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How to determine the best work bench height when designing a workbench for the garage or woodshop. The ideal height should be based on both your body height and the type of work you plan to do at the bench.

Why you should you care about workbench height? First consider that any kind of manual work puts stress on the body. Nothing wrong with that, really, if it includes a healthy mix of moving, stretching, pulling, and pushing. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen while standing in front of a workbench, where we can easily spend hours going through the same motions over and over. Of course, the most common hazard from this kind of repetition is lower back pain, which usually comes from working on a bench that is too low. So what's the solution? The best way to avoid back problems working at your bench is to design your bench to fit your body height and the type of work you plan to do there.

First, let's talk about body height. The basic rule of thumb here is that for most general types of work..like joinery and construction...try to set the top of your bench to be even with the bottom edge of your shirt cuff. This will give you nice, workable surface for most of the jobs you'll bring to a bench.

What about other types of work like sanding and cutting? In these cases, I like my bench top to be somewhat lower. This lets me use the weight of my arms and shoulders to help push the tools. I've found that dropping the height just 6" below my cuff makes a big difference with these types of jobs.

On the other hand, if I'm using a bench primarily for assembly and making repairs, I want my bench top be a little higher. In this case, 6" above my shirt cuff seems to be the magic number. This will keep me from having to bend over my work, and just make it easier to see what I'm doing.

So to recap, the ideal workbench height depends on both your body height and the type of work you plan to do at your bench. For most general work, that means making the top even with the bottom of your shirt cuff. For sanding and carving, about 6" below your shirt cuff. For assembly and repairs, about 6" above your shirt cuff.

Now if you're looking for workbench plans, I have a nice ebook at my website http://www.ezwoodshop.com that will take you through all the steps we've talked about here, plus show you a very easy way to build a bench for the garage or basement using simple 2x4s and plywood. This is one of the strongest and most durable bench designs I've seen, and the best part is that it doesn't require a lot of building skills or expensive tools to bring it together.