increase workbench hight
- This topic has 36 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I’m thinking of increasing the hight of my workbench by about 2″/ 50 mm
I could put simple blocks under the legs, but I’m trying to think of a better way. I know its just a workbench but I would still like it to look neat and tidy.
Cheers 😉
Colin I’m 5′ 9″ and my bench is 90cm and most of the time my lower back aches while working at the bench.
I have a temporary workbench at 90cm Ken. My lower back is a bit of a mess(it’s full of metalwork from surgery), so I tend to sit on a stool a lot.
I would go for the 95cm Colin, it dose not sound a lot but it makes a big difference. Take it easy buddy. 😉
Ken, I think the blocks under the legs is the best way. You should make them the same size as your current legs and secure them with a small overlapping strip of wood screwed to the block and the leg.
Since this is not permanently attached, by glueing, you can experiment with different sizes of block to get it just right.
Located in Honeoye Falls NY USA. The Finger Lakes region of Western NY.
"If you give me 6 hours to fell a tree, I will take the first 4 to sharpen my axe" Abe Lincoln
I think the key is securing blocks to the existing legs with some robust joinery. My ‘best’ idea so far would be to make some box construction ‘sleeves’ that would fit snugly on the existing leg and slide down to envelop the packer block. The attachments show this better than I can explain it. If you wanted a lot of practice at dovetailing, that would be the strongest, and make it into a feature, else you could use pocket screws. You could also chamfer or bead the top edge.
This has the benefit that you could easily change the height of the blocks and experiment until you found the optimum height. I might even try it myself as I was thinking my bench is a bit low if I’m doing more joinery than planing.
Brett, Martin two great Ideas thanks guys.
If I find it a bit to high for planing, I was going to make a duck board that would run the length of the bench.
Thanks again 😉
I recently put runners across to increase the height ( one 2×4 going the short way leg to leg, just like the top bearer of the leg construction) but I found that that created two long points of contact instead of the 4 smaller points, and it decreased the stability substantially. I have since removed them, and just attached a same size block of 2×4 to each leg, allowing me to shim accordingly to wherever the floor is out.
Ontario, Canada
Ken please keep us posted on how this works out for you. I’ve had to use the heating pad both nights after working on the cane. My back is dodgy to start with so its down to bench height or floor. The floor is wood so I’m leaning towards bench height too.
http://hillbillydaiku.com
I thought 38″ sounded high until I started working on a workmate. It’s lower, about 34″ I think and every day my back hurts. Now I’ve got a messed up back anyway, it ALWAYS hurts, but it gets bad fast working on the workmate. I’m hoping raising the work surface to at least 38″ (I may start at 39″) will provide some relief.
I’ve tried doing some of this work seated but it doesn’t generally work well. Some stuff I can take into my lap and work on but if it needs a bench I need to stand up.
John Purser
Hubert, NC
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.