Calling all woodworkers! This week @TheOnlyAaron tries to bring organization and function to any woodshop by designing a workbench. Bring your ideas and suggestions of what you would like to see in this shop must have. You can watch on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook
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What kind of work bench? Shaker, Roubo, European-style cabinet maker’s bench, coffin maker’s bench, …
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Just excited that the WW community is getting some love!
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It is exciting
Tall or short people?
I’ve done SketchUp models and plans for about two dozen workbenches but one thing I’ve never seen is one with a self-cleaning top. Maybe @TheOnlyAaron can work that in to his design. And also a place where pencils always return automatically so I don’t spend all my time looking for where I last laid my pencil down.
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Not to talk about the just sharpened tools that you knock down to the cement floor when you place your work on the bench.
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I haven’t used a workbench since school, so I’m imagining my own fantasy workbench would have lockable wheels so it can be easily moved around the workshop. I’d also love some tool racks attached for my favorite tools. Maybe a ruler or a type of measurement scale could be placed along one edge.
That’s why many benches have recessed trays!
Of course but none of the trays take any initiative at catching tools into them. I also want a work desk that tidies itself but puts all my things where I can instantly find them.
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You need better-trained tools 
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David Charlesworth’s workbench would be an interesting one to model. 
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Funny you should mention this, Dave! The workbench i currently have in my office was originally designed with a vacuum built in that would (in theory) suck all the dust and stuff up while I worked… I never got it to work… primarily because the vacuum I was using, I think… it just did not suck enough
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Maybe you need one with a bigger sucker.
I did a plan for Fine Woodworking Magazine years ago for a bench with built in dust collection. It had a cyclone in it to separate out the bigger chunks and a device to turn on the vacuum when you started up a tool like a sander or something.
Work benches are great because of their flat horizontal surfaces, the problem with horizontal surfaces are they’re a great place to put stuff. 
I think the answer perhaps is to take a leaf out of the kitchen designer’s book and have a catch-all gulley to collect all the peelings, i.e.sweep all the dust and shavings into it and then attach the vacuum to a nozzle on that …
I’ve added a tube, a bit like those coffee cup and lid dispensors next to coffee vending machines; I put all the pencils I find in at the top, and hey - they appear through a rubber nozzle at the bottom one by one. Just got to figure out the self-sharpening bit while in the tube …!
The classic vacuum ad goes “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”. (I am rather certain they did it on purpose)
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Yeah, something like that would be awesome, but my whole workbench is less than 36" x 36"… I don’t have room underneath for a large vac plus cyclone chamber… it would be cool, though!!
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