Wow I need to update this thread. Bench is AWESOME. Used for hundreds of projects and repair jobs already. I call it life changing because I feel like I always have a place to work on things. Right now - playing with my boring machine, trying to fix some old planes and inventory more hand tools my wife got me at an estate sale.
Good to see you have time to make it back on the site. I'm rather new here, and this is the first I saw this thread. Great read, and great work. I'm trying to get started on some woodworking myself, and have to get a bench made up as well. I bookmarked the one link you posted and will give the Paul Sellers site a good read. I'm curious, now that you've had some time on the bench, what would you do differently, if anything?
Not a whole lot, notably I made it too tall. 1 inch to be exact but took me 6 months to figure it out. Beyond that, nothing major except will be adding some things as time goes on. If I did itagain I would use as much douglas fir as I could for the top as it is more stable but thatis minor annoyance.
What type of wood did you use for the top? One of the books I have recommends maple, but not sure how much that would cost yet. As to height, I'm 5'8", so I will have to try to get a good feel for the height. Or build it tall, then just cut the legs shorter till it works.
I just used home depot cheapo 2x6. I am sure maple would be nice but actually preferthe cheap/soft wood. It’s going to get trashed. Mine is a tear okd and looks like it survived a war already.