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There are lots of options and opinions here. If there is a consensus, I think it's that the bench top should be somewhere around your palm or wrist. If it's at your knuckles, it's too low. If it's at your waist, it's too high. My own bench is wristwatch-height. That is, if my arms are hanging loose at my sides, my watch band just touches the top of the bench. After about 8 years, I'm pretty pleased with it.
Steve S.
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Just below elbow height works best for me. Planing requires downward and forward force. My bench is actually height adjustable because I have low ceiling and if I work on a tall piece, I lower the bench, but it pretty much stays at elbow height.
It is never hot or cold in NH. It is always seasonal.
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The formula that refers to the height of your palms with wrists bent and hands parallel to the floor produces a low bench. It originated in the days when people made a living standing at the bench and planing wood all day long. In order to do that, they needed to get their legs and back into the job instead of powering the plane with their arms. A low bench is good for that, but it's not so good for other tasks, like sawing joinery and such where it's helpful to have your eyes closer to the work. Of course you can bend over to see what you're doing on a low bench, but that gets tiresome and unconfortable.
What kind of work will you do on your bench? If you're going to do a LOT of hand planing, a low bench (palm height) would be good. If planing is only incidental to various other joinery tasks, then a higher bench would probably work better for you. I'm a short guy, 5'5". A palm-height bench for me would be about 28 or 29". My bench is 34" tall and I find it very comfortable for most tasks, including a fair amount of hand planing. I've sometimes wished it were higher, but I can't recall ever wishing it was lower.
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+1 on the bent wrist formula.
I am 6-1. My bench is 35" high.
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I made my Paul Sellers style bench at 38" height and love no more crouching over and easy on my back.
Steve
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Perfect is the point where you can work as long as you want, and your back doesn't hurt
I am 6'2" and Sellers bench height is about where I am good at, maybe a touch higher? That old middle of the palm thing will put me in traction for a week, after 5 minutes of use.
Worst thing they can do is cook ya and eat ya
GW
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5' 7" and my bench is 33" tall. No complaints.
Ed
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Why pick a height? How about an adjustable height design?
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If you're interested in an adjustable bench, here's an idea. I built my bench with adjustable heavy machine levelers in the legs. The levelers have 3" neoprene pads with 1/2 X 11 threaded shafts. They are mounted to the bench with solid steel leg caps that I had fabricated by my local machine shop. They are rock solid and give my bench 4" of vertical adjustment. Here are photos:
<img src="http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/hankknight/DSCN0380.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo DSCN0380.jpg"/>
<img src="http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/hankknight/DSCN0391B.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo DSCN0391B.jpg"/>
<img src="http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/hankknight/IMG_4233.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_4233.jpg"/>
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Don't know if he ever posted it here, but Allen in little Washington made an awesome adjustable one. Maybe send him a pm.....
Ed
