What wood to use for Paul sellers workbench

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Mr Gamgee, I was looking for some timber for a thick bench top and used skirting board laminated together (see my post BC-Roubo, for a photo. BC as in budget conscious! ). I mention this because sometimes you can get a pack of skirting/floorboards cheap if they are going out of style, or one is damaged. It also makes a top 5 1/2 thick, and oh so heavy. I think you could use this on the PS bench design. One tip, if you go this route buy more glue than you think you are going to need, same for clamps.....and lembas bread

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/bc-roubo-bench.127050/)
 
I made my PS style bench out of CLS 7 years go. It’s fine. There is no need to make it out of more expensive timber, all you have to do is select your wood carefully: I think I bought it then from B&Q. Anyway, it’s still going strong; I’ve disassembled it and reassembled it several times over that time as I’ve moved my workshop around various rooms in my house. It does all I ask of it, but if you’re looking for another style bench you could also look at the Moravian style.
 
Hi Sam

Started hobby woodworking 6 years ago and first off was Paul Sellars bench in CLS as advised. Cheap, easily available, just needed squaring up as Paul shows. As a complete woodworking novice, I followed Paul's videos and ended up with what I'm still using today, no problems. Vice was secondhand off ebay for £20. I'm satisfied with it.
View attachment 99131
Thanks Linus, your bench looks brilliant! Well done! Do you find that you need more than one vice? Also have you ever thought of adding dog holes to your bench?
 
You could easily pick up 4x1" timber at £1 a meter from henshaws I mentioned above. If you asked nicely they would skim 4x1 rough so it's 24mm.

24" x 2m would be about £50!

I'm tempted myself!!
Thanks James, I have had a look on their website and it looks very tempting!
 
hi Sam

Welcome to the forum. Where in Leeds are you? You are correct in that there are not too many places around. I would avoid Wickes, B&Q and Homebase. For hardwoods, I would go to British Hardwoods near Keighley and for other stuff, Arnold Laver are reasonable. Check the prices though, they can be a bit expensive on some, particularly odd lengths of hardwood. Clive walker are ok too, but check stocks. They claim to sell everything and any size but I am not convinced that they hold much on site. For this project, a builders merchant will be good enough, so shop local! William Madden (the Bradley depot) is my preferred builders merchant but it is local to me. Go somewhere that you can see what you are buying and select good straight pieces.

For a work bench, I would use whatever you can get easily and cheaply. Workbenches (at least for me) are a functional item so I would use softwood unless you have a glut of hardwood available at a sensible price. The c16 graded sawn stuff softwood is better than the fast growing CLS. You may also find that the 8x2 is better than the 4x2 and so cut it down to size. WIth that said, I am sure that many benches have been made with CLS in the past without problem.

One thing that you may want to consider is using a solid core firedoor as the top. Saves laminating timber etc and is heavy, dense and reasonably priced- especially if you can pick one up on Facebook or gumtree for not much.

Mark
Mark that’s one very quick and detailed response so thank you very much!
I’m based in Roundhay. I’m not keen on having the workbench anything other than as functional as it can be so softwood would be fine I would say.
Apart from the obvious of avoiding the likes of wickes, are you saying that just from a point of view quality?
 
You could easily pick up 4x1" timber at £1 a meter from henshaws I mentioned above. If you asked nicely they would skim 4x1 rough so it's 24mm.

24" x 2m would be about £50!

I'm tempted myself!!
Thanks. I’m not too worried about precise sizes as I can be quite flexible with that. Thank you
 
I made my PS style bench out of CLS 7 years go. It’s fine. There is no need to make it out of more expensive timber, all you have to do is select your wood carefully: I think I bought it then from B&Q. Anyway, it’s still going strong; I’ve disassembled it and reassembled it several times over that time as I’ve moved my workshop around various rooms in my house. It does all I ask of it, but if you’re looking for another style bench you could also look at the Moravian style.
Thanks Jon. Did you put a couple of vices on it too?
 
but I will say it pleases me(and mr sellars no doubt) that a simple workbench fires beginners up so much.
when I was a small child the first thing I made was a footstool. my dear mum always encouraged me and indeed went up the road and brought the wood. screws glue nails and a few hours. then sand stain and varnish and id got a bit of furniture. I guess adults need something more to get there teeth into.almost a rite of passage. but its a good lesson to learn that what is easy in one wood species is a pipper in another!
My first project was a bedside table which I did in a woodwork course and I haven’t really been living in a place that I was able to carry on my pleasures! Now I have a garage so I’m slowly building my tool collection up and I feel the obvious thing that I’m missing is an actual workbench 😊
 
I bought some 1.5 *3 inch beechwood off eBay for my workbench. It was reasonably priced and local. Took me longer to make with more blade sharpening than I should have had.
If I go back to make it I’ll go with some softwood instead.
I also have a piece of sapele in the middle it was the first Paul Sellers workbench design with added middle dust clear out groove

Saeid View attachment 99155
Very nice. Thanks for the reply
 
Was it Chris tribe's course by any chance??

