A workbench is a sturdy table built to hold work steady while it is sawn, planed, chiselled, drilled or glued. In a home garage it is often the one fixed object in the room, and the rest of the space tends to be arranged around it.
This site treats the garage workbench as a set of parts. Each card covers one item: the freestanding frame, the bench top, the bench vise, the dog holes and stops that hold work in place, and the sawhorses that many workshops use beside a bench. Each card says what the item is, what its parts are, and how it differs from the items next to it.
A tall garage gives room above a bench, but the height of the bench still depends on the person who works at it and on the work done there. The cards explain how the thickness and weight of a top change its behaviour, and how a vise and its fittings hold work in use.
The reference is short and dry by design. It uses plain terms, defines each one before it is used, and points to related cards where a neighbouring item matters. A reader new to benches can start with the freestanding card, then the bench top, then the vise.
Cards
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A bench that stands on its own legs, its frame and parts, and how it differs from wall-mounted and rolling benches.
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The flat working surface of a workbench, its common materials, and how thickness and flatness change what it can hold.
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A clamp fixed to a bench that holds work between jaws, its parts, and the difference between face and leg vises.
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Pegs, stops and clamps that hold work on a bench top, and how each one differs from its neighbours.
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Portable supports made of a beam and legs, what they hold well, and how they differ from a fixed workbench.
Workshop notes
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Setting bench height
A method for finding a working height for a bench, adjusting it for the task, and levelling the top.