The article on Steve Latta’s Mini-Bench from Fine Woodworking in 2014 struck a cord with me. My back has been complaining more and more as I work bent over. I adapted Latta’s Mini-Bench to fit my stature and needs. The ideal height for me was even with my hands when my elbows were at my side and at 90 degrees. I’m 5′ 9″, so that translated to the mini beach being 8.4″ on top of my 33″ main bench. It has been a godsend with my frequent work on small parts.
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Awesome. I recently raised my main workbench as well. It had been 35 or 36" tall; not enough. I raised it to 41" and so far I'm happy. TIme will tell. I think most folks would be better off with a higher bench to start with and then see if they want to shorten it.
I have a very small shop area. If my regular bench height is more appropriate for what I'm doing I simply take the two F clamps off and move the mini-bench to the back. That takes just a minute or two and there is still plenty of bench width to work with. Thanks for the comment.
--Gerry
Same here, heights are determined by the fact that all surfaces might wind up as infeed or oufeed for the tablesaw. The moxxon trots out for elevated handwork.
I built a bench-on-bench years ago inspired by Steve's article. A great addition to the shop.
I'll add my thanks for the inspirational article as well. I fabricated my own slightly modified version about 3 years ago. Mine utilizes a series of 5/16" T-nuts imbedded in my existing bench top for attachment making it easy to relocate or remove.
I built it out of Southern Yellow pine and am still adding various accessories like the chisel holder and drawer.