A first bench: what to decide before the vise catalog

A bench is the clamp that stays. I have not built one. The shopping below is portable tables and vises, because full carpenter’s benches barely showed up with sources I could check. Building from construction lumber is still the other honest path. Many shop-built tops land around 70 to 90 mm because that is where people say the bounce stops. The test is the bounce, not the number.

What the experts say

Low on the tables: one publisher, two articles. Low on each vise: one review each.

Bob Vila’s 2023 review and 2025 roundup both like the Worx Pegasus, and they also note clamps that pop loose.¹

That is one newsroom. Popular Woodworking’s Yost review describes a full 10 inch opening and a quick release, plus paint flaws.² Sellers’ knowledge base names the Eclipse 9 inch quick-release as the one that is easier to find.³

What owners report

I did not open an owner thread that I can quote. A search summary mentioned rough castings on the Yost. It is unverified, so it stays out of the card.

Where they disagree

There is no second lab on these tables. The disagreement is the job. A folding table holds work away from a wall. It is not a planing bench with mass. Sellers is talking about a vise for a real top. Bob Vila is talking about a table you can fold.

My take

Measure your wrist before you shop. If you will plane, the sources that are about holding wood want a vise or a stop, not a gadget well. If you need something that folds this month, the Pegasus is the one Bob Vila repeats, with the loose-clamp note attached, and you should know it is one outlet. An upstairs floor may not want a very heavy bench. I have not had that looked at by an engineer. Ask someone who can see the joists.

The plane that needs this bench is here.

What goes on the bench first, round by round, is in beginner woodworking tools.