the sound turned off, listening to their pontification will cause distraction. Do they look comfortable? Do they look like our friend in the painting? Again, a really bent over posture and overly bent and spread legs are bad signs. Equally, if the plane is under the chin you’ve got problems. Your back aches! Classic sign you’ve made your workbench too low for your needs. While a good stance lowers you, it won’t get you all the way there, if you have to bend over a lot you will find it uncomfortable and potentially have you off your feet. It looks odd when you stand next to it! If your first bench is as high as your belly button or as low as your crotch you’ve likely gone awry. I’ve watched a celeb woodworker with a bench at crotch level and my word was it painful to both watch and I’m sure did no good to their back over the years. Their plane control was appalling too, amplified I’m sure by overtly bent legs, hunched position and a very heavy plane.
What the experts say. You must use caution when defining an “expert”. My thing is to look for is competency in process, a great and extensive portfolio and decades at a bench. If you can watch your chosen expert, no wasted movements, that classic thing of making it look easy. Someone who fits that bill is the late Alan Peters OBE. In his classic book “Cabinet Making, The Professional Approach” (buy it) he says his benches sit almost permanently on 6” riser blocks. Rather cuttingly he describes commercially available workbenches as being designed for little people and Alan was not a really tall guy! Next is Frank Klausz. Nothing but respect for Mr Klausz, he gets the balance right in just about all he does. What I wanted to highlight was how Mr Klausz is able to have two benches in his workshop. In this video (make sure you watch from 24:40) you can see him move to the different heights that he finds best suited to his task. You doubtless have people you will be drawn to, but few visible woodworkers have the range of skills and the experience than these two individuals do.
Conclusion! After that roller coaster of verbal diarrhea, about a subject that ultimately should play out quickly for you, what did we actually learn? Make it work for you! Start off a little taller than you think and work back until you get it right, or add riser blocks to your bench as required. And don’t drink the Kool-Aid. If you base all of your plans and truths on recommendations from someone who produces a treatise on workbenches before developing decades of furniture, joinery or similar you could easily end up disappointed and frustrated. There's a difference between farming beginners for money with a lifestyle rather than practical advice from experienced woodworkers. You are the woodworker, make it right for you.