Newbie Needs Advice On Setting Up A Work Bench

[SimonJester753]

I've been using a Black & Decker workmate 525. Its kind of small. My "stone slab" has been a 12" x12" x .25" granite floor tile. I cracked the corner off last night.

I'm attaching a picture of my computer desk, which I'm thinking of making my workbench. It's a little over 8' long x 26" deep. I have cabinets mounted on the wall above it. I could mount lights under the cabinets. I realized that there's no good light in my apartment, except for the bathroom. I hate working in the dark.

I could relocate my computer to another room, but I'm thinking that I could mount the screen on a wall-mounted swing arm. I like having it in the work area so that I can use online references.

Should I flush mount the slab? What size should I get? As of now, I'm not doing tooling.

Is it common to work standing or sitting? The height is good for sitting, but low for standing.

I'm thinking a bench vise might come in handy, not necessarily for leather work, but as a general workbench tool. I'll need an anvil for setting copper rivets, and many vises come with an anvil.

Any advise would be welcomed.

[Fredo]

Hi, I have found that a good quality work bench can be made fairly inexpensivly. I go to the local home depot type store and buy a solid core door.

You may not be doing any tooling right now but if and when you do you'll love the fat that the table does not move, bounce or flex.

I have two, one for leather work (leather ruining) and one I build motorcyles on.

[AZ09]

FWIW

I always build my benches to accommodate me standing. I then use a science lab chair to sit at the bench. So basically I get the best of both worlds. Now Al Stholman made a simple seated work area you can search around for the plans.

Also I found for leather working I prefer to have my bench accessible on all sides. I tend to make my tops a minimum of 6x10.Again allot depends on your shop space. remember to build them sturdy.

[Logans Leather]

Get yourself a thicker stone slab to work on. You might be able to get some cast offs from a place that does granite counter tops for next to nothing or even for free. 1/4" is way too thin, and you will end up breaking it more and more as you go on. The thicker your slab is, the better, to an extent, as this means you need less force per strike to accomplish your tooling and they are much quieter to work on as well. I got lucky and picked up a 3.5" thick pink granite slab for free at a shop that makes gravestones and monuments. They often have "oops" pieces with misspellings or other mistakes that they will part with inexpensively.