The calculation is based on your height and the task you perform most often.

1. Enter Your Height: Provide your total height in inches.
2. Select Primary Task: Choose the type of work you do most frequently at the bench.
   • General Assembly: Often set to wrist height, allowing for a neutral posture.
   • Fine Detail Work: Set higher, near elbow height, to reduce hunching and bring the work closer to your eyes.
   • Heavy Work: Set lower to allow you to use your body weight and core muscles for tasks like hand planing.
3. Calculate Height: The calculator multiplies your height by a factor associated with that task to recommend a bench height.

Example 1: A 5′ 10″ woodworker, general assembly.
Height 70″, factor 0.5 → 70 × 0.5 = 35.0″. That lands near the classic 34–36″ utility bench. Add a 3/4″ benchtop and an anti-fatigue mat and you're still comfortably in range.

Example 2: Same person, heavy hand-planing.
Factor 0.4 → 70 × 0.4 = 28.0″. The lower top lets you lean your body weight into a smoothing plane instead of muscling it with your shoulders — exactly why traditional Roubo benches sit so low.

Example 3: A 5′ 4″ carver doing fine detail.
Height 64″, factor 0.6 → 64 × 0.6 = 38.4″. The higher surface brings small work up toward the eyes so you hunch less over a bench hook or carving cradle.

• Building one height for every task. A surface perfect for assembly can wreck your back during detailed carving. Size the bench for the work you do most, or add a raised sub-top for detail days.
• Measuring barefoot on a hard floor. If you'll stand on mats, factor their thickness in — a 3/4″ mat changes your effective working height.
• Ignoring shoe height and posture. Your natural stance and what you wear at the bench shift the sweet spot by an inch or two.
• Setting the vise jaws too low. The work in the vise rides above the top; if the jaws sit low, your carving and sawing ends up below comfort height.
• Treating the number as gospel. The factors use average proportions. Try the height with a stack of scrap before you cut the legs to length.

"I fit a bench to a person by feel, not a formula: have them stand tall, relax an arm, and set the top at that wrist line for general work. It matches the math for most people, but it catches the tall-torso or short-leg exceptions that a single height number misses." — Bench Builder

"There is no one right height, only the right height for this task and this body. If you split your time between machines and hand tools, it's worth engineering a way to change the working surface — a bolt-on riser, or an outfeed table you can crank — rather than compromising everything to one number."

• Ergonomics: The science of designing and arranging things so that people can use them easily and safely.
• Anthropometry: The scientific study of the measurements and proportions of the human body.