Ideal Parf bench size

[narco]

Hi

I'm about to make my first Parf System bench top.

I'm wondering what dimensions to make it. I bought the system primarily to make my own kitchen cabinetry (valchromat). I'm also making the parf bench out of a sheet of valchromat. The difficulty is that I'll be cutting a number of items that are 2400mm long, and I'm not sure if I should make the bench big enough to work for this, or if that is a silly idea, and I should just manually measure where to trim the longer pieces, so as to have a smaller bench.

I did buy a number of additional accessories (although it was about a year ago, so I can't list them off the top of my head, they are currently in storage and will be coming out soon)

Any thoughts? Or even just what sizes have been best for your uses?

Cheers
Matt

 

[NiteWalkerGR]

In your shoes, I'd make two tables the same size, probably mft size, and on casters.

 

[Rick Herrick]

A couple of years ago I made my first bench.  It was the Paulk style bench and I made it 4' x 8'.  Its a dream to cut plywood on this large bench.  I bought the Parf guide system and went ahead making lots of 20mm holes.  The entire bench is done this way.  That makes it nice to always have a hole when/where you need it but I would NEVER do it again.  I have dropped more screws, tools and other little doodads through those holes.

A couple of suggestions:

If you do a Paulk style bench, the ones where elongated ovals are used on the sides to store stuff under the top, don't round over the ovals.  Just make them all 90 degree cuts and don't round over the edges.  Its much easier to clamp things to a 3/4" flat surface than to the rounded area.

I would not hesitate to do the entire 4x8 bench in 3mm holes (Parf location holes) but just don't do the 20mm holes until you need them or once you have a good plan. 

And I most likely won't do 4x8 again, it just takes up too much dang room.  I am thinking my next one will be 3'x6'.

 

[TSO_Products]

[member=79269]narco[/member]  - I second Rick Herrick's recommendation in all respects.

FWiW: Ron Paulk has his Paulk Bench with sawhorses sitting on a very basic platform with wheels so he can easily move the whole thing around in his limited  Florida shop space

Hans

 

[Shavings]

• I use to design manufacturing assembly station layouts.  The most comfortable working area is the distance that you can reach with your hands straight out in front of you (about 2') and the distance that both hands cover extended out from your side (about 4').  When I was working for a medical device manufacturer, we set up a new five station assembly work cell to build patient monitors.  Four of the stations were were set up to be 48 inches across the front by 30 inches deep.  The actual work area was 2' x 4'.  The extra 6" in depth was to hold testing equipment, parts bins, etc.  The fifth station was used to make assemble the handle and wire harness which was 5' long - so that table was made 60 inches across the front by 30 inches deep.  The operators cycled through each of the five stations every two hours so that one person didn't have to work at the longest table all day.  To get these sizes, we bought new tables and cut them down. This was a new assembly line that we installed in the facility. 
  
  Short Story:  All the rest of the work stations were a standard 4' x 6'.  After the new line was up and running for a couple of months, I went around to the other operators and asked if anyone wanted to try a smaller work table.  Almost everyone said "No way" as they didn't want to give up any of their valuable workspace.  However, one senior employee did volunteer to try it.  So, we made her station 48 inches by 30 inches for the same reason of equipment and parts bins.  I checked with her every day for a week to see how things were going and she was OK with it.  After two months, I went to her work station and announced to her that she needed to go back to the bigger size.  She asked why and I advised her that her she had only non standard work station in her area and we needed to go back to everyone having a uniform station.  She promptly told me that she had seniority and everyone else could darn well change.  She didn't want to go back to the old size.  We weren't going to force the new or old size on anyone, I just wanted to find out which she preferred.  After that, several of her co-workers asked if they could try the smaller stations.
  
  My work benches:
  
  1. My assembly work bench is 48 inches by 30 inches.
  2. My wood working bench is 2' x 6'  Paulik style bench with extension that I can place on top to make it 4' x 8' to rip down sheet stock.
  
  Just thought I would share this info.  Obviously, make the bench to the size that handles most of your tasks, but a 2' x 4' work area is the most comfortable.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

It depends on what you are going to do with it. Mine started out as a full 4' x 8' sheet, the grid of holes covers the entire surface. About a year ago, I added 30 more inches to the length, but left out the holes. This section is also removable, should I need to move it.
However, this is in a large cabinet shop, where I could encounter nearly anything. A hobbyist may require a much different approach.

 

[narco]

Thanks guys/girls

Some good answers there.

I hadn't considered making two that I could even potentially clamp together when needed. That's something to ponder a bit.

Also drilling all the full holes, and to keep the side ovals without roundovers seems like great advice.

thanks
Matt

 

[Midnight Man]

Make a couple of these:

Plans are available at the author's website.

With these, you can have a couple of workbenches, then convert them to other uses for other projects.

 

[squall_line]

Make a couple of these:

Plans are available at the author's website.

With these, you can have a couple of workbenches, then convert them to other uses for other projects.

Be aware that others have had issues receiving their plans from his storefront since 2020.  The originator of that set of plans has not been active on the forum since 2019 and got out of woodworking in 2018.

 

[Midnight Man]

Be aware that others have had issues receiving their plans from his storefront since 2020.  The originator of that set of plans has not been active on the forum since 2019 and got out of woodworking in 2018.

Thank you for posting that, it's something I wasn't aware of!

I purchased my plans in July 2019, so prior to the time frame you refer to.