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sxlalan

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Skipton, Yorkshire
I am looking at making Ian Dalziel's fab workbench. Unfortunately, it uses some rather hefty pieces of Beech. My local supplier (British Hardwoods) can only supply beech up to 2" (50mm) thick which rules out the following pieces...

Dog hole strip 2 x 1560mm 66mm 112mm
Top slab 3 x 2035mm 125mm 60mm
End cap 1 x 704mm 55mm 112mm
End cap 1 x 572mm 55mm 112mm
Base feet 2 x 700mm 90mm 75mm
Base top caps 2 x 630mm 65mm 60mm
Base legs 4 x 700mm 65mm 95mm
Tail vice 2 x 587mm 66mm 112mm
Tail vice 2 x 312mm 60mm 112mm
Front vice 1 x 525mm 120mm 80mm

John Boddy's can provide rough timber but I don't have access to a planer/thicknesser. Can anyone suggest another reliable supplier of good quality PAR beech? Alternatively would it be feasible to get British Hardwoods to laminate up the thicker pieces?

Thanks

Alan
 
Alan

The way to get 3 or 4in thick stuff is to laminate it up out of thinner stuff (on edge), thus:

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My experience of benches is that beech legs are really expensive overkill and that a sturdy base can be made from 4 x 3in or 4 x 4in (nominal R/S) pine which is easier to find, or for that matter anything else you can get hold of. Any half-decent joiner should be able to plane/thickness and laminate your pieces for you - but you'd save money by laminating your own.

Scrit
 
for that amount of timber, have you considered what you'd be saving by buying sawn boards? That saving might buy you a P/T.
 
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