About the height of your wrist when you arm is hanging down.

 

That makes the height about an inch below the kitchen cabinets.

Build your workbench to have the same height as your table saw. If you build a router table, ditto. This makes for easier handling of long moldings and boards, and sheet goods.

I plan on also building a bench on casters for the center of the shop so that's exactly what I'll do.

 

Build your workbench to have the same height as your table saw. If you build a router table, ditto. This makes for easier handling of long moldings and boards, and sheet goods.

 

36" works for me in my shop. My portable set up I use on job sites is about 34" and is comfortable (for me). I just measured to my wrist per ToolSeekers formula and came up with 35".

Kitchen counters are work benches too and the standard height is 36", there must be a reason for that.

 

If it's too high it hard to work on something with any size if it's too low it hurts your back so there is no set standard. Maybe what you are going to use it for the most will have some bearing. Like if most of what you are going to be doing is smaller projects make it a little higher.

 

The height of your workbench depends a lot on what you will be working on and how you will be working on it. If you work on small engines or things like that you will probably want the bench a little lower because the items will stand quite tall when they are on the bench and are heavy to lift up. If you're working on clocks you will probably be be sitting down on working on them for your bench height would thus be different for that. If you work on a variety of things that might be nice to have a couple of different height benches. The ultimate obviously would be a variable height bench but those are impractical for most applications.

 

I think there are too many variables to have someone give you a set height. I would just set up a mock bench and find out what is comfortable for you. Your height, inseam length, arm length, whether you will be working on a chair, etc., etc. Standard is 36" to 38."

 

I did just that. Worked on a small engine and found that 37" is about the perfect height for me while standing, any lower and the back gets tired pretty quick.

 

My workbench is also the outfeed table for my table saw, so it is 34.5 inches tall. It is also where I do just about everything from building face frames to complete cabinets and anything else that comes along.

My router table has an adjustable height feature but I find it most useful and easy to use when it is set at about 38 inches. No back pain.

As you can see in the pics, the work bench/assembly table/outfeed table gets a lot of use.

Hope this helps.
Mike

 

Build your Workbench has the same height as the saw table for you. If you are building a router table, ditto. This makes it easier to manipulate the length of the mould and the Board and sheets.
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