work bench top

ttalma

ttalma

Well-known member
I am in the final stages of designing a new workbench. I am making the top from hard maple. The wood I'll be using for the top has been air dried for at least 25 years. I have two boards that are 14" wide, when dressed they will be about 1 3/4" thick. I am planning on cutting them down to 12" wide and edge gluing them together. they are flatsawn pieces.

I my design takes into account the expansion and contraction of the boards, but I am more worried about them staying flat. I have seen old benches where wide boards, even a single wide board was used for the top. Does anyone use a bench where wide boards are used for the top? are there any problems with cupping etc.

The design has 4 battons along the bottom for mounting to the base. I planed on lag bolting these to the top to help keep it flat.

I have also considered resawing these boards and jointing them to make a strip style top.  but I am not sure if it's necessary.
 
Try it and see what happens. Worst case is you have to convert it to a strip style top later using the same planks.
My bench top is 2 1/4 inch thick strip style hard maple. It lays on top of the base and is held in place by two big dowels that go into the top about 1/2 inch. It has stayed fairly flat for 18 years.
Mike
 
Hi Tim,

Yeah, it's not going to stay flat.  Is your shop airconditioned?  Everything is moving in my shop right now as we haven't turned on the a/c.  You're going to slot the lag bolt holes right?  I have somethging similar on my German bench.  And I actually loosen and tighten the bolts to allow the bench to move.  I think the battens may actually do more harm than good.  The bench may be buckling.  Maybe I could figure out which way it wants to cup and try to force a buckle to counteract.  ????

The other issue is so what if it doesn't stay flat?  Do we really need benches that are as flat as surface tables?  I think when you plane really thin stock it can be a problem.  But there are things you can do to deal with that. 

I'm with Mike, just build. 

adam
 
A couple of years ago I build a bench using European Beech. The bench is about 30" wide and 72" long. the top is made up of 4 boards edge glued and an apron dovetailed and attached to the edges. I was fortunate in that I had access to a planner that I was able to run the whole top through after it was glued. I used a spar varnish - tung oil mixture on all sides. I have been really supprised how well the top has remained flat. After your post I went and checked it with a straight edge and its still good. I would imagine after a few more years it will start to exhibit problems but for now it seems to work OK. You might be ok with what you doing but I guess until you actually try it you won't know.
 
One thing to consider here is that a strip-laminated bench is not any more stable than a bench made up with wide quartersawn boards.  Once glued up with the long grain all running in the same direction, you've essentially just created a big board - the glue joints don't do anything to preserve flatness.

Finding a giant quartersawn board is really tough, so that's the basic objective of lamination.

I would stick with the battens - there's an awful lot of thin table tops out there made from ridicuosly wide boards that are really flat even after a couple of hundred years.  I'm sitting at one as I write this - it's a Sheraton-style dropleaf pembroke table with a a single board top about 22" wide, adn it's flat.
 
I have one suggestion that really has nothing to do with the stability of the top. Don't use a hard wood on the edges of the bench. There is nothing more irritating than having an edge or surface of a finished piece of wood damaged when it strikes the edge of a workbench. the surface of a bench should be made of a material that is stable but not hard. European beech fits the bill, but if you're making a bench yourself consider edging the thing with pine or something. I don't care how flat it is as long as it doesn't become a danger to the stock you work on it.
 
Thanks for all the replys. I'm going to go ahead and just build it with the two boards. My shop is seperate from the house. It is conditiond space, in that I have radient heat, and a window unit for air. I actually don't use the air that much, I have a couple of trees shading the shop, and after sitting in air conditioning all day at work, I don't mind a little sweat with a breeze blowing through the windows.

I also am not worried about it being flat to 1/1000 of an inch like to many people are. My current bench is anything but flat. I'm mostly looking for something that doesn't rack, has decent vises, a dog hole strip, a planeing(sp?) stop, is big enough to work on, and has useful storage underneath. Other than those few things my current bench would be fine.
 
Fran, Thanks for the comment about using the softer wood on the edges. Something I never thought about. I learned long ago that it you use something in your work it's a tool. That's how I treat my current bench and how I plan to treat my new bench. If the tool is ruining the work it's the wrong tool.

