Olympia Tools 84-906 Hard Wood Workbench

The bench was 19 inches deep, not 24. Metal hardware was all loose in the box. Wood was of poor quality, it was not hard rubber wood, as ad states. I was looking forward to a bench made of hard rubber wood. It was not lacquer coated. Plywood parts were warped. No felt-lined drawer. It looked like the bench was a return. And the wood block vise with adjustable machined guides had no adjustable guides. Protective plastic was a mess. And the Instruction Manual... whew. I'm a retired technical writer. If I had done that manual and handed it in for approval. Whew. Our director would have walked into my office, plopped it down on my desk saying, REALLY? Turned and walked out... and shut the lights off as he left. Whew. Pathetic. What I really loved about the bench was returning it. They paid for the return.

It should be expected that this bench is mass produced in China and quickly put together. Because of that there are imperfections, but nothing game breaking. First of all you will want to sand down the entire thing so you don't get splinters...I took some 220 grit to every edge I would ever touch then 600 over the main pieces. Part of the drawer was missing pilot holes for the screws, but I made use of the vise to resolve that. The vise is not perfectly lined up and one side tightens more than the other...again minor and I don't intend to use it that much anyway as I have a metal clamp on vise for my work. One side of the track for the drawer had pilot holes almost 1/8" off so I had to fill them (baking soda and super glue is amazing) and re-drill. The drawer itself is slightly higher on the right side causing a very snug fit when pushed completely in. I sanded it down just enough to be functional and still a little snug (figure if I ever need to move it, the drawer won't go flying out). One side of the slanted edge of the top tray was stapled in completely wrong causing the sloped piece to actually crack in half (it's super flimsy wood but doesn't really cause any problems so not really caring about that too much). The bottom storage is also flimsy wood so don't out too much weight on it. The bench as a whole is not that heavy and can easily tip if too much weight is applied, especially if on carpet (apartment workshop for me)...so just be careful with weight distribution. All in all it's a decent budget workbench

The work bench is good quality and everything lined up for screws and bolts. The directions could have been a little clearer, but it’s easy enough to work out where everything goes. Very happy with the final product.

I’ll preface this with it’s a fair price for the product. There were machine marks and chip out in most places. One leg piece had chatter from planing. All of this sanded out just fine. The drawer is poorly designed. I had to use washers to shim the slides due to the grove being much wider than the rabbit. Wouldn’t close otherwise. The vice closes slightly slanted. Not a big deal. Anyone that hand planes or uses hand tools a lot will want a more robust bench. Terrible instructions. In short, satisfied give the cost, but not particularly impressed.

You'll definitely want to put a couple coats of poly on this out the gate. It's a bit small but for someone starting a shop on a budget or just a weekend hobbyist, it's hard to beat this. One of my bench-dog holes on the vice was off center but that was an easy enough fix