Counter/Bench Depth?

[Steve Canada]

Hey folks,

I'm just walling in my shop this weekend and building the counters/benches along the walls after that. I'm going to build utilitarian 2x4 framing, with MDF on top.

What are the collective recommendations on counter depth? I was simply going to go 24" to maximize the usage from a 4x8, but is there anything else I should be considering?

I'm currently thinking 37" for the height, as I like a little higher bench. I'm 6' even. And the "crease at your wrist" benchmark is 35".

Thoughts?

[Prashun Patel]

I like yr reasoning. My 24" bench and rolling cart make fine depth work surfaces. One caveat: The back edges of my counters tend to get used as shelves in the shop. This reduces the amount of work space.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I used a (free) counter top for the work area in my current shop. That idea has had two draw backs. The first is the spill lip built in to the front edge such that the surface is not perfectly flat from back to front. The second is that I find it to be a little to shallow. I think 30" or 36" would be a better depth.

How wide is the bench? You could go 32" deep and 4' wide by cutting the sheet along the short side and end up with three 32"x48" pieces

P.S. My first temptation, also, would be to go with 24" to minimize waste of a good sheet of plywood.

[Steve Canada]

Well, these are going to be looooong benches! Most likely:

1 at 16-20'
2 at 12-14'

...along 3 of the walls in my garage. (24x26).

The only problem I had with 36" depth was that it made reaching the wall with my hands limited. If I added cabinets, which will come in time, reaching them may prove difficult without a set ladder as I will most likely place them higher up since I enjoy more vertical room above the counters.

[JayStPeter]

If you're going to make one a CMS station, I would consider making that one deeper. I built my CMS into a 36" deep counter top and have 24" from the front to the fence to use for other things. The foot behind the fence is storage.

[Dave Novak]

I added long 24" wide benches along the walls in my shop when I was building it out about 8 years ago. Now I wish I hadn't. There's only so much use (at least in my workshop world) for long skinny bench space with a wall behind it. It's almost always better for me to work on a table centered in the shop that I can walk around. All that bench space is simply a place to gather stuff I'm too lazy to put away properly, and it consumes valuable wall space too. My next shop won't have any benches like this except on either side of my SCMS for material support. Instead I'll go with assembly/work tables centered in the space, with the machinery poisioned along walls. Just my $0.02.

Well, these are going to be looooong benches! Most likely:

1 at 16-20'
2 at 12-14'

...along 3 of the walls in my garage. (24x26).

The only problem I had with 36" depth was that it made reaching the wall with my hands limited. If I added cabinets, which will come in time, reaching them may prove difficult without a set ladder as I will most likely place them higher up since I enjoy more vertical room above the counters.