Don't get too excited as this will be a slow build! Plan to build a Roubo style workbench, following Chris Schwarz's plans in his workbench book. Bench will be built from sycamore, bought from a local chap off gumtree so not the best quality but also not too costly so I'll not feel too bad for each mistake.
Boards are rough sawn c. 18' wide, 8' long and just under 2' thick. Air dried (stood in his barn) for 5+ years and then in my house (unheated room) for last 18months. A number of the boards have heart splits and a bit of cup and twist so I've my work cut out. Bench top will be 4" thick laminated from 4"x2" boards.
Boards will have the waney edge removed with a hand saw as they are too unwieldy to put over the table saw.
I naively thought I could get 3 widths out of most of the boards, but I was amazed by the movement that occurred as I cut a board in half, the straight edge from the previous removal of the waney edge was 1/2" out of straight once I'd cut the 4" width off the edge of the board. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised given the heart split in some of the boards.
Luckily I'd cut the board wide at 5", and once the edge was straighted on the surface planer the narrowest point was still just over 4".
The bigger issue was once it flattened on face, removing cup and twist, the board ended up only just over 1 1/2" thick. I'm going to need 16 of these for the bench top. Gonna be more glue than wood!
You can also clearly see the sycamore was cut at the wrong time of year and not stacked vertical to let the sap drain. The result is some ugly grey staining in the wood.
The board's been left marginally over size, and we'll see how much it moves over the next period. At the moment I'm using it as a template to mark up the boards to cut from my sycamore stock.
I've once again learnt loads about choosing wood, thinking I'll get more usable wood from rough timber than I ever do, how much wood can move when cut, the importance of how wood is cut and dried, and how much of an office nancy I am (sore arms after making only four cuts).
It'll be a while until the next post when I've got all the top boards ready for final sizing and glue up.
F.
Boards are rough sawn c. 18' wide, 8' long and just under 2' thick. Air dried (stood in his barn) for 5+ years and then in my house (unheated room) for last 18months. A number of the boards have heart splits and a bit of cup and twist so I've my work cut out. Bench top will be 4" thick laminated from 4"x2" boards.
Boards will have the waney edge removed with a hand saw as they are too unwieldy to put over the table saw.
I naively thought I could get 3 widths out of most of the boards, but I was amazed by the movement that occurred as I cut a board in half, the straight edge from the previous removal of the waney edge was 1/2" out of straight once I'd cut the 4" width off the edge of the board. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised given the heart split in some of the boards.
Luckily I'd cut the board wide at 5", and once the edge was straighted on the surface planer the narrowest point was still just over 4".
The bigger issue was once it flattened on face, removing cup and twist, the board ended up only just over 1 1/2" thick. I'm going to need 16 of these for the bench top. Gonna be more glue than wood!
You can also clearly see the sycamore was cut at the wrong time of year and not stacked vertical to let the sap drain. The result is some ugly grey staining in the wood.
The board's been left marginally over size, and we'll see how much it moves over the next period. At the moment I'm using it as a template to mark up the boards to cut from my sycamore stock.
I've once again learnt loads about choosing wood, thinking I'll get more usable wood from rough timber than I ever do, how much wood can move when cut, the importance of how wood is cut and dried, and how much of an office nancy I am (sore arms after making only four cuts).
It'll be a while until the next post when I've got all the top boards ready for final sizing and glue up.
F.
