Height of RAS and benches

[Eric Wheeler]

Hey All,

More questions, as usual. I've kinda taken advice from another thread to slowly start building a shop in the space that I have and go from there as to how big of shop I need. I currently have a 16x24 barn out back, but it has to share storage with the garden tractor and zeroturn mower...Atleast until I get enough shop equipment and build a shed for the tractors.

Anyway, I'm trying to decide my bench heights. I've already decided I want a dedicated work bench (no equipment on it) that is 4 ft high. I know standard is like 3 ft (countertop height) but I am 6'3" and HATE hunching over. I was going to go bar height (as I have A LOT of experience with that height) but that leaves me still kinda hunching over, plus I figure having a shelf half way between will give me (2) 20" shelves (after the height of the 2x4 and plywood)...one shelf being the floor.

What do you guys think? Make sense?? Do you have benches and wish they were a different height? I was thinking of mounting my RAS on another part of the bench and trying to decide if I want it the same height as the other bench, or slightly lower for the use of the saw. I plan to inlay the saw so its table matches the height of the bench on each side of it.

[lawrence dosson]

Eric
im 6/3 also i built my bench 42 inches tall I found that it was to tall for almost every thing that i did on it .
of course this might also depend what you use it for i found clamping and such OK but drilling .sanding .any power tool work it was to tall ,place my project on there taller yet .
after a year of cursing it i cut it down now it is 37 inches perfect for me .
i made a radial saw and mitre saw station both saws are recessed in one on each end
. i made the saw station first and after cussing the bench decided that the saw station was about right and just made it the same as the saw station

[Gordon Eyre]

I am 6'1" and my bench is 35" which seems to work fine for me. If you added a couple of inches to that I would think that would work out for you as well. I also have an appropriate sized chair which positions me well for working on my bench.

[Eric Wheeler]

Eric
im 6/3 also i built my bench 42 inches tall I found that it was to tall for almost every thing that i did on it .
of course this might also depend what you use it for i found clamping and such OK but drilling .sanding .any power tool work it was to tall ,place my project on there taller yet .
after a year of cursing it i cut it down now it is 37 inches perfect for me .
i made a radial saw and mitre saw station both saws are recessed in one on each end
. i made the saw station first and after cussing the bench decided that the saw station was about right and just made it the same as the saw station

Hmm, cuz I'm usually cussing that it seems I am hunched over too much. Maybe I will build various height benches...cuz I am sure I will be cussing that they are too tall once I build them...So if I have a bench for working on the sides of things, and one lower so I can see over top and work on the top of the item

[Rick Potter]

Eric,

Mine is 43" off the floor, and I love it that way. I am 6' 1" tall. I dumped the leg stand and set it on a work table which gives me a place to put cut offs while I am working. I also installed a 6" deep table and fence extension attached to the left of the RAS table which gives me almost 4' to the left of the blade plus a sliding stop setup. The 6" deep setup uses less room and works just fine, leaving more of the work table useable.

To the right side of the top is my chop saw, set at the same height , so the sliding stop works for it too.

By the way, mine is an early 80's DeWalt 7790 (12") which looks a LOT like yours.

Rick Potter

[Peter Quinn]

I'm 5'6" and most of my benches and RAS are about 34" off the floor. A friend that comes to work in my shop occasionally who is 6"1" finds that quite a bit low. Of course he doesn't much like the 7'3" ceiling height either! Or the iron water pipes that are at his fore head height!

I think it makes sense to mock it up with some scraps or MDF to get e sense of what works for you, and build your benches so they can be modified should your needs change and require a height adjustment.

[Jim O'Dell]

All of my horizontal surfaces are at 36 1/2". (I'm 6'2".) It allows me to use the router table and the RAS as infeed tables when I'm cutting sheet goods on the TS. My multifunction wall set up that is to the left of my TS is at the same height, and I can use it for cross cuts on sheet goods as well. The only tool I don't have at that height, yet, is the BS. It will also eventually be at that height. Jim.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I'm 6'2"-ish as well. There are competing factors at play in the bench height decision.

I am set up with a 30" x 12'+ bench against the back wall, then 3' to the primary workbench [30" x 76"] then 30" to the TS.

My bench heights match the height of the TS. This lets me do a number of things, like lay sheet goods across the benches for TS infeed, span from the primary bench to the TS for assembly/finishing of large stuff, etc.

This is all done to make the most of the space I have, expecially when ripping 8' ply, or lumber up to 10' long[pretty rare], etc. I would love to have another 4"+ on the primary bench for planing, etc., but it just ain't gonna happen. The mitersaw sits on a bench that is about 46" tall -primarily to geve me a lot of lumber storage on racks under the bench.

[Eric Wheeler]

Do those of you who have an RAS built into the bench find it a necessary convenience to have the front edge of the bench flush with the front edge of RAS, or does it seem fine with the RAS sticking out an extra (approx) foot? To me it seems it'd be fine cuz how often is that last foot used where you need extra support longer than the RAS table...but I figured I'd ask the guys who have done it obviously WAY more than me

[lawrence dosson]

Eric
my radial arm table sets out 3 inches i use my radial for cross cuts only its a MBF dewalt [not a very large saw ] with a board against the fence of the saw about12 inches is resting on the mitre saw bench .I hope this is a good explination
If i cut a 12 inch wide board on the saw it is flush to the front of the mitre saw table if it is wider it just hangs over that does not present any proplems .
i use a mitre saw at the other end of the bench for mitre cuts on narrow stock and cross cut wide stuff on the table saw .
does this explain that OK ?

[Rick Potter]

I have seen them with a shortened table, so it doesn't hang out farther than the bench. Some even had the cut line go all the way past the end of the table. Now that is really scary. Looks like you could lose fingers or maybe even your big belly that way.

Mine has about six inches overlap from the bench. I mitered the corners to avoid walking into them.

Rick Potter

[Jeff Bratt]

The heights of the benches around the RAS table - router table and workbench - are all the same, so workpieces can move freely. I'm 6'2", and these benches are 40-41", a comfortable height for me. I have no problem with the RAS table being wider than the others.

A height of 48" seems high for a general purpose bench, but there are times I want to get the work closer - it just depends on what you are doing. Carving or intricate work - sure raise it up. But for things like hard planing, where you have to put some weight into the tool, that bench would need to be lower.

My table saw and adjacent surfaces are lower. For hand work I often like the bench higher than "standard". For an assembly table, I usually like a lower table height.

[Gerald Senburn]

In general, I like all my work surfaces at elbow-height. But then again, I have a bad back and it's sensitive to leaning over for anything more than a couple minutes.

[Matt Armstrong]

I thought all benches should be high since i'm 6'2. But i've found that often I'll wish my benches were lower, especially if I consider pulling up a stool or a chair to one.

So, I'm in favor of lower benches, in general..

[Eiji Fuller]

just remember that once you start assembling anything on a workbench that high it will often be out of reach or uncomfortable to work on.

[Dave Lewis]

Good thread.

My height is 68". My maple workbench is 34.5"

Unisaw and ext. table is 35" - that's where most sanding and assembly occurs.

A Makita 10" SCMS sits at 37" with a narrow 7' feed-table to left and 5' to right. That's too tall for me to comfortably sand but I prefer it for cutting 1x stock for trim.

[Stuart Popwell]

I like my miter saw a little higher to get the cut line closer to my old eyes. Since you are not making any "downward actions" the table height is great. I have a open shelf right underneath the miter table at 34" for storage of cutoffs and I have roll carts at 33.5 high stored under the miter bench. Works great.