Here is a bench I have been working on for months. Since I work in the kitchen, everything must be easily knocked down and cleaned up. The top is laminated 5/4" white oak and the base is douglas fir, all construction waste. The oak came from a long pallet, which gave me the length, approx. 5 1/2 feet. It is only 22 inches wide since that is where the oak ran out.
I have a vise screw which will hopefully be incorporated into some sort of tail vise and I hope to add a hook on the left front corner and an adjustable deadman for edge planning. For now I secure work with a holdfast and handscrews.
The laminations were glued right off the table saw since I was too lazy to join by hand. I "joined" by running them through the table saw vertically. There are two gaps that bother me a little but for the most part it worked great. I haven't leveled the bottom of the top since it is down to just over 1 1/2" at one corner and I didn't want to loose any more thickness. The holdfast (from TFWW) seems to work well even with a thin top. If anything it holds too well, it's not easy to release.
The top is surprisingly heavy (maybe 100 lbs) but it still moves around with vigorous planning so I clamp it to the post you see in the picture.