4. If you want to use a hand plane on stuff you are going to need a heavy bench. Or a big pile of concrete on the low shelf of a light bench. Just build what you can and then pile your anvil collection on the lower shelf.
The only quibble is the heavy bench part. A bench with a well designed base can be fairly light and not move.
A bench can be easily counterweighted at the base, or fixed to the floor (or wall).
The ability of a bench to remain rigid and not move is a recurring topic. In my case the difficulty was trying to join the edge of 8' boards on a 5' bench. This is a light weight bench. It has been very useful on many projects. The design is rather simple. It has served my needs well enough that my plans for building a bench are going to pretty much follow the basics provided by this bench.
A simple solution to correct the problems with my light bench was to add a 5 gallon bucket and a bag of cement to the tail end:
Bench Bucket Cement.jpg
The bench would often tip from the weight of planing to the end of the board.
Other folks used other methods to correct the same issues:
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?119667
Before doing this my bench would walk or tip often in use. Since adding the bucket of cement it has been quite stable.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)