work bench

[steamboat]

Can someone advise me – I am making a new woodworking bench as my old one isn’t up to scratch and wobbles all over the place. I plan to make a bench based on Garrett Hacks, found on the fine woodworking website. I am, at present, an amateur hobbits looking to develop my skills with an eye to selling stuff I make, so I would like to make a sturdy bench that will last me into the future, though I only have small workshop so if I can do without the Garrett Hacks full size bench I will do. Finally I will be making it out of 1 ¼ beech I purchased recently which I now realise is spalted so nice for making furniture. My question is; can I make the top out of two layers of the beech glued together rather than Garretts three layered tough and grove method or dose it have to be three, is there an alternative way of constructing the top, I would like to have the boards flat rather than butchers block style because as mentioned it is spalted.
Thanks in advance

 

[big soft moose]

I am, at present, an amateur hobbits

presumably after a grueling day of questing to destroy the ring of power frodo, samwise and co liked to relax with a little woodwork :lol:

 

[woodbloke]

The way to do your top is not to use the beech at all...use three 18mm layers of mdf glued and scewed together, with a sacrifical bit of harboard on the top. I'd also try and get hold of some exterior or oiled hardboard which is much superior to the normal interior 'fluffy' stuff - Rob

 

[big soft moose]

Finally I will be making it out of 1 ¼ beech I purchased recently which I now realise is spalted so nice for making furniture. My question is; can I make the top out of two layers of the beech glued together rather than Garretts three layered tough and grove method or dose it have to be three, is there an alternative way of constructing the top, I would like to have the boards flat rather than butchers block style because as mentioned it is spalted.
Thanks in advance

My advice would be not to use spalted beech - for one thing it is too nice to waste on a ulitiltarian bench, and for another the spalting is essentially a fungal infection and will have weakened the wood (which doesnt matter in fine furniture but isnt good in a bench thats going to have mortcises chopped on it and such).


My bench top is made out of mdf - two layers of 18mm glued together and then a sacrifical hardboard surface pinned over that - as the hardboard is sacrificial it can be changed when it gets so scarred up it is no longer flat.

edit: rob types faster than me

 

[PeterBassett]

I'll third the MDF route. Mine is three layers of 18mm MDF. The top one is only kept in place with 6 screws so it can be replaced in the future, but the others are firmly fixed.

With a bit of danish oil it is quite hard wearing.

All this talk of MDF doesn't work if what you want is a pretty hardwood bench though.

Even if you want to do a pure hardwood bench, don't use the spalted beech. You'll need another lot of beech.

 

[Chems]

Chris Schwarz makes the old english bench by using the boards face up vs butcher block:

I'm sure spalted beech would be fine for this.

 

[steamboat]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I didn’t think I would get a reply until tomorrow.
You know it’s a funny thing being Dyslexic – it’s only a disability if I let it and it has made me some good friends as I find my mistakes as funny as them.

I thought the beech may be a bit weaker, it’s a bit frustrating as I wanted to get started on making the thing though is sounds sensible to go for the MDF option. I will probably use ply wood as MDF is full of nasty chemicals which leak out in its lifetime, produces horrible waste in its production and again once its life is up.

 

[Racers]

Hi, Steamboat

Wellcome fellow dislexian :wink:


Pete

 

[big soft moose]

Hi, Steamboat

Wellcome fellow dislexian :wink:


Pete

yep me too - though mine is quite mild in comparisson to most (it was a pipper at school tho before the advent of computers and spell check)

anyway back to the bench - MDF is a better choice than ply because it is more inert, if you are worried about the fomaldehyde (sp?) leeching out of it and contaminating the workshop - get yourself a peace lilly , they scavenge such chemicals out of the air for nutrition (and they are quite pretty too)

 

[adzeman]

Hardwood to me is a bit OTT. I have visited a lot of joiners shops in my time and have seen a number of changes and trends, mainly due to the changes in materials.

All the old shops had softwood benches. When asking why they say its due to resilience and the ability to take some welly. Better the top takes a dint rather than the work piece.
When MDF came in this was quickly substituted for bench tops, but of course so were the projects.
Haven’t’ visited any small cabinet makers but the large furniture factories have benches made from dexion framing with ply covered in tempered hardboard and now in MDF.

I have four benches in my workshop, Three with 1” thick MDF on a 3”x1” frame and a 3” overhang for taking cramps and built like a butchers block (I said block not dog) the fourth in 4”x2”softwood in the same style as that of the joiners shop in the village I was brought up in, over 200 years old and still going strong. The bench has a well, I need a well.