Workbench top from solid beech

[Halo Jones]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie to these forums but have been reading for a few weeks now and find this a very friendly forum and (I think!) I have learned a lot.

If the local council ever gives planning approval I will soon have my first ever workshop space and I am starting woodwork evening classes in September. I have been trying to design my first workbench which was going to be made with torison boxes using 2x4 timber and plywood. However, this weekend I acquired a 6 foot length of solid beech about 2 foot wide and 2 inches thick. It is an unfinished piece of wood that has been drying in a barn for about 5 years and has a few minor splits in it (although none go all the way through). Once dressed, flattened and squared does this sound suitable for a workbench top?

 

[dh7892]

I'm not qualified to comment on the timber so I'll leave that to others (but perhaps posting a picture up will help them).

Have you seen this site? http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/projects/archive/2009/03/04/tom-s-torsion-box-workbench.aspx

Might be helpfull for your torsion box design.

 

[Halo Jones]

That is the exact same bench design I had been looking at but I only had a pdf of the original article. The website link with the walk-through makes things much easier to visualise. Thanks.

I will try to post a picture of the timber later.

 

[AndyT]

I'd say that your piece of beech sounds ideal, if possibly a bit short. The usual rule of thumb for air drying is to allow a year for each inch of thickness, so assuming your barn is nice and draughty, the wood should be well dried. How much it moves in future will depend on how much you remove from it and on the relative humidity of your workshop.

As for the design, it all depends on what space you have and what you want to build. Plenty of good threads on this site!

 

[OPJ]

I'd be a little concerned that a lump of beech that wide could be prone to cupping and distortion, with seasonal changes in humidity, etc. At that width, it was almost certainly sawn 'through and through' as well.

You could try fixing it to the frame with coach screws and large washers to pull it down tight (although, you would have to elongate the clearance holes in the frame to allow for expansion/contraction).

Another thought would be to rip this one down in to narrower strips, plane them up and glue it back together. By rotating each strip 90°, you would effectively create a 'quarter-sawn' top, which is desirable for stability. If you cut the strips off wider (say, 75mm) then you could also give yourself a thicker bench top.

6ft sounds like a good length, to me. When I built my bench last year, I estimated that I could 'get away with' 5ft so, I made it a bit longer. :wink:

Hope this helps.

 

[dh7892]

That is the exact same bench design I had been looking at but I only had a pdf of the original article. The website link with the walk-through makes things much easier to visualise. Thanks.

Glad to be of help. I have been looking into how I'm going to build my bench once I finish my shed and I think I might take a few ideas from that design but use a solid top.

I'll be interested to see how you get on so please document the progress!

 

[Halo Jones]

I'd be a little concerned that a lump of beech that wide could be prone to cupping and distortion, with seasonal changes in humidity, etc. At that width, it was almost certainly sawn 'through and through' as well.

Another thought would be to rip this one down in to narrower strips, plane them up and glue it back together. By rotating each strip 90°, you would effectively create a 'quarter-sawn' top, which is desirable for stability. If you cut the strips off wider (say, 75mm) then you could also give yourself a thicker bench top.

The board looks very flat at the minute but I guess it will probably shift over time. I don't know enough to tell you how it was sawn but it still has the bark from opposite sides of the trunk but the end grain describes a pretty shallow curve and I can't see any heart wood - if that is correct description (was going to take some pics but my son is ill at mo and taking up all daylight hours).

I did like the idea of using a "solid" piece of wood but I guess that might be newbie naivety. Using the design described by dh7892 above I thought I could fix it to a ply base to help keep it flat. I like the idea of having sliding bolts. Is there any way to tell which way a board like this is likely to cup so you know which side to clamp down. (ie toward the imaginary center of the trunk or pulling away from the imaginary center?)

This is all pie in the sky at the mo. Still have to get a shed built (if the planning officer ever gets back from holiday and gives me permission) and buy some tools. I will post again if I can take some pics and when I eventually get round to doing something with this imposing bit of wood!

 

[OPJ]

Okay, that sounds like is was sawn through-and-through then. By 'heart wood' I assume you actually mean the 'pith', which is the dead centre of the tree and it'll basically lead to severe cracking and splits if you were to try and use it in a project (sounds like you got lucky, though! :wink. Looking at the end grain, the heart wood is, generally speaking, the darker wood you can see around the centre. This is the most durable part of the timber. Most of the lighter stuff around that (up to the bark) will be sap wood, which is more prone to insect attack and would often be discarded (some like to use it as a contrasting feature, with darker woods like walnut and cherry...).

There's nothing wrong with having a solid timber top on your workbench. As with all woodworking projects, you just need to be aware that would wants to and will continually move across its width. Your plywood idea may help, provided that you do not glue it directly to the timber. It still needs to remain free to expand/contract. So, if you screw it on, do elongate the screw holes in the ply. Though, I still think it would help if you could rip the boards down a bit and re-glue them... ?

With regards to cupping, look at the growth rings in the end-grain and the wood will most often want to straighten these out, meaning it'll cup in the opposite direction. Though, I've also had boards that'll cup in the same direction...! :roll: Depending on how the tree grew or how it was cut, you can sometimes find that the rings at one end of the board and going in a different direction to the ones at the top. This is more common on very long lengths of thicker timber, though.

Best of luck.

 

[pitch pine]

Just to pick up on OPJ's point I have noticed that some bits of wood don't obey the rules and cup "in the wrong direction". Also some boards seem to tear out "in the wrong direction" when I plane them. Keeps you on your toes....