workbench height.....too low??

[bandsaw]

Studied ergonomics in engineering school in the 60's.  The instructor had an old text from the 1800's industrial England which stated bench height should be 4 inches below the tip of the elbow when standing erect with arms at the sides. It added that for workers with poor posture this may need to be increased to 5 inches.

We were sent out to a fruit processing plant to test some of the ideas from this old text and we found them very useful. One rather short lady had work table higher than her elbow and after we cut it down to 4 inches below her elbow her output doubled.

My bench has been at 36 inches which was 4 inches below my elbow but I'm shorter than I used to be and will be cutting my bench down to 35 inches.

[Edwin Hackleman]

I just thought of something. Nowadays cell phones have forced people to look down most of the time rather than forward or up. So, take your height, divide it by two and then subtract two inches for the bench because you are usually looking down at the cell phone most of the time. That lower height for the bench should thus make things comfortable for you. Your hunched over posture will appreciate that as time goes by.