New Craftsman Premium Workbenches – Early Review

Craftsman has come out with a new premium workbench that is available in four sizes and styles.

It’s available in 6-foot and 8-foot lengths with your choice of butcher block-style wood or stainless steel-wrapped worksurface.

The new benches look good, and I just had to check it out in person. Craftsman actually just came out with a whole line of premium garage storage products, and I figured the workbench would give me an indication of the new product line’s quality level.

I accepted delivery of the test unit last week, and was pretty quickly impressed.

The workbenches feature adjustable height legs, welded beam construction, and 1-3/4-inch-thick worktops. The 6-foot model is said to have a 3000 pound weight limit.

I can’t quite tell what type of material the wood butcher block top is made from, but it’s spectacularly well finished with a smooth and semi-glossy surface.

Assembly was relatively quick and easy. The hardest part was standing it up after assembling it upside down on the floor. This is usually supposed to be a 2-person job, but I took it slow and easy.

The worksurface measures 6 feet long x 2 feet wide, which is a good size for a general purpose bench. To be honest, I think that Craftsman could have added an extra one or two inches to the width, but in the past there were times I strongly preferred 24″ exactly.

In order to accommodate the workbench in my cramped indoors workspace, I had to move another workbench and get rid of a wire shelving system. I’m nearly done sorting through the pile of tools and supplies that accumulated on and around the workbench, but luckily I snapped a pic within 5 minutes of setting the table upright.

Side-to-side stability is excellent, and front-to-back stability is very good. Once I pushed the bench right up to the wall, it became absolutely rock-solid.

It’s not quite as perfectly stable as Gladiator’s height-adjustable workbench, but comes very, very close. The Gladiator benefits from having slightly greater width, but the Craftsman has a beefier leg support structure. If you don’t like the idea of a back plate, leave it aside during assembly.

One minor niggle is that the height adjustment is locked in place using carriage bolts that are inserted right-to-left. This means bolt ends stick out a little inwards, preventing cabinets or toolboxes from sitting flush against the workbench legs. And you cannot really insert them the reverse way so that the bolt ends face outwards instead of inwards. This is a very minor niggle, but with a cramped indoor workspace, a 1/4″ or two here and there adds up.

One thing I was surprised to see was that the workbench was made in the USA of US and Global Components. To me, that simple means the wood or maybe the steel were sourced from international sources.

The leg welds are well done, and the butcherblock top is as finely built and finished as I’ve ever seen, at least on a non-custom commercial product.

Seriously, this is one sweet workbench.

In my mind there’s a perfect workbench that would have a thick and solid wood top, sturdy and motionless legs, and ideal proportions. Gladiator’s height-adjustable workbenches come close to achieving that level of perfection, but Craftsman’s new premium workbench somehow manages to inch even closer.

I hope to have the surrounding chaos put to order by the middle of this week, but have already used the workbench for a quick assembly project. I have another workbench that is being used as a “beater,” and so hopefully the smoothness and nice sheen of the butcherblock worksurface will last for a while. It’s almost too pretty too mess up.

Buy Now: 6-foot wood, 6-foot stainless, 8-foot wood, 8-foot stainless, via Sears

Price: $480 (on sale) for each of the 6-foot benches, $520 (on sale) for each of the 8-foot benches.

Thank you to Craftsman for providing the review sample unconditionally. Review samples are typically given away, donated, or retained for editorial and comparison purposes.