What Type Of Workbench Is The Best For You
The price range for workbenches from a few bucks to over many thousand dollars will make us look a little bit closer into this field of one of the most used tools in a workshop. Before we have a look at the different types of workbenches, make sure we are all familiar with the simple term.
For a woodworker, a workbench is where workpieces can be clamped to easily. Workbenches are the back of every workshop, even nowadays in a rather machinery oriented work environment, it gets increasingly downgraded to a table or cabinet to store the tools. But without doubt, every professional woodworker should have a good look at the different kinds of workbenches available before deciding which one best suites his needs. So let’s dive into an overview:
We can generally divide the market for workbenches into these groups:
- Woodworking Workbenches
- General Garage Workbenches
- Portable Workbenches
Woodworking Workbenches
It all starts with heavy duty woodworking workbenches likethis one from Sjoeberg or Ulmia. These benches, made out of beech wood are certainly the most robust of its kind. Often, with benchtops up to 4 inch thick, they come with two different types of clamps.
The front clamp, traditionally parallel pressing against the workbench side. The back clamp can open (depending on the bench up to 10 inches) and presses against the grain part of the benchtop, giving it an extra strong force.
Standard Woodworking Workbench
The standard workbenches for today’s woodworker are sized in between 50 to 60 inches length (1400 to 1600 mm). They often include cabinets for tool and machinery storage like the Sjoebergs SJ1400 workbenches. Rockler offers workbenches two different versions: with top and trestle or just the workbench top and kit and plan to built your own bench base. This is a very nice alternative for anybody who wants to get a robust benchtop made out of laminated birch and combines it with its own needs of a workbench base. Light – DIY workbenches or Garage workbenches
General Garage Workbench
Apart of these typical woodworking benches, a large variety of garage workbenches can be found on the market. In today’s workshop, these workbenches become more and more popular as auxiliary benches. Often rather cheap to buy, they serve as additional storage space as well. A good example for these garage workbenches is Northerntools AnySize™ Workbench Kit where you just build a 36 inch high workbench according to the workbench plans. Once you have got and cut the lumber parts, which are not included, this workbench can be built very fast at low cost.
Portable Workbenches
The final group of workbenches are the portable ones. Everything useful for on the site workbenches and jigs. It all started with traditional saw horses with a board on it and now goes to very sophisticated clamping devices for heavy duty use. First, what comes in mind is Black&Deckers workmate. Originally designed for DIY enthusiasts around the world, it got popular among kitchen cabinet makers and woodworkers for its ability to give an extra hand on the workplace.
Professional Portable Workbenches And Clamps
The professional counterpart to any workmate are Tritons superjaws. More like a clamping device with a tremendous clamping range from 0 – 35″ it can also perfectly serve as a workbench. Just get two of them together and put a board on it – and the workbenchis ready. As the clamping pressure comes from a foot pedal, it leaves your hands free while applying a pressure of up to 2440 lbs. Probably the highest pressure on any type of portable workbenches.