Originally posted by terragni:

I read that you can build up to 8 additional bases.

Dunno where you read that, but you can make as many as you want, as far as I know. I've made way more than 8.

Originally posted by terragni:

I'll be at a location and want to build a work bench to start this process and my menu will show the bench as an option.

Do you mean your menu will not show the bench? I don't know. Once a recipe shows up in your menu, I have never seen it disappear again.