If you’ve done any sort of major or even minor construction or woodworking project of any kind in your home, then you know the importance of having open workbench space. If you’ve done a lot of projects in your home, then you know how massively important it is to have portable workspace, I’m talking about a portable work bench that you can move around to use wherever you need it.
Your workbench is the heart of your workshop, but sometimes you have to work outside of your shop, either out on a job or just around the house. In times like this it’s essential to have something that you can pack up and take with you. Something lightweight, easy to manage, yet sturdy enough to get the job done… no matter what the job is! You’ve come to the right place. I’m going to talk today all about portable workbenches, the best ones that I think you should use, as well as some discussion about what you can expect to pay and maybe even how to find a good deal.
You Don’t Have To Skimp On Options just because your workbench is portable, doesn’t mean you have to skimp on any options that you may need. While it’s true that you can get a really stripped-down version of one of these portable devices rather cheaply, you can also get one filled with just about everything you need for not a whole lot of cash. I’ll get into that in more details below, I just wanted to make the point that portable does not have to mean worthless.
Let’s talk price for a minute or two: so when you get right down to it, what will you have to pay for a decent bench? Well that depends on a couple different things. The first thing is size. Generally speaking, now this isn’t always the case but I find it’s the case most of the time… the larger the bench the more money you’re going to expect to pay. The same holds true for features and options. Almost always, the more different features you want as well as the more options you need, the more you’re going to pay overall. This isn’t always the case, in fact sometimes you can get everything you need fairly cheaply, especially if it is specialized. But on the whole, this will hold true when it comes to price.
Let’s talk price specifics I like to think of prices in a range from low to medium on up to high. Low prices generally look at your stripped-down versions with not a lot of options. Medium prices go to medium benches that have a fair number of the options you’re going to need but not all of the bells and whistles. Finally the high-priced versions I’ll look at will have everything you need as well as some really nice bells and whistles that will make your life a lot easier, but these are things that you’re going to pay for. Also some brands are more expensive than others and I’ll try and talk brands in more detail a little later on. First we’ll focus solely on price.
Let’s Start With The Low End: to start off with let’s look at the Grizzly G8586 Portable Clamping Workbench. This beast is going to run you about $36 is 24″ x 9 1/2″ in work surface and features four 1/4″ clamping capacity. It weighs about 17 pounds. In my mind you will use this mostly as as a folding horse.
Middle Range Units: next let’s look at the Black & Decker WM225 Workmate 225 450 Pound Capacity Portable Work Bench. I think of this as a middle Range unit at about $80. It transforms into a vice, a sawhorse, and a bench tool stand; it has a steel design which holds up to 450 pounds and has an adjustable jaw that includes swivel pegs for unique gripping range. It weighs about 28 pounds, and includes four vice attachments. This is a very nice middle of the range unit and sort of indicative of what you can expect in this field though it may not be the sturdiest model out there.
Top Range Benches: finally, at the mid to top of the range let’s look at the Black & Decker WM425 Workmate 425-550 Pound Capacity Portable Work Bench. This guy will run you about $120 and is sort of what you can expect unless you’re willing to spend several hundred dollars. It easily transforms into a bench tool stand or a roomy workbench; has a heavyweight steel design, it’s designed to hold up to 550 pounds of weight, has a one-handed clamp system which lets you independently adjust the jaw, and has for swivel pegs and a vice to workbench converter insert as well as an extra block. It weighs about 50 pounds which makes moving it and around fairly easy.
I hope this gives you a fairly good idea of the kind of portable work bench you can expect to find as well as the different price ranges and a couple of different brands that are available. Check out the site for a lot more detail about different models and prices.