The workbench thread.

There’s a few considerations when it comes to space saving.

Personally, I don’t think any bench needs to be more than 2 feet deep, unless you a working on items on a daily basis that are more than 3 feet square. I’ve had ones that are in the past, and they just end up as dumping grounds. 2 foot is a nice arms length to the back of, and not too much space that it fills up with junk. Length doesn’t really matter, but a minimum is about 4 feet for it to be stable enough. As for height, that depends on how tall you are, but it should be between waist and elbow height, preferably closer to elbow. I’m quite tall so all my echoes are 3’6” plus the top as the normal 3ft/900mm is too low for me.
It’s also good to factor your benches around the size of standard sheet materials, I.e. a factor of 2feet, 4 feet or 8 feet. A sheet of 3/4” plywood ripped in half lengthways and glued and screwed together is one of the best bench tops you can get, and one of the cheapest.

I always have a vice mounted on one end of the bench with a open space next to it, or a space that has something that is easily movable, e.g. welder on wheels so I can move it out the way so I can come at something in the vice from 90 degrees if I need to. To me this kind of negates any need for the bench to be movable, which means you can secure it to the floor and walls to make it extra solid. But then I’m the sort of person who you’ll find standing on the bench swinging a sledgehammer at something in the vice from time to time, so I like to build em tough.

You’ll notice my vice is at the left end of the bench, cos I’m left handed. If you were right handed I’d expect you to have the vice and the space at the end at the other end.

The other point, and the reason I’m planning a new bench, is that if you look at my current bench, even with all the boxes stacked up under it and then one shelf that’s there, it’s still about 50% void space under there. It’s also ‘dirty’ space, as it gets covered in grinding cr4p and wire wheel bristles and metal dust, so I only really use it for storing materials offcuts and the like.
For it to be truly effective space, it needs more shelving/drawers, and to be compartmentalised somehow to keep the dust and dirt out. Then I’ve basically doubled my storage space under there.

Also, there’s the space above worktop height. My old old bench had shelves and racking above it mounted off the rear posts, but it tended to shake everything off the shelves if you where really wailing on something in the vice. For that not to happen the bench needs to be very substantial, and fixed down. But then it opens up the space above too. I had a tube light on the racking as well as your light source was then in front as well as behind, so no shadows.

I tend to always have a backboard or at least an upstand on my benches now too, to stop stuff disappearing down the back/brace things against, but also to act as storage for all the tools you use so often they’re not worth putting away in a drawer, or are awkward shapes to store.
On my bench which is mostly used for general steel fabrication but will get used for absolutely anything car related at some point, there is always tapes, steel rules, squares, 3 stacks of part used cutting, grinding and flap wheels, metric and imperial drill bit stands and some pens/scribes/dividers that never get put away anywhere else as they’re always in use.
There’s 3 or 4 grinders and my favourite couple of hammers that rarely leave the bench too. Realising that these things always live on the bench and incorporating places to tuck them away that’s still within arms reach is an important consideration to planning the space.

pardonthewait That’s not a bad little setup for the home garage, I quite like what you’ve done, seems well thought out.

I have a near 2000squ ft workshop and still struggle for dedicated areas for each task and to keep certain areas clean, I think it’s always a struggle no matter how much space you have. One of my solutions is to have a ‘clean’ board stashed away that I drop on top of the bench if I’m working on something I really need to keep clean, it seems to work better that way round than having a clean bench with a ‘dirty job’ board, but then I do a lot more dirty jobs than clean ones.

Laminated worktops like you have though are much easier to keep clean in the first place, but they’re not very lump hammer proof and stink when burnt so I prefer natural wood as my standard work surface, in a more industrial setting.

I don'y know if you or others are aware of this work practise , its common in any bigger business now but you can apply bits of it to any place and its makes working so much easier and efficient .

 Its basically all common sense and thinking about work flow , practises , space etc.  I work in a 6 x12 metre workshop that has to deal with all sorts and we have just cleared out so much clutter and junk and made it much better to work in .

 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5S_(methodology)

I have a small bench area in my "machine shop" ( a small extension built on the side of my workshop to house my lathe and mill) made with steel frame and laminate worktop. It is deliberately not large to prevent the build up of cr&p. Photo is not the best but was taken to show my removable vice mount.

skkylinedave, I’ve never heard of the 5S thing, but that’s probably because I’ve never worked in the employ anyone else apart from a brief stint as a machinist when I was 18 or so.

Even though I’ve never seen it set out and described like that, I must use about 75%, just as good workshop practice.

It’s a good time to mention that Waste management and cleanliness is very important in any workspace, when I go into other people’s workshops and they’re filthy and full of rubbish I just look and think how the f-k can you work in here. I have two bins, scrap and general, in the middle of the workshop and rubbish doesn’t get put down anywhere else, it goes straight in.

My workshop has a lot of junk in it, (ideally I’d have a separate storage unit), but the other tools that are never far away are a hand brush and little metal shovel, a big floor brush and a more recent purchase that is great is a magnetic sweeper. I started out working with my grandad and the one thing he thought me was you tidy up and sweep down at the end of every day. I’m not quite as meticulous as he was, but the bench and main floor areas generally get swept and tidied once a day and all the tools cleaned and put away.

Yes , most of it is common sense and once your used to working in a certain way you find your day goes much better .  You know where everything is as it has a home , your not walking around constantly and if you keep it clean it only needs five minutes everyday to keep it that way .

Makes all the difference to your head coming in to a bit of order and the day goes better . well until something bloody breaks .

 

Will you use the cool minty colour on these also?
That engine service bench is gorgeous!

Nothing fancy for me. All the wood was from work from steel deliveries and put together a traditional bench. It’s now got a couple of vices and some steel plate on the top in certain areas. Can get 4 large tubs underneath for storage.

It does the job.

Here is my combined workbench & storage solution



My workshop is only 2.5 bays - I paint within the same space that everything else happens hence all of the larger kit - benches / cabinets / compressor etc are all on industrial castors & mobile - that way I can move things away from the wall and have a good sweep up prior to painting a vehicle - the downside on the painting front is that everything gets covered in overspray - having purchased this readymade solution for the bench it allows for storage of all my smaller kit & materials which it is great at - the top is great just for general bench use but useless for bolting a vice to with it being on casters - eventually everything in the current workshop will go into a dedicated workroom on the side of the workshop but I have yet to build it