My friend did it between lockdowns and it turbo charged his wood working.

Cheers James
 
Was it Chris tribe's course by any chance??

My friend did it between lockdowns and it turbo charged his wood working.

Cheers James
Unfortunately not, I have seen his courses and they look amazing. This was a course in London (when I lived there) that was ok but had quite a few flaws.
I would love to do one of Chris’s courses but think I need to just get going on practicing myself before I do another course.
Sam
 
Mark that’s one very quick and detailed response so thank you very much!
I’m based in Roundhay. I’m not keen on having the workbench anything other than as functional as it can be so softwood would be fine I would say.
Apart from the obvious of avoiding the likes of wickes, are you saying that just from a point of view quality?

partly quality, although you can search through and pick the best available to some degree (although it is in pack of several pieces), but it tends to be cheaper if you go to a timber place.

if you are in roundhay and Wickes is also in roundly I would go and have a look at what they have. saving a few quid by going elsewhere isnt ideal if it takes you a couple of hours to do so! That store isnt bad.
 
partly quality, although you can search through and pick the best available to some degree (although it is in pack of several pieces), but it tends to be cheaper if you go to a timber place.

if you are in roundhay and Wickes is also in roundly I would go and have a look at what they have. saving a few quid by going elsewhere isnt ideal if it takes you a couple of hours to do so! That store isnt bad.
Yeah I have been there quite a few times just to browse and look at their timber. Quite a lot of it is not the straightest pieces I have seen but for this workbench, I’m not sure how massively important that is! I’m all for keeping it local and not a big franchise but when it’s on my doorstep pretty much, it’s hard not to go there as my default!
 
How about these guys on eBay just around the ring rd?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LIVE-WAN...-/224183207872?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
Also what about scaffold boards

9" wide cut into 3" they are usually 13ft long so a 6.5ft bench fits nicely. Each just would give you 9" of cover. Which at £12 a board isn't a bad price.

Cutting them up would be s bit of s chore.

Cheers James
Yeah I have wondered about scaffolding boards. Been to the Leeds wood recycling place a few times pondering over the big scaffolding boards for very cheap a metre, and feels like you are doing something right. And although I’m not worried about the aesthetics as such, the bench would need to very true and precise!
 
How about these guys on eBay just around the ring rd?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LIVE-WAN...-/224183207872?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
Also what about scaffold boards

9" wide cut into 3" they are usually 13ft long so a 6.5ft bench fits nicely. Each just would give you 9" of cover. Which at £12 a board isn't a bad price.

Cutting them up would be s bit of s chore.

Cheers James

James,
In the late 70s I acquired some 'scrap scaffold boards. These were made from pitch pine and were a full 2" thick. They were also around a foot wide. By the time they were cleaned up they just about made 1.5 inches thickness
Probably the minimum thickness for usr as a benchtop.

Scaffold boards are supposed yo be made from the nest pine
Mr Gamgee, I was looking for some timber for a thick bench top and used skirting board laminated together (see my post BC-Roubo, for a photo. BC as in budget conscious! ). I mention this because sometimes you can get a pack of skirting/floorboards cheap if they are going out of style, or one is damaged. It also makes a top 5 1/2 thick, and oh so heavy. I think you could use this on the PS bench design. One tip, if you go this route buy more glue than you think you are going to need, same for clamps.....and lembas bread

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/bc-roubo-bench.127050/)

As far as I can see Paul's bench has a two inch thick too. I don't think this is thick enough. My first bench had a mahogany top made from the salvaged bartop of the Lord Nelson pub in Ladywood. It was just about 1.5" thick and was prone to a lot of bounce back. I solved that by putting it on a frame of three by twos in a kind of torsion box.
It worked well and I can't see me using a bench top of any less than 3 inches thickness. That's why, if I am spared I am going to use a beech worktop of 40mm thickness laminated by folding the top into an 80mm beech top 5 ft by 20 inches. Settle for that in my cramped shop. No tail vice or tool well. Something like the benches we used in the 1950s. Not only at school but also in the joiners shop of the 1960s. Tail vice? Never heard of that mate!

John
 

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