Height of your work surface.

[No skills]

Speaking as someone that doesn't have a proper bench...

I have noticed from various videos that not everyone has the same planing stance, some are really hunched over the plane others are more at arms length and there's also variations on how it's being moved, some seem to just use upper body others are using full body movement. Yes I am taking into account length of stock being worked and what work is being done
Imo another variable to take into account.

 

[Woodmonkey]

As others have said, there is no right answer, just whatever feels right for you. Mine is nearly a metre ( 40 inches?) which feels perfect for me despite being a lot taller than the accepted norm

 

[EddyCurrent]

When I served my time in Engineering the correct height we were taught was the top of the vice (large engineering vice) should come to the elbow, the top of the bench obviously being lower depending on the size of vice.
They used to pair lads up of equal height so the double bench was okay for both. Metal 'socks' were used, just box sections that fitted over the wooden bench legs with different size blocks in the bottom to adjust the height.
Now that I only work wood, my bench height is 36", I'm 6' tall.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Many old drawings and photos have benches that seem to me to be low, but that was in the days when many carpenters and joiners spent hours on end planing - how many people nowadays spend more than a few minutes at a time doing that?

 

[yetloh]

You can't put the height back once it's gone.

I agree about making it too high to start with, but actually, you can put it back, albeit not as it was. I made my first bench out of bits of pine that I happened to have, a really crappy wobbly bench made by someone else that came with me when I moved. It turned out too low, so I got a couple of bits of 3x3 cut to the depth of the bench, put them front to back under the legs at each end and srewed steel plates to each side of legs and riser. Not only is it a much better height it has nade the rebuilt bench even stiffer and more stable. It may not look very pretty but who cares.

The point is that one should not worry about the the height of an inherited bench or one offered at a knock down price, because this is one of the most easily remedied faults. Woodworkers tend to fall into two categories - those who like fettling crappy tools to make them work like good ones and spending many hours (not tomention money) making a beautiful bench, and those who really want to spend time using bench and tools to make things which will be appreciated beyond the workshop. I know fettling a bench is a version of fettling a tool but with a bench, big savings in time and money can be made compared with building a bench from scratch.

Jim

 

[Dalejones]

I would rather make it a little higher then I would make a little platform of the desired height I could stand on to be comftable with other work