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I have done this. A few years ago, I stayed in a serviced apartment for about 6 months. As I couldn’t have anything larger, I made a small bench-top bench like the mini-Sjobergs bench. It just fitted in a suitcase, together with a small selection of tools – plane, marking knife, combination square, couple of chisels, handsaw and sharpening stones. Although it wasn’t that good at clamping things firmly, it did work. I made several small boxes with it. I also had a bench hook that I used on a countertop to saw at. If this is your only option, it’s better than nothing. Have you seen the “Milkman’s bench” (https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/the-milkmans-workbench-in-use/)? That’s an alternative to the Sjoberg-style bench, but would take a bit more effort to make. You could also look at the ‘roman workbench’ – a bench you sit on and work at (https://www.mortiseandtenonmag.com/blogs/blog/final-day-of-the-roman-workbench-build).
I think it largely depends on what you want to make and how you are going to do it. If you are going to work with rough sawn wood and will need to do a lot of heavy planing, you will want to make your bench sufficiently heavy and rigid that it doesn’t move across the floor when you plane. If you want to make larger items of furniture, you will probably find it easier with a larger workbench. I started off with a 4ft bench (as that was all I had room for when I lived in Hong Kong). It was fine for sawing boards up, cutting dovetails, etc., but was far from suited to heavy planing, even when loaded up with spare wood to increase its weight. I made stools, boxes, small benches, a toolbox and a bunch of other smaller items on it. I would have struggled to make, say, a chest of drawers on it. On moving back to the UK and a larger garage, I made a 6ft bench. It is so much more pleasant to use, and I’m currently making a desk for my son. I think Paul mentioned that he chose 66″ as being big, rigid and heavy enough to do most work on and still fit in a single garage. I think he’s right.
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