I need help gluing up a bench top

[dave hunt]

I recently was given about 300 bf of walnut from a friend of mine. About 100 bord feet was sap wood. I would like to use the sap wood to make a top for my work bench but after cleaning the lumber up I am left with a lot of short pieces. What would be the best way to glue up short boards to make up a 6' bench top. I have never glued up boards end to end before.
I was thinking about a brick pattern or like hardwood floors look.
Please help

Thanks

[Ken Higginbotham]

Don't they make a finger joint router bit? Seems that'd work pretty good...

[glenn bradley]

Here you go. Holbren gives a 10% discount to SMC members with the code 'SMC10'.

http://www.holbren.com/finger-joint/

[Ken Garlock]

Hello Dave, and welcome to the creek.:cool:

If I were going to make your top, I would stagger the long side joints thus making the gluing of the individual ends a minor issue. The import point is that the sides/edges of the boards are absolutely parallel to each other and square to the board surface. With the parallel sides throughout, all your glue areas will match and the glue can do its job. I would use Titebond III glue, it is strong and waterproof. Don't be worried about squeeze out. If you want, you can use biscuits to align the adjacent boards. They will help with alignment, but add little to the overall glue joint.

Remember, the glue joint is stronger than the wood it is holding together.

Enjoy your new project.

[dave hunt]

I was thinking along the lines of Kens idea. I would rather not buy a 100.00 router bit if possible.If i lay the boards out in a brick pattern, the strength will be in the edge glue joints. Is this right? I am mostly concerned about not having any gaps in the end joints.I guess I could do like three rows at a time to make the glue up easier. the boards are going to be 1x3.

Thanks for the help so far

[Jerry Olexa]

Biscuits would ease the alignment issue and make the glue up relatively "easy".

[Jim Paulson]

Hi, Some great ideas so far. My suggestion is to go for scarf joints. You get a glue joint with 45 degree intersections and less end grain. I've done it before when I was also trying to be wise in wood usage. You could also use the sap wood for drawer bottoms too.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Jim

[Jim Paulson]

Hi Dave,
I was thinking about your question some more and I am also leaning toward cutting tongue and groove joins at the ends of the boards or even using half lap/ship lap joints. The whole thing is that you can optimize the long grain more for gluing if you want. You don't need to use finger joints here when other alternatives are available at far less cost. I would opt to scarf or half lap a joint rather than butt them at 90 degrees, but that is my IMHO or shall I say it is my 2 cents.

Take care,
Jim

http://www.chairsbypaulson.com

[dave hunt]

I think I will do half laps. I would do scarf joints but i dont want to worry about lining up boards end to end, side to side, and worry about them sliding at the scarf. It seems like a lot to try to control during a glue up.
I will keep you guys posted on the progress. Thanks for all the good advice.

[Dave Gaul]

I was thinking along the lines of Kens idea. I would rather not buy a 100.00 router bit if possible.If i lay the boards out in a brick pattern, the strength will be in the edge glue joints. Is this right? I am mostly concerned about not having any gaps in the end joints.I guess I could do like three rows at a time to make the glue up easier. the boards are going to be 1x3.

Thanks for the help so far


Ken's idea is the first thing I thought of when I read your post! If you make clean crosscuts, gaps shouldn't be much of a problem. In a recent WOOD issue, they build a bench with a top made soley out of 2X4's. To fill any gaps and knot holes, they used a clear 2 part epoxy prior to finishing.

If you want, you could use this as a chance to practice the joining methods others have described, such as the scarf, half-lap, or even mitered joints with or without keys/splines... this list could go on!

[Ken Higginbotham]

All those end to end lap joints are going to be a bear I would think... Unless maybe you made some kind of jig :confused: How long are the longest pcs?

[John Thompson]

Ditto Ken as I have done it. I also made one once with finger joints as I had 12"-16" shorts to work with but... I had availability of a commercial concerns high $$ finger joint machine. Too much time involved using a router IMO. Any gaps in end butts... epoxy or bondo. For that matter if it's a working work-bench and not a show boy... gaps ain't relevant anyway to getting er done! ha.. ha...

Good luck and have some fun...

[Patrick Doody]

Just a beginner talking here, so not sure if this has been done before but you could make a scarfing finger joint, using a dado blade/ jig on a tablesaw, if that makes any sense. i bet that would be super strong and might look interesting.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Doesn't it really depend on how long the individual pieces are?

If you have to splice 10 pieces together just for one length, I think you need some kind of joinery between them. If it's a 6' long bench and you're only splicing 2 pieces together end to end, I would think Ken Garlock's method would be totally fine.

I think it also depends on the thickness of your stock as well, and/or how well supported it will be from underneath. If you're using 8/4 stock, then Ken G's method should be fine also. Lots of surface area on the edges for glue and little chance of the top bowing under pressure.

[dave hunt]

Dave,
I think I am going to try a bunch od different joints and see what looks best and what ones are easier to glue up.
Great Idea!!

The top is going to be 5 1/2 feet long and about 26" wide. The boards are going to be 3 to 4 feet long 1" x 3". It will be nice to have a heavy 3" thick bench top.


Dave

[Chris Friesen]

Just use butt joints. The glue surface area of the long grain faces glued to adjacent boards will be WAY more than strong enough.

I did this when I glued up a laminated top from salvaged bowling alley...worked fine. You just need to make sure that the boards are supported when gluing them together so that the misalignment doesn't get too bad. If you like you could put little splines or biscuits in, but they'd be strictly for alignment rather than strength.

Once the glue is dry, you can flatten the top with hand planes or a router sled.

[Sean Kinn]

Just use butt joints. The glue surface area of the long grain faces glued to adjacent boards will be WAY more than strong enough.



Agreed. Folks this is just a bench top. Glue and butt joints will be plenty strong when laid like bricks and staggered. Some of the other options seem like they would just add a ton of time and result in little if any actual structural gain. If you want to do it for the sake of trying a new technique, or some aesthetic reason go for it. Personally, I find the monstrous lue-ups to be very boring and sometimes too stressful....so I like to get them overwith ASAP.


My only thought would be to use a full length board on the front and back of the top, but that is likely not needed either.

[Ken Higginbotham]

Agreed. Folks this is just a bench top. Glue and butt joints will be plenty strong when laid like bricks and staggered. Some of the other options seem like they would just add a ton of time and result in little if any actual structural gain. If you want to do it for the sake of trying a new technique, or some aesthetic reason go for it. Personally, I find the monstrous lue-ups to be very boring and sometimes too stressful....so I like to get them overwith ASAP.


My only thought would be to use a full length board on the front and back of the top, but that is likely not needed either.

From what little I know I concur. From a functional perspective I don't think added strength finger joints or lap joints, etc. are going to add will be required. I thought the laminating of boards in this manner was more for stability than strength. Seems butt joints would be fine. And I doubt once you get it together you'll be able to see any fancy joinery so the aesthetic thing is out the window. But, (change in direction :p), if you simply want to tinker with various joints to get better, etc. the put 'em together as you please :)