I was very happy to see Geoffery Noden had his great "Adjust-a-bench" at the Woodworks show this weekend as it's been in my thoughts for some time. I've been using a Sojberg bench for a number of years and it's done the job...but it's limited size and fixed height often made it less-than-desirable for things like assembly. One solution was to build an assembly table; probably a torsion box and several supports to vary the height. But while my shop is comfortable, it is not large enough to support both the Sojberg bench and an assembly table concurrently, particularly if I wanted to use certain tools.
Well, I struck a "stellar deal" with Geoffery at the show on a complete Adjust-a-bench setup, including a 29" x 64" x 2 1/4" maple benchtop. The deal was so painful to him that I readily agreed to do a full review when time permits...Ah, neogtiation...
(Unfortunately, Lee Valley wasn't negotiating on the price of the medium shoulder plane, other than free shipping, but I bought that anyway...
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The unique feature of this system is that the height of the 2" thick bench can be quickly and easily adjusted between about 28" to about 45" hight. Put it down low for assembly work, at normal height for general woodworking and up high for detail work, such as dovetails and carving where you want to stand erect and comfortable. Since the unit sits fully on the floor when not being mobile, it's pretty much rock-solid, too.
I will be adding a side vice and end vice to the unit as soon as I get time and will post "real" photos of the unit in this thread once it's assembled. In the mean time, here's a shot I scarfed and modified from their website that illustrates the minimum and maximum height with a typical work bench top.
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