And basically what I mean by calling my bench a tool is like my saws, planes, chisels, etc. I will keep it clean and tuned up but I won't baby it, it's job it to assist in my building.
 
I posted this on another subject.  When I worked as a wood patternmaker this is what we did to make wide planks stay flat.  Rip your 8/4 board in to strips, say, 2-3" wide.  Then rotate each strip 90° and glue them up.  The grain now runs vertical so the plank cannot shrink and expand and very little or no warping and cupping.  This procedure is different from ripping boards and flipping them.

Dennis Bork
Antiquity Period Designs, Ltd.
 
I was Project Manager for a hospital for many years. As such was closely involved with renovations and new construction. In the renovation end I sometimes had access to old doors. These were solid wood core, 1 3/4'' with a thick wood veneer skin. Widths were 36'' to 48''. They also were fire rated with a 1 hour rating. Most bench and machine tops in my shop have been made with these. By checking with salvage shops these can occasionally be found. All doors I acquired had douglas fir or poplar  1''-2'' strips glued together. Have found them to make excellent bench tops. They are warp-free, very sturdy, have taken lots of pounding et cetera. Can be easily resawed to width. Just a piece of info that has worked for me and a few friends who received a door if I acquired an extra.

Bob

ps: they were 84" long
 
The first large workbench I had was a solid core door.  It worked well.  I made a lot of furniture on it.

Dennis Bork
 
Thanks for thetips on the door. I have been in a few shops where they used a bench like that. I wouldn't be against. My local salvage shop (I mean home recycling center, you can't charge premium at a salvage shop) has some of these doors. They are $50.00 apiece. Not a bad price for a benchtop.

I will probably stick with the maple I have. I was given about 400 bf of hard maple ranging from 16/4 to 8/4. And about 1000k bf of 4/4 maple. most of the 4/4 has been used in projects, sold, or traded for other wood. But I have all of the thick stock so I don't have to buy anything.

But like most projects I was hoping to start this in about 2 weeks. But it looks like I have to do some major work on my deck so it's probably going to be pushed back a few months.
 
I built a bench a little over 10 years ago based on the Williamsburg benches in the cabinetry shop. The top is two 12" x  1.75" boards edge glued. The bench is 84" long. I used Poplar for the top and everything else. That is what I had. I have it in a converted garage with some heat and AC at times. Over that last ten years this bench has not warped or checked and it serves me well. See photos.
 

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Rich,
That's a very interesting bench.  Interesting looking vise and is that the same vise on the diagonally opposite corner?  No end vise and very few dog holes in the top.  Are there details of this bench available somewhere?

Regards,
-Chuck
 
Chuck;

The bench does have the same vise at the opposite corner. There are two rows of 6 dog holes each spaced 14.5" appart. This was after thought from the original. Most of this bench was developed from talking with the Cabinate Makers in Colonial Williamsburg and photographing their benches. What I found out was that every cabinatemaker had a bench developed to his personal likes. Some had holes in top and some did not, all a personal preference.

At one time Colonial Williamsburg handed out a sheet with a drawing and dimensions of a Peter Nicholsons "Mechanical Exercises" 1812 London work bench. I have a copy if it is needed.

As for my bench I just developed what I found into what I wanted in a work bench. The drawing was just on a sketch pad, nothing formal. All the hardware came from Colonial Williamsburg and the wooden vice screws were purchased from Crystal Creek Mill in New York.

Hope this helps.
 
I developed a workbench around Nicholson's description. The Mechanics Companion is on line at either Google books or project Gutenberg. You can see some of my bench project on my blog at schoolofwood.com.
Mike
 
Mike,
Very interesting read. I am going to put the nicholson planning stops in my bench. This does look like a good idea for a portable becnch. Have you had the chance to try it as portable?

I am curious how did you make the vice screw?

-Tim
 
I have a small metal lathe. I set a router up in the tool post and used it to cut the threads. You must turn the lathe by hand to get it to go slow enough.
The bench weighs about 250 pounds but I can load it in my van by myself and it travels well. I have taken it to a couple of events and it is always well received. It is a very good bench.
 
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