Workbench top: Your thoughts

[Joe McMahon]

I'm thinking about building a workbench. Being left handed, the thought of a bench that is sized and constructed to fit my needs is a big attraction.

I have been thinking about the top. I would like it to be 4" thick and made of hard maple. I have been in contact with a sawyer and he says he can supply 4" kiln dried maple in widths from 4" to 8". He even says he can give me a 4" piece 24" wide, though I don't think I would get that out of fear of warping.

Anyway, I've been thinking that I would like to take 3 4"X8" pieces and glue a 2" wide piece of osage orange between each of the two joints.

What are the thoughts about 8" wide material?

How about the two osage orange stripes in the bench? Is this appropriate material?

I know that the bench is now 28" wide which is pretty big. So If I leave the orange in, maybe 6" wide maple?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Joe

[Robert Rozaieski]

Sounds like a fine plan. Should work just fine.

[Brian Kent]

Sounds great at either width. I assume for the wide bench that you don't want a tool tray?

I would love to see those two woods together. Have you tried it before? If so, we'd love to see some pics!

[Eric Brown]

Osage orange is a strong, heavy wood and should work fine for a workbench. Two things to watch for, osage orange is a very sappy wood. Make sure it is fully dried. Second, it has a beautiful orange color when first cut but will turn to brown later. I have not found any way to prevent the color change. Sunlight accelerates the change. Probably oxygen too.

You might consider cutting the maple into 4" wide strips, turning them on edge for glueup. This will make most of the seasonal changes happen to the thickness instead of the width.

Eric

[Joe McMahon]

I have never before worked with
osage orange before. I do know that it darkens to a brown, but this will still make a nice contrast with the white maple. I plan on using Gorilla glue rather than yellow glue as I feel this glue way hold up better with the
osage..

As far as the 4" pieces to avoid seasonal movement, I don't see that as a factor. I am worried more about twisting or wracking. My current bench has a tool tray and I find that all it is good for is collecting scraps, cutoffs, shavings, sawdust and tools that just lay there.

The bench is still in the planning stage so far. I just want to get it fixed in my mind before I get the wood. and find that my idea wasn't so great.

[David Keller NC]

Joe - I might suggest avoiding laminating two different woods together. Because a workbench top is generally a "plank" instead of a "panel" (that's held straight and true by a joined frame around it), I would not think you'd want to take the chance with differential movement.

I'm not saying that this will, in fact, give you problems, and there may well be Creekers with very different opinions, but in general I don't try to glue pieces of wood together of different species or grain orientations and not expect dimensional changes from differential expansion/contraction.

[Zahid Naqvi]

why do you want two woods on the top, just make the top with maple, 4X4 would be ideal. If you have enough osage orange you can use it for the legs and the rest of the frame.

[Tim Sgrazzutti]

I'd go for the 24" wide piece. In order to get that width, it has got to be a quartersawn slab, which should be stable. Most laminated tops use flat sawn stock glued up on its side to achieve this, as slabs that size aren't as available as they once were. I'm jealous............