Hi, all. First post with youse guys et.al.
I create sawdust in my basement. I have numerous electrical devices which aid in the degeneration of wood tissues into dust. If once in a while I manage to end up with several pieces of wood intelligently joined I am suspicious that someone else has been tampering with my raw materials. Keebler elves, or something.
Be that as it may, I have been inspired by this month’s issue to finally build a respectable shop bench. Over the years I have noticed that most benches with wood tops are made of maple. OK, fine & dandy, I know why one would choose maple for a top. However, is there a reason why you wouldn’t make that nice thick top out of red oak, if you just happened to have lots of it lying about? Some years back I salvaged hundreds of board feet of 3/4″ oak panelling from a construction site. I sure could use the garage space for a car now….
Anyway, I’m thinking of a solid top roughly 36″ x 96″ x 2-1/2″ laminated from 3/4″ strips derived from some of that panelling. Any words of wisdom in terms of materials, process, flattening, etc.?
Replies
Your wood should work fine. I know cabinet makers who use 1 1/2" particle board and two 50 gallon drums, so they can easily move their work surface around. They glue on it, drill on and into it, paint on it, etc. When it's chewed up too much, they turn it over and they have have a brand new surface. These are not as nice as what you plan to build.
There are recent threads on preparing Workbenches and surfaces. Look under "Workbench" and "Planes." You will be amazed and I believe satsfied with the instructions, advice, references and pictures. Wish my workbench was as nice as these. Best of luck. Hope you can put on a picture when you're done, so we can enjoy it too.
Only thing I'd add is watch the grain orientation during the glue up - if the grain all goes one way the top will be much easier to flatten
BlueThumb,
I would agree with Turbo and Ian..the red oak would work fine.....stay away from the 50 gallon barrels for a base...they are a bear to build...lol.
I would suggest however, you plan out the job carefully. That is a huge workbench and is going to require lots of planing and clamps...and maybe wasting a lot of wood. One of the issues will be handling a piece of wood that big without a bench to begin with. I built my base first to help with handliing the heavy slab. Anyhow, my point is, it may be cheaper to buy some wood for a top than processing all that 3/4" oak....unless those elves will take orders...lol
my table top is 4'x8' 3/4 maple shop plywood. it also serves as an outfeed table for my table saw. when the top gets beat I put a fresh sheet on. it started out as a single sheet and over the years has grown to three. I saw 3/4" off the legs with each addition.
It soulds like you are fairly new to woodworking, and this will be your first bench. If so, I would counsel that you use the oak for some other project, and build your bench top with layers of MDF. In my area, MDF is about $22 a sheet, and about $10 more with a birch veneer. Use some of your oak for edging.
Why? There are so many ways to build a bench, and it is almost inevitable that whatever you come up with as a first effort, you will want to change. If you don't have a lot of time and effort invested in this first bench, you will feel more comfortable experimenting with vise locations, different types of hold-downs, bench dogs, etc.
BTW, on my benches, I have built outlets into the bench legs, wired them in series, so I could then plug them into one wall outlet with a single wire.
Good luck.
Hey Blue Thumb,
Figured I might as well throw my opinion in as well. I'm building a bench now too and I came up with an interesting option quite by accident. As this is my first real bench, and maple is crazy expensive in my part of the country, I decided to use pine and save the maple for my next bench. I went to the local lumberyard, talked to the owner about what I was attempting to do (laminate 2x6's trimmed to get the best grain) and he had an idea. It seems Boise Cascade had erroniously shipped some 5 1/8 thick by 24 wide by about 15 foot lengths, laminated beams and had given him a good deal on them. He said I'll sell it for $.80 a linear foot and I had a bench top. There a few knots (three) but the surfaces are extreemely flat and a light planing to will be all that they need. I'm putting two together for a 48 inch wide top. Sure am way under budget for a change. Just an idea. I like red oak and if I was you I'd save it for some nice furniture.
Steve
Sounds like a creative solution. Do you think your glulams will be hard enough, or won't it matter if the top gets dinged?
Unfortunately for my future furniture, the good stuff has been culled out of the pile and I'm left with lots of non-descript boards. Some of it knotty, some of it damaged from demolition, some of it just plain ugly. Good candidates for the tablesaw.
I'm considering the oak top because I want a heavy top on a heavy bench. Ain't nothin gonna shake when I'm planing on this bench. I also want the top to be hard & tougher than plywood, mdf, masonite, or other disposable tops.
It needs to hold up to a good banging from my head after I've screwed up another glue-up.
LOL. I asked a question about using pine for a top on a different thread a couple weeks ago, don't remember which one now, and got several responses saying that it has been done with OK results. Judging by the weight of the materials, my bench is going to weigh about 600# when I'm done, so I don't its going to move around much. As for the softness, I was thinking I'd inlay strips of maple or purpleheart or something hard, parallel to laminations, to add a harder wear surface. I was also going to use brass 'washers' inlaid around the top of the dog holes. I guess with a top 5 1/8" thick, I can plane off a bad layer a few times. Don't know if this is going to yield a great bench or not but I bet its better then the outfeed on the TS that I'm used to!
Steve
Absolute heresy, but being in a very tight budget situation I build my first bench top many years ago, after studying "The Workbench Book", out of 2x4's on edge. No pretty wood grain or figure or color, but functional as can be. About a year ago I ripped it apart to make rectangular holes for wood bench dogs and threw away the round metal ones. Now think wooden bench dogs are best idea since pockets on shirts.
I've made a number of benches out of red or white oak 3/4" thick that I rip to 2 1/2" thick and connect face to face with threaded rod. You can easily band the perimeter when done. A simple drill press setup will allow accurate drilling of the threaded rod holes. Quite heavy and cheap bench top if oak is available.
Mike
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