Advise on how you would build a workbench with the pictured material

[Drew Sanderson]

I am seeking advise on how you would build a good workbench from the material pictured. I have 21 feet of this old gym floor and it is 46 inches wide. I had to cut it into two lengths to get it home in my truck. One is 9 feet and the other is 12.

My main concern is the current bowing that you can see in the pictures. I think once all 4 corners have support it will work out but I am not sure. I was thinking of making a plywood / mdf / material shown sandwich where I would glue the mdf to both the plywood that is attached to the maple and to the plywood that I would put on the bottom. I would then pre-drill and drive screws though all the layers and into the maple. Am I crazy? What might work better? Also, I need to make the bench mobile so I am planning on putting some heavy duty locking caster on the bottom of the legs. Ok well I will stop rambling and am looking forward to the discussion. Thanks as always!

http://www.drewsanderson.com/sawmillcreek_images/1.jpg
http://www.drewsanderson.com/sawmillcreek_images/2.jpg
http://www.drewsanderson.com/sawmillcreek_images/3.jpg

Drew

[Chris Friesen]

The wood is going to expand/contract with humidity changes while plywood won't. MDF does, but pretty much equally in all directions rather than across the grain like solid wood.

I think you might be asking for trouble sandwiching the different materials all together like that.

If you really want to use this stuff, you might consider sanding off the finish, gluing it together (with wood glue) to the desired size of your workbench (I suggest 23"x96" or so), then laminating 4 layers of that using epoxy because of its gap-filling abilities. You'll use a lot of glue.

The result will be a more-or-less solid wood top that will move in a unified way.

[Thom Sturgill]

Remove the boards from the backing and sand/plane off the finish. Glue them together 3 or 4 at a time, face to bottom with the tounges all facing up. Run the assembled pieces through a planer to remove the tongues. Glue the strips together until you get the desired width. You should be able to get a top that is about 1 1/4" thick from the looks. You could laminate two layers, making sure to stagger the joints vertically.

[whit richardson]

Forget the bench and think .. "my own personal bowling alley.." :D

[Mike Wilkins]

Do what Norm did last Saturday on the New Yankee Workshop. He was using some old attic floor boards that were wide and had some cup. He ran the board concave side down over the tablesaw blade, set about 1/2" high, cutting kerfs length-wise to releive the cupping. When pressed down on the non-cut side, the board flattened. I did something similar several years ago while restoring an old Arts and Crafts table to flatten some cupping.
After cutting the kerfs, you could glue a piece of 3/4" ply onto the bottom. This should make the assembly come out flat. Hope this helps.