Which workbench or work support should I get?

The right answer here depends less on what you make than on whether you have somewhere to leave it, and that question is usually settled before any of the others matter.

Step by step

1. Start from whether you have permanent space.A fixed bench needs a garage, shed or workshop corner it can stay in. If everything has to be packed away, that settles it — folding or trestles, and no amount of specification changes it.
2. Buy a folding workbench for general household work.The clamping-jaw type. It holds work, it folds flat, it goes where the job is, and it costs very little. For repairs, fitting and assembly it is the right tool for most people.
3. Understand its limits.It moves under a hand plane, it is not big enough for sheet material, and it flexes under heavy sawing. Fine for what it is for, frustrating if you expect a bench.
4. Get the height right.For general work and assembly, roughly wrist height when standing — about 850 to 950mm for most people. Hand planing wants lower; detailed work wants higher. A bench at the wrong height is uncomfortable within an hour.
5. Use trestles for sheet material.Two trestles and a sacrificial sheet of insulation board or scrap ply. It supports a full sheet, lets you cut right through without hitting anything, and packs away. Better than any bench for cutting plywood or plasterboard.
6. Build a fixed bench only if you will use it.Heavy, flat, rigid and against a wall, with a vice. Transformative for real woodwork and a large object taking up a garage otherwise.
7. Prioritise mass and rigidity in a fixed bench.A bench that moves when you plane or chisel is fighting you. Weight and a rigid frame matter more than the top material or any fitted accessory.
8. Fit a vice if you do woodwork.A front vice is the single most useful addition to a fixed bench. Bench dogs and a holdfast extend what it can grip considerably.
9. Consider a workbench with a solid top and a torsion box.For assembly rather than hand tool work, flatness matters most. A torsion-box top stays flat and is lighter than a solid slab.
10. Add a roller stand for long material.Supporting the far end of a long board or a run of skirting. Cheap, and it removes the main reason cuts go wrong on long stock.
11. Improvise well if you are not buying anything.A hollow-core door on two trestles is flat, cheap and large. A stack of pallets, a kitchen worktop offcut, or a sheet of ply on a garden table all work.
12. Think about the floor around it.Space to walk round, somewhere for offcuts, and light. A bench in a corner with no access to three sides is half a bench.
13. Start with the folding one.It is inexpensive, it will always be useful even after you build something better, and it tells you what you actually need before you commit space.

Tips

• Wrist height when standing is the general-purpose bench height. A bench at the wrong height is uncomfortable within an hour and cannot be fixed later.
• Trestles and a sacrificial sheet beat any bench for cutting sheet material, and cost a fraction.
• Buy the folding one first regardless. It stays useful even once you have something better.

Common mistakes

• Building a fixed bench at the wrong height — It cannot be changed afterwards and it makes every long session uncomfortable. Measure to your wrist standing before building anything.
• Cutting sheet material on a workbench — It is unsupported at the edges, so it sags, pinches the blade and tears out. Trestles and a sacrificial sheet support it fully.

If it doesn't work

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