Student Bench with Apron

This bench is exactly what I need for my small home studio. Beautifully made and very sturdy.
In the pictures on the Durston website the front apron attaches to the front of the legs, meaning it sits under the peg to catch waste. But my bench arrived with the four hooks on each side all fitted under the bench top - and the construction instructions show this too - so the apron doesn’t jut out far enough to catch waste. We have drilled holes in the front legs and moved two of the hooks so it’s not a problem, just not what I expected.

Easy to build, quality hardwood.

1/2 a star off because the instructions weren’t exactly straightforward. But all the bits were there, and the table is standing and it’s lovely. Nice wood. Not very heavy though it looks sturdy. First thing I did was pull myself towards it on my work chair, and it started toppling over. I won’t do that again, I guess you could attach it to the wall if you really wanted to pull yourself towards it. I shall just abstain.
Another 1/2 a star off because of the tool holder. A good idea in theory, but only one of my hammers fits in the bigger holes, a cheap one with a thin handle. My beautiful Fretz have a much too big handle end for the tiny holes, and my big mallets obviously don’t fit in either. Frankly I prefer having easy and quick access to tools I use all the time. I keep my hammers on the bench in a tall heavy container, next to the wooden box with compartments for files and emery sticks. The idea of constantly putting hammers and files back into little holes in a tool holder on the sideo of the bench is just annoying and time consuming. Too fiddly. It would be too tempting to just not put them back, and start chaos.
Until I got the bench hammers and files containers were on a window sill, as I didn’t have space for them on the little Ikea mobile “island” I was using as work surface in the garage turned workshop. If they bother me, or take up too much space, I can just fix the wooden boxes to the side of the bench, either using the holes from the tool holder, or attaching a U shape bit to the boxes to slot into into the raised edge of the bench. Actually, a suggestion to Duston would be to offer such boxes as alternatives to their tool holders. Having a two deep boxes, one for hammers, with two compartment, one deeper for the mallets, and a less deep one for the smaller hammers. And a second box with several compartments for files and emery sticks. That would be a lovely set of bench accessories, more practical than the tool holder, in my opinion, but maybe other people disagree. (I don’t want to keep my files and emery sticks in drawers either, again, too many extra steps. Opening and shutting drawers constantly. Urgh.

As to the removed tool holder, it’s been repurposed as lid for an Ikea bamboo box that stood empty. It’s on a desk I use for bead work. I have attached a not too heavy desk lamp to the relatively heavy tool base, and left an inch or so free on one of the length of the box, which I use as plier holder. I can even use the holes to store other tools if I want. The box itself I will probably use as desk bin for bits of beading wire, and other such rubbish, it’s nicer than the plastic takeway box I was using until now. Another advantage is I can have the lamp closer to where I work, and it’s higher, by being on the box, which is more useful better than when the lamp was attached to a corner of the desk, its small circle of light is nowhere near where I was actually working.

Long review. Great bench.

I received this bench, easy to put together and lovely quality. I look forward to using it now and learning to silversmith!