Left Handed

[paul cottingham]

Set it up for right hand work. There are many ways to saw that don't require a vise. I have a buddy with MS who is right handed and has terrible tremors in his right hand. So he set his bench up left handed, and it works very well for him. Planing off handed is easy, if you sort out your work holding issues.
For sawing, use a bench hook or a saw bench.

[Bill Houghton]

Random babbling:

There are actually some advantages for a left-handed person in working on a right handed bench, when it comes to sawing. Yes, you're leaning over the face vise if you're cutting a long board; but if it's so long that it has to overhang the bench, you'll have an easier time sawing without the tail vise in the way.

Edge planing a board held in the face vise works better if you plane toward the vise; planing away can induce vibration that will only get worse as you get away from the vise, but planing toward it dampens the vibration (actually, causes the vibration rate to increase until it disappears).

You will, sooner or later, be planing with a fenced plane - plow, rabbet, combination. Unless you stick exclusively with Lee Valley planes, which come in right- and left-handed versions, you'll need to learn to plane right-handed. Stanley fenced planes, for instance, come only in right-handed versions. So learning to do regular bench planing right-handed is certainly a possibility. And, as a left-handed person in a right-handed world, you're used to adapting to rightie stuff anyhow. I recently smoothed a board right-handed for some reason, and didn't think twice about "switching" from my usual direction.

Next time you're in dealing with the hip stuff, see if you can get a referral for some physical therapy, to get some exercises that will reduce the problem. Depending on the underlying causes, this may or may not make a difference, but it's always worth asking about. I'm learning mandolin, and was having some tendon trouble in my left hand. My doc resisted a referral, but it sure made a difference; I was about to have to stop playing, but now I can keep on learning. I may even be able to play it someday.

[Tony Wilkins]

I was born a lefty but 'switched' to right handed back when they did such things. As a result I'm not great with either hand - however planing and other two handed operations seem to be pretty easy for me to adapt to left handedness.

As far as setting up bench etc, as much as possible I'd 'prototype' and set up situations where you can try doing the operations both ways before investing time and tools into one direction or the other.

[Luke Sanders]

Yeah, been doing PT for it over the past couple months or so. It's been helping and my latest "homework" is to try and plane right handed and see if I'm pain free. If it stops, I'm guessing I'm going to set this up for more right handed work.

Next time you're in dealing with the hip stuff, see if you can get a referral for some physical therapy, to get some exercises that will reduce the problem. Depending on the underlying causes, this may or may not make a difference, but it's always worth asking about. I'm learning mandolin, and was having some tendon trouble in my left hand. My doc resisted a referral, but it sure made a difference; I was about to have to stop playing, but now I can keep on learning. I may even be able to play it someday.