Replies

1. 
   JohnWW | May 22, 2008 04:10pm | #1

   Maybe I'm a little slow this morning, but your terms "long grain" and "face grain" are confusing.

   If you are looking to create a stable bench top out of solid wood, you have two options: build the top out of a few carefully chosen pieces of straight grained quarter sawn wood or glue up the top out of many smaller strips, with random grain orientation, which minimizes the effect of any single strip's warping. Some wood species are naturally more stable than others so wood choice is also a factor.

   John White

1. 
   Cincinnati | May 22, 2008 04:34pm | #2

   The local lumber suppliers I have checked with tell me they have a difficult time getting anything quartersawn except white oak. So I am looking for the next best option: I remember seeing a design where the center of the top (between aprons) was comprised of three 2-1/2" thick boards ranging from 5 to 7" wide. My question— Is it better to use boards in this orientation or get stock as thick as possible (12/4) , rip them 2-1/2 or 3 " wide and rotate them 90 degrees so that the "face grain" is the glue surface? In this orientation, will wood movement direct be mostly along the top thickness instead of along the top width?Either way, should the boards be alternatively flipped so that the growth ring curvature reverses at each board?Greg

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