Customer Reviews

Grizzly H7721 78" Maple Workbench

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We ordered this workbench for our studio, thinking it would make a good, basic workstation for light woodworking. Every part of this bench is poorly made, and the shipping service was awful, too. The truck delivered the bench to the sidewalk outside our home, where the driver stood it up on end and asked for my signature. Now, this bench is long enough that when it was stood on end I could not see the top edge of the box. Once the driver had left and we tipped the box onto its long edge in order to move it, we saw the end of the box had printed on it "do not stand on end". The packaging burst apart as soon as we tried to move it, spilling styrofoam and parts onto the sidewalk. The bench itself, once we set it up, was wobbly. Yes, we do know how to put furniture and workbenches together, and we did it right, it's just that the legs are too lightweight to give any meaningful support. There is no stabilization across the front of the bench, and the top is a little thin panel of laminated strips with a thicker strip around the edges. Not stable, not sturdy, and the combination of a thin top with a thicker edge makes clamping workpieces difficult. Less than a year after buying this bench, we noticed that all four legs had developed deep cracks. And the wobbling had gotten worse. I tried to tighten up the bolts that hold the legs to the back pieces, only to find that each one of the connector nuts had split in two some time during the last few months. Split in two? From what? We do not live or work in a very extreme climate, nor had we subjected the bench to unreasonable use. We went to the hardware store and got connector nuts of a decent quality. Comparing the new nuts to the original ones, you can really see the difference. The ones we bought were $.99 apiece, retail. How much money was saved in manufacturing by using sub-standard parts? Would it really have added so much to the price of the bench?

We basically use this bench for finishing. That, at least, doesn't require too much stability. What a disappointment. Please save your money and look elsewhere for a workbench.

This review is based on the advertised use of this product: woodworking workbench.

1) Don't plan on clamping your work down and being able to apply any signicant force to your piece- the bench will wobble.

2) The vice holes drilled through the legs did not align with the bench top and made it impossible to install the vice. You don't discover this until the bench is 90% assembled. Your choice is to drill in place using a hand drill with a very long bit or remove the legs and drill out by hand or drill press.

3) The bench top is not as thick as the photos, there is a lip around the bench-top.

4) The drawers will not hold heavy tools without damaging the bottom the drawers or the rails.

5) The packaging is fragile at best. I was more fortunate than klarchen since I was able to have the bench delivered to my office which has a loading dock. However, the process of moving the bench to my SUV and from the SUV to my garage virtually destroyed the shipping box.

My wife is quite happy with the bench. It now lives in our loft and she uses it for jewelry making.

The description on Grizzly's web site lists a thickness of 2 3/4" inches. This is the only thickness value listed. The actual thickness is 3/4"!

Many bench tops sold separately are 1 3/4" and plans for making your own often recommend 2 to 3 inches. I can't imagine how they can consider 3/4" adequate.

Yes, it does say "edge thickness" on the site, but because they avoid listing the actual thickness of the top anywhere I am convinced that this is intentionally misleading. I was thrilled with my previous Grizzly purchase (a G0691 table saw) but now I may not purchase from them again. An honest product description could have prevented all this.

I inspected an assembled H7721 at a garage sale in June 2010. It looks great, yet the negative comments have merit. You really need to know the level of clamping you plan to do. The side clamp is similar to one you may have used in your high school wood shop class. I would not pay over $275 for this bench.

The Grizzly workbench was a gift for my father-in-law. He builds large model ships and boats. He wanted a workbench for a converted second floor bedroom. Believe me, this workbench is a piece of furniture so it looks great in his home!

The large box arrived quickly, inside all the parts are organzied and safely packaged. All the parts are well marked and the instructions do a pretty good job of illustrating each step. Everything screws and fits together exactly. I suggest two things:

1) Have a friend help you, the maple top is heavy and once assembled you'll need help sitting the bench upright.

2) Keep all the labeling on the wood parts (you can't see the labels anyway) and save the instructions, that way you can dis-assemble and re-assemble the bench for future moves.

I highly recommend this product.