Hasta La Ideas

No piece of furniture fascinates me more than the workbench. They need to be durable, functional, flexible, long-lived, and they serve as both the birthplace and operating table for many a craftspersons’ creations.

I’ve been wading through dozens of workbench videos on YouTube, ranging from simple step-by-step DIY instructions to more show-and-tell-style presentations, to find some standouts to show you. In the process I’ve found that sometimes the most humble innovations are the most profound.

A good case in point is this workbench by Allan Little, a.k.a. The Woodman, a Texas-based mathematician who “went rogue” and turned to woodworking after bailing out of a cubicle job. The succession of push-through drawers in his simple table solve the problem of 180-degree access. You’ll also notice that they’re function-follows-form, as opposed to the other way ’round: Their axes, and accessibility, are determined by the obstructive surfaces of the sawhorses.

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