Science Benches

[motownmartin]

I can't believe this thread.

Jake, if its what I said that makes you this way then I apologise as most of it is sour grapes.

I once had a thread deleted for advertising what I had for sale on ebay, it just seems that if you call it charity its allowed :?

 

[big soft moose]

I once had a thread deleted for advertising what I had for sale on ebay, it just seems that if you call it charity its allowed :?

thats probably only true if you are a registered charity

 

[big soft moose]

Unbeleivable, very new to the forum but I feel embarassed by peoples mean spiritedness, if you feel they are too expensive, surely keep it to yourself rather than shouting about it. :x

Yep Doctor I'm with you on this one - 6 quid for a bench top is hardly expensive (okay so its more than £2.50) but its still way cheaper than the going rate for kiln dried iroko.

and as to the splits etc , yes that is a concern but its one you find in any recycled timber , and also any full tree trunk. As am principally a turner i could probably work round these , and selling one 6" dia bowl would pay for the bench top so it still looks like a remarkably good deal to me.

I'm still on for making a trip up there and if there are other wilts/hants/somerset forumers who would like to join in and share the cost of hiring a transit van then i'd welcome you on board.

 

[LarryS.]

I'm still on for making a trip up there and if there are other wilts/hants/somerset forumers who would like to join in and share the cost of hiring a transit van then i'd welcome you on board.

i may be up for it moose. Wondering though if I could dismantle a couple of benches up there and fit in the back of my estate (and co-incide with a visit to my sister in northampton).

 

[big soft moose]

I'm still on for making a trip up there and if there are other wilts/hants/somerset forumers who would like to join in and share the cost of hiring a transit van then i'd welcome you on board.

i may be up for it moose. Wondering though if I could dismantle a couple of benches up there and fit in the back of my estate (and co-incide with a visit to my sister in northampton).

I think you can - i only really want tops so i'd be disasembling in situ anyway. If its just me going i'll take my pick up and bing 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6) tops back but if a bunch of people go i guess hiring a transit for the day would be the best bet.

 

[StevieB]

Quick question for those who have already been - are the beech legs 4" square, and would they be useable glued up as a bench top? Seems a quick way of getting a 4" thick slab to me.....

Steve.

 

[TheTiddles]

How efficiently you can use the wood depends on how good a selection you make is and what you intend to make. My £25 worth of wood (based on old prices) has gone a very long way indeed, there are a few scraps of it left and that's it. What has happened is that someone has seen an opportunity and has decided to exploit it, do we really degrudge them for doing that? Do any professional cabinet makers feel bad that they exploit other people's inability to make furniture to earn a good living for themselves? It seems quite fair enough that she wants more money for them if she thinks she can get it, but when does anyone accept the first price they are quoted for anything? One side wants to take more, the other wants to give less, NEGOTIATE! Those of you who have been in a relationship with a woman will be experienced in this already...

Aidan

 

[9fingers]

Quick question for those who have already been - are the beech legs 4" square, and would they be useable glued up as a bench top? Seems a quick way of getting a 4" thick slab to me.....

Steve.

Steve,
The legs are 60mm square with slightly rounded edges. Two adjacent faces are clear but the other two have mortises.
From memory the stretchers and under top frame are more like 60 x 40.

I could go and measure some if you want me to.

HTH

Bob

 

[big soft moose]

One side wants to take more, the other wants to give less, NEGOTIATE!

Aidan

Thats a good point , if for example i did wind up taking a transit van up there (with on on behalf of severalmother forum members) i bet they would be open to negotiation along the lines of , well its £6 for one top - what price will you give us if we buy 30 ?

 

[9fingers]

When I went up, there were three of us and we must have 'spent' a few hundred quid on behalf of 5 'customers'.
That was in the £5 per bench guideline days and because of that and the charitable status we did not try and bargain for quantity.

I seem to recall that the charity try to send school equipment out to 3rd world countries and that they need to pack shipping containers as densely as possible. Wooden items are not ideal as sometimes they ship them out only to find they get used as fuel. Add to that they do not pack efficiently.

By selling what they can locally, they raise funds to ship the containers and anything they can't use they have to pay to be taken away. I assume that includes paying for someone to turn the wood into chips.
They have a big warehouse but that costs money too and they have to have enough space to house what comes in as schools are refurbished.

Looking at the recent changes in the world market for recycling waste, it may well be that Sarah has to pay more for chipping now than before. My initial comment on the inflation rate was meant in a slightly flippant way.
However the net effect of the price rise plus the distance I would have to travel plus van hire etc does mean I will have to think twice about another trip whereas in the past, it was someone else's van and a fifth share in the diesel for it.

If I lived nearer, I'd be up there already loading up!!

Bob

 

[StevieB]

Thanks Bob, thats fine. I need to do some measuring and thinking before making a decision - its a long way from Kent to Corby! With the rounded edges, would a quick swipe over the planer make them square or is it a bandsaw job to take off 5mm or so?

Steve.

 

[9fingers]

HI Steve,

The legs only have the corners slightly rounded not a big chamfer.
Just a quick plane should do but there might be the odd ding on the corners but unless that was severe, you should still yield 55mm perhaps more. You will have to thickness the strips over the glued faces to get a flat top.


I did read somewhere about an idea to build up a bench top by having some thick mdf on the bottom and then putting beech on top. Should be fairly stable if you seal the underside. For a real stable top you could have beech top and bottom and mdf in the middle. Symmetry is good but where do you stop??

Bob

 

[chipchaser]

Hi all,

I got two sorts of beech legs from Corby. The largest single piece recoverable was 560mm x 55mm square. The smaller leg yielded 400mm long x 50mm sq. Both sizes are after planing square and cutting off morticed areas.

None of this wood should necessarily be regarded as kiln dried when bought as the moisture content of my pieces had increased due to storage in an unheated warehouse.

Regards

Graham