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Interview with Ron Paulk on the Design of His Innovative Paulk Workbench

By Rain Noe - August 29, 2013

in Object Culture | Hand Tools

Homebuilder and self-taught designer Ron Paulk had a problem: He needed a large-surface workbench--which is generally no problem for those of you with geographically-fixed workspaces--but he needed it to be portable, so that he could tote it to jobsites in his Mobile Woodshop. He also needed it to be incredibly sturdy. Dissatisfied with the design shortcomings of commercially-available workbenches, Ron analyzed exactly what his specific needs were, then set about designing his own.

Currently in its second generation, plans for the Paulk Workbench are available for sale online for a reasonable ten bucks; I myself purchased a set as soon as I saw the demonstration video, which we'll embed down below.

The demo video will show you the various features of the bench design, but before we get to that, we scored an interview with Ron on how and why he designed the bench the way he did:

Below is the aforementioned demo video:

The Paulk Workbench has become an unexpected sort of design hit for Ron. While he initially had no plans to commercialize his design, fate and YouTube stepped in. Hit the link below for that story.

More Ron Paulk coverage:

» Interview on the Mobile Woodshop, Part 1
» Interview on the Mobile Woodshop, Part 2
» Interview on the Paulk Workbench
» Ron Discovers the Workbench is a Design Hit

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John Barry

11 years ago

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For 14 years I lived out of a 5th wheel trailer. I built a workbench using the Veritas twin-screw vice on 3 feet that would clamp across a picnic table. I rebuilt the insides of 2 5th wheels using this bench and mostly hand tools; even did turning using a mini lathe.
Had I seen this article then, I would have built a smaller version of the Paulk bench. I must admit that 20 years later, my bench is still the heart of my shop.
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Rob Wilkey

11 years ago

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This man is my hero.
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Rondow Design

11 years ago

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I have no reason to have a workbench, but this one makes me want to find a reason to have one.
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