Work Table Height

[Dave Fleming]

I don't wish to hijack Seafox's thread with more of my comments.
Instead I am starting a new thread.

In today's mail I received the latest issue of Woodwork magazine for April 2005.
In it on page 54 is an article on work table height. In this case a kitchen work table.
The first statement sets the issue.

"What is a comfortable and convenient height"... in this case, kitchen work surfaces. The author references HUMANSCALE 1/2/3.
He goes on to wondering just how the authors of the Humanscale publications arrived at some of the dimensions used to relate work surface height to actual human height. He quips about the term "average", saying "most people are not average". He does mention industrial production and the need for standards.
But....

Fer example, some years back I supervised the building of an Aluminum yacht for a family with an average height of over 6 feet 4 inches.
Ayup, father, sons, daughters, daughters in law, sons in law. Mother was the smallest at just about 6 feet.
Now you don't think that played hob with our usual companion way heights, door ways, countertops, pilot house console, settee heights, even ***terlit*** heights.
That's right we had been using an 'average' height for these things but, this project was a wake call up to complacent thinking about such things.
Thank goodness it was a T&M project or we would have lost a lot of money because of the many modifications.

No argument that this is perhaps an extreme example.
My point though remains, thinking of averages in something like work surfaces,just doesn't work
Or so says I.

[RonW]

I think you touched on this subject in another thread referring to the heigth at the belly button, waist and elbow to sit up a work bench and a vise.
The average heigth of the kitchen table is 30 inches. A lot of the standarizations where done in the early 1900's, when things where becoming standardized for the industrial revolution.

I have old architect books that shows the human body with the average measurements.
They show measurements from the floor up to the knees, the but, the shoulder, the eye, and measurements from knee to but, but to shoulder and so forth.
This is to figure the heigth of your kitchen chair, the depth of the seat and the heigth of the kitchen table.As well as the heigth of the kitchen sink and the heigth of the shower head and so forth.

These measurements where taken from the average person of 5ft.& 8 inches, reasoning that people from 5ft. to 6ft.& 4 inches would work. That is a give and take of 8inches.But people from the upper end of the scale are more uncomfortable then people from the lower end of the scale are.
And for those that are over 6ft.-4in. are just S.O.L.
You mention the custom sized yacht. I was in a house that was customed built for a basketball player. But yet everything was the same except in the master bedroom there was a his and hers bathrooms. His was set up with the tallest toilet heigth to be found, the sink was jacked up, the shower stall the biggest and the shower head hanging just a few inches from the ceiling. I knew the builder and asked him about it. He said there was a few conversations on this subject, but bottom line was momma was 5ft.6in. tall and was not going to stand on a stool to use her kitchen. Period.

Work benches have to be built to a comfortable height for the user. I say the height for the user should be somewhere between your waistband and belly button, depending on your arms length and what you generally use it for. That is about a 4 inch difference and right in the middle of the two ought to be perfect.

Have you noticed all the parking lots at the mall that have been built in the last 15 years are made for the average size car. Which are getting smaller.And when they reblack top the old ones they relay out the lines for the average.

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Just read after posting the posts from work bench below. Seems that standarization needs to go to customization, with the belly button as the starting standard.
See where mmd threw in the o.s.h.a. If anyone can screw something up, it is definetly those clowns.Congress has been backing away from o.s.h.a. since the late 80's and really doesn't want anything to do with them.Rightfully so.

[ 02-01-2005, 03:23 AM: Message edited by: RonW ]