That's a nice job Tony.
You're mostly familiar with it i'm sure, but it may be appropriate to mention Christopher Schwartz's Workbench book again in this context.
I'm about halfway through - having been advised to buy it. It's not expensive from Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Workbenches-Des ... 021&sr=8-1
I'd been asking questions about the pros and cons of some of the different set ups and layouts one finds on the various workbench designs - some of the older wooden vice designs in particular are a bit hard to figure out.
The problem for me was that despite reading one well known 'bible' and lots of other articles i wasn't a lot wiser about what would suit me except for what i could guess at - the books and articles i've seen spend a lot of time recording the details of various workbench designs, but very little on the 'why' or 'how' of these.
To the point where some almost take the position that 'this is the way it was done, so this is the way it should be done now and don't ask questions'. But why???? 'It's tradition....' Which bugs me. There's no point re-inventing the wheel, and there's not much in benches that hasn't been done before - but on the other there's no point blindly worshipping at somebody else's take on what the altar was, and only afterwards finding out the hard way that the bench you've spent a bundle of time and money on is really not well suited to your needs.
Similar really to the articles in the mags on machines and equipment which for different reasons rate kit against some set of criteria that's (just) maybe clear in the reviewer's head, but don't clearly state what these are - and spend even less time looking at how other solutions get the same jobs done, and to what standard and why.
With the result that you rarely ever really know where a given bit of kit fits in the broader scheme of things, either in terms of its cost or performance - or indeed of your own needs.
Schwarz doesn't get ideological about it, but instead in a very explicit way goes through the various work holding and supporting functions a combined hand and power tool user may need in a bench, looks at the various design features (traditional and modern) and bits of equipment available to achieve these, and rates the pros and cons of these in his opinion.
It's still not a black and white statement of what might suit you in your own working situation, but boy is it a big improvement over the usual - it really does leave you with at least a menu against which you can position your own needs, and (if you're prepared to put in the time to figure it out) make a decent shot at selecting the design features most suited to delivering these.
So top marks to Mr. Schwarz, mags please listen (Good Woodworking especially - the recent article on workbenches was to say the least superficial and typical of the problem described above) and my apologies for taking so long to say this...
it;s on my tuit list, along with many other things 
