We can't help it. Workbenches turn our heads, and quite a few got my attention at WIA. Shannon Rogers brought his newly-built bench to his Hand Tool School booth. Its height was determined by the measurement beneath the elbows of the vertically enhanced Shannon, who found this to be perfect for joinery work.
Chris Wong, of Time Warp Tool Works, added a handy planing attachment to Shannon's bench during the conference.
Across the aisle was Mark Harrell who must have some timberframing expertise on his list of skills given the design and joinery of both of his mammoth, knock-down benches. Jameel Abraham brought two benches as well. One was a sawbuck joinery bench that enabled conference-goers to take a spin with his smooth-as-silk Benchcrafted vises. He told me that my sawbuck table inspired him. Cool.
Kevin Glen Drake brought an as efficient as it was handsome benchtop bench with leather-lined face vise.
Ron Brese's Shaker Workbench which he built with Jameel Abraham is a real beauty. He debuted it at last year's conference. Looks like he was able to remove the drool marks fairly well.
At the Hand Tool Olympics' booth, Mike Siemsen had made some quick and effective workholding devices for the handcut dovetail challenge.Not at the conference but showcased at a Lie-Nielsen hand tool event at Hearne Hardwoods last weekend was a SAPFM member's portable bench. William Duffield had come up with some clever workholding solutions for the period projects he makes.