Plywood for Paulk bench

[smalldave]

I've been meaning to build the bench/s for years and keep falling at the first hurdle. What plywood should I buy. In the mean time the prices seem to keep going up.
I can never seem to find anything that is the right combination of lightweight and hardy enough to be a bench top (prices don't help much either).
Any suggestions?

 

[Agent_zed]

I've been meaning to build the bench/s for years and keep falling at the first hurdle. What plywood should I buy. In the mean time the prices seem to keep going up.
I can never seem to find anything that is the right combination of lightweight and hardy enough to be a bench top (prices don't help much either).
Any suggestions?

what do you want to do with your bench. E.g is it just light assembly work or are you expecting to be able to plane and chop mortices into big timber etc.

The bench looks interesting but I don't think it is going to suit heavier tasks. Of course it will be a lot lighter and easier to store than some other designs.

My bench for example is an 'English workbench' design with an old school leg vice. It's pretty heavy which means I can plane wood without the bench moving at all. I can also hit things really hard downwards with no movement as the legs are solid. I don't think I'd be able to do the same with this design without a lot of movement. But if you aren't doing those things then probably not an issue

 

[Skeety]

If you have a Selco Builders Warehouse near you they have their 18mm General Purpose Ply on offer for £28 inc VAT.

I used 12 sheets of the 12mm and 6 of the 9mm. It's decent quality with virtually no voids in it. OK, it's not Baltic Birch but I'm using the above for my bench.

Cheers,

Jon.

 

[smalldave]

Mainly for processing sheet goods. Making kitchen style cabinets, roofing, partitions, walls etc. Got quite a lot of construction style carpentry planned. So a portable mitre station / track / saw table would be very handy. I like the idea of a torsion box as it would be (depending on the plywood) lightweight, easy to maneuver and I could possibly do something like store in it the garage roof space with some kind of hoist.
I'd love to get round to making an English workbench and some proper woodwork but that just isn't on the cards for a bit

 

[smalldave]

If you have a Selco Builders Warehouse near you they have their 18mm General Purpose Ply on offer for £28 inc VAT.

I used 12 sheets of the 12mm and 6 of the 9mm. It's decent quality with virtually no voids in it. OK, it's not Baltic Birch but I'm using the above for my bench.

Cheers,

Jon.

That looks pretty good (like the price!). At 525kg/m3 I think that makes a sheet about 26kg vs about 21kg for the stuff that Paulk uses (think it's Premcore Plus).

How soft is the veneer and core?

 

[Adam W.]

A torsion box. Oh blimey, don't tell @Jacob it'll send him off on a rant.

 

[Jacob]

A torsion box. Oh blimey, don't tell @Jacob it'll send him off on a rant.

Not heard a mention of torsion boxes for some time!
Re @smalldave 's question - an off-the-shelf flush door would probably do for you and much cheaper than making your own.
But bear in mind these lightweight "work benches" are a million miles away from the heavy trad workbench. OK for track saws, routers etc but hopeless for hand planing and normal hand tool woodwork

 

[Adam W.]

True.

 

[Jameshow]

Not heard a mention of torsion boxes for some time!
Re @smalldave 's question - an off-the-shelf flush door would probably do for you and much cheaper than making your own.
But bear in mind these lightweight "work benches" are a million miles away from the heavy trad workbench. OK for track saws, routers etc but hopeless for hand planing and normal hand tool woodwork

A flush door isn't a proper torson Box just saying....!

 

[Jacob]

A flush door isn't a proper torson Box just saying....!

Yebbut nobody can say what the difference is !

 

[Scruples]

I built a workbench using pine for the base, 100mm square legs with a sturdy shelf at 280mm from the ground and 400mm x 20mm around the top of the bench. The top is made from a hardwood kitchen top jointed for full depth of 700mm and 2.2 metres wide. It's never moved despite some heavy work. Built for life, I think.

 

[amakah]

Good used scaffold boards and heavy marine plywood.

 

[Skeety]

That looks pretty good (like the price!). At 525kg/m3 I think that makes a sheet about 26kg vs about 21kg for the stuff that Paulk uses (think it's Premcore Plus).

How soft is the veneer and core?

I'm no ply expert but my neighbour who knows more was impressed with it.

I used it for the walls and ceiling in my workshop. It seems pretty good. I have routed some circles out of it and it didn't seem that soft.

Possibly another indicator is that 40mm screws didn't pull through the countersunk holes when screwed to studwork (not predrilled) when installed with an impact driver. Maybe had 1 or 2 out of 800 screws pull through slightly.

One thing I did notice was that the factory edges were very slightly out. Maybe 1-2mm bow over the 2440 edge. I only noticed it as I was butting the edges.

 

[Skeety]

BTW, if you don't have an account at Selco PM me and you can use the number for my cash account.

 

[jonw1664]

hasd anyone had any expereince of this ply (as it seems to be impossible to get Baltic Birch)?

FSC® Certified Meyer Commercial Euca Faced Poplar Core Plywood CE2+ - EN314-2 Class 2. EN636-2. E1​