I'm not a particularly tall person, at only about 5' 9", and am of a height and thin build probably typical of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
But, I found something interesting. Looking through all of the old workbench designs in a few books, such as "The Practical Woodworker," most of the benches come in quite low at around 30 inches. And indeed, I recall seeing "two and a half feet" as the standard bench height in other Historical books.
So, many years ago, I built my first bench at 30", and it caused me nothing but back pain. I built my second bench at 31.5", and it too caused me back pain.
I find 33-34" minimum to be comfortable.
But I have to wonder, am I missing something?
I mean, Roy Underhill loves and always advocates for such low benches, and it seems that most Historical sources do too. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong?
Am I stooping over my work and getting much too close to it? I find myself bent over my bench and my eyes very low and close to my work often, and I wonder if this is some kind of weird habit of mine -- if I should be more comfortable farther back. My eye-sight is very good, so it's not like I have any excuse there.
One thing I have done is change my stance when doing certain things such as sawing or boring in the vise, for instance -- lowering it a bit and spreading my legs out more -- one forward and one backwards, as is sometimes depicted.
So, I'm just kind of curious: are you comfortable "further up" and "farther away" from your work, or do you generally stoop over it and get your eyes as close as possible?
Some of these habits may be from my long formed habit of working on the floor, which is where most of my woodworking has been done over the years (first as a kid without a bench, and much later in more of a Japanese fashion). Working on the floor, it's quite easy to see the work and get your eyes right up to it without the backpain from bending over. This is one big reason I find working in Japanese fashion to actually be really comfortable, though it limits you to Japanese tools that cut on the pull stroke mostly (as there's not enough weight to hold the bench when pushing unless you butt it up against the wall).
Anyway, I am particularly interested in hearing the experience of you folks who prefer a low bench, and curious how you manage not to have severe back pain!
It would be quite convenient to be able to work at a lower height, as I often have found myself improvising on a kitchen table or other improvised surfaces, and I'm curious to know what I might be missing and not appreciating about lower benches.